Public Comments for Massachusetts ESSA Plan

If you have opinions on federal school data reporting requirements comments on the Massachusetts ESSA plan are open until June 7.

The deadline for submitting comments is June 7, 2024. Comments are accepted by filling out this survey or by emailing elementarysecondaryed.act@mass.gov.

ICYMI, the May Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting included an announcement from Acting Commissioner Russell Johnston that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is preparing to file a revision of its 2017 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) State Plan with the United States Department of Education (ED).

The memo on the Revision of the 2017 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan outlines the high level changes and provides links to the full documents and portal for providing public comment.

The proposed 2024 revisions in both clean and redline versions are available here.

What is behind the curtain? Mostly technical updates. The proposed 2024 version of the ESSA plan do not represent new policies and programs but do document policies, programs and jargon as they currently operate.

The proposed amendments include new long-term data targets that ED requires for all state plans which have baseline measures for performance on standardized assessments in English language arts, math, and science and then a series of incremental improvement targets which are disaggregated by student subgroups. The wonks here at CEPP are will update this space as they review the technical proposals. Watch for updates here!

Additional proposed amendments include:

Academic Assessments, Accountability, Support, and Improvement for Schools

Since 2017, Massachusetts has transitioned to the “Next Generation MCAS” exams. As a result, details in the proposed amendments related to the state’s student assessment program, including achievement level descriptors, and the accountability system reflect changes in the point scale and descriptors used.

This updated plan describes the current system, how the various indicators are utilized, and how the accountability system differentiates schools for purposes of assistance and “support.”

Supporting Excellent Educators

This section covers the revisions to the educator preparation program approval process. Program approval includes new procedures to review of instructional programming with a specific emphasis on the development of curriculum literacy, evidence-based practices (such as early literacy) and administrator preparation.

Supporting All Students

Since 2017 DESE has revised the guidance on implementing multi-tiered systems of social emotional, behavioral and mental health support for students. This section of the plan includes a description of existing supports for migratory children, English learners, at-risk youth in correctional facilities, after-school and out-of-school programming for students, students from rural areas, and students impacted by homelessness.

Other changes include:

• Updates to terminology: “English learners” instead of “English language learners” and “student groups” instead of “student subgroups”
• Updates to data points and trend reporting
• The elimination of data points and trends that are no longer accurate
• Changes to verb tense (i.e., if something that was proposed in 2017 has been accomplished)