On Monday, 30 states, including Minnesota, turned in their Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) accountability plans to the US Department of Education (USDE) in the second and final deadline. Four states—Alabama, Florida, Texas, and South Carolina—received extensions for later this fall due to the recent hurricanes, and last April sixteen states and the District of Columbia turned in their ESSA state plans to USDE.
Minnesota’s accountability plan is the culmination of the work that the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) engaged in for the past 21 months. According to Commissioner Cassellius, “Our state plan was created with input from thousands of educators, parents and community members and is grounded in our goal that every child has access to an education that celebrates a student’s unique assets, works to overcome barriers to learning and helps every child reach their full potential.”
Specifically, MDE held over 300 statewide stakeholder engagement meetings, and also formed five ESSA committees that were comprised of a wide range of stakeholders, including educators, students, families, professors, and policy advocates. Education Evolving has extensively covered the state’s ESSA accountability plan development process, as well as reported in detail on several components of the plan.
In a letter to education stakeholders, Commissioner Cassellius outline some of the changes that were made to the plan, in response to public feedback, since it was posted in August, and since we last reported on its contents:
For an overview of the changes MDE made to the plan, read here.
USDE has 120 days to respond to MDE’s state plan, which will be implemented during the 2018-19 academic year. Given that USDE has approved all of the submitted state plans, even if they did not necessarily include some of the changes that USDE requested in their official feedback, it seems unlikely that MDE’s plan won’t be approved. Additionally, in a recent interview, Secretary DeVos noted that she is encouraging states “not to err on the side of caution, but to really push and go up to the line, test how far it takes to go over it.”
Education Evolving will continue to follow and report on Minnesota’s ESSA state accountability plan.
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