The Education Evolving Blog

On January 10th, Secretary DeVos notified MDE that their ESSA accountability plan has been approved. However, just because MDE’s plan was approved does not mean that their work is done. Rather, MDE has formed a new stakeholder Committee in order to gain input about future improvements to the plan and will have to implement the plan starting in the 2018-19 academic year.

Last week, the Minnesota Management and Budget Office released the November Forecast for the state, which showed a $188 million projected deficit. While the deficit is hardly a cause for concern, the rising costs of special education services is. Education Evolving has long contended schools can use intervention frameworks to reduce the rate of special education-identified students. Read here to learn more.

What would happen if schools had more autonomy and accountability for performance? And what if metro regions featured more diversity of school designs and parental choice? In his new book, David Osborne answers these questions by describing the transformational E-12 public education changes that are taking place in several American cities.

On Tuesday, the Innovation Research Zone Advisory Panel met for the first time to discuss the Innovation Research Zone application, which was released in mid-September. Read here to learn more about the process for deciding which applications will be accepted to become Innovation Research Zones, as well as the timeline for application review and implementation.