NNPA ESSA AWARENESS CAMPAIGN \u2014 According to Dr. Rosa Castro Feinberg, who serves on the committee for LULAC Florida, an advocacy group serving all Hispanic nationality groups, Florida\u2019s \u201ccurrent plan includes features that contradict common sense, expert opinion, popular will, and the intent of the ESSA. Contrary to the purposes of the ESSA, the Florida plan denies attention to struggling subgroups of students. Without attention, there can be no correction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
By Dr. Elizabeth Primas, NNPA ESSA Awareness Campaign Program Manager<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How is Florida addressing the needs of its lowest-performing schools under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)? Last year, the Collaborative for Student Success an independent non-profit education advocacy organization, sought to find out.\u00a0They did so by convening a group of education experts from around the country to take an in-depth look at the way 17 states were supporting and encouraging local school improvement efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The experts, both from the federal and district level, provided education officials and state lawmakers with independent information on how each state could improve their plans and implementation. However, what they discovered in Florida\u2019s ESSA plan was not encouraging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In September 2018, Florida received final approval from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) for its ESSA State Plan. Florida was the last state in the nation to receive such approval, as state and federal education officials squabbled for months over the state\u2019s proposed plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Florida plan was originally submitted to the DOE<\/a> in September 2017, but officials failed to include the waiver requests for the specific portions of the law to which it objected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Federal officials sent the plan back to Florida Department of Education, saying they couldn\u2019t pick and choose which aspects of the law to follow and that they needed to submit waivers for the areas where they would like to be granted exceptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Florida submitted a revised ESSA plan to the DOE in April 2018 in an effort to comply with their requests and included a separate federal school rating system\u2014one that factors in English-language learner proficiency and subgroup performance\u2014which would work alongside the state\u2019s existing A-F grading methodology to target struggling schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The primary areas of difference between Florida\u2019s education officials and those within the DOE had to do with Florida\u2019s proposed approach to provisions regarding English-language learners and demographic-based subgroups \u2014 and federal officials weren\u2019t the only ones saying that Florida\u2019s plan left a lot to be desired. Civil rights groups repeatedly\u00a0raised the alarm<\/a>\u00a0as well,\u00a0asking Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to reject\u00a0Florida\u2019s ESSA plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a November 2017 letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, more than a dozen civil rights groups said they had \u201csignificant concerns\u201d regarding the plan, which they believed failed \u201cto serve the interests of marginalized students in the state\u201d and \u201cto comply with the requirements of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Dr. Rosa Castro Feinberg, who serves on the committee for LULAC Florida, an advocacy group serving all Hispanic nationality groups, Florida\u2019s \u201ccurrent plan includes features that contradict common sense, expert opinion, popular will, and the intent of the ESSA. Contrary to the purposes of the ESSA, the Florida plan denies attention to struggling subgroups of students. Without attention, there can be no correction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A year later, with Florida now implementing a revised state accountability plan, the peer reviewers convened by the Collaborative had similar (and additional) concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While noting that \u201cempowering local leaders is a core component of successful school turnaround,\u201d the peer reviewers worried that \u201ctoo much autonomy, without sufficient state supports, may not help the students and schools in most need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This, the peer reviewers believe, reflects a \u201clack of commitment to closing achievement gaps by not addressing subgroup performance or English learner proficiency in the state\u2019s accountability system,\u201d meaning \u201cdistricts and schools are less likely to focus on these populations as they plan and implement school improvement strategies.\u201d The same concern and fear raised by civil rights groups a year earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The peer reviewers did applaud Florida for its \u201coverall clear, student-focused vision around high standards, college and career readiness, and rigorous accountability and improvement,\u201d and \u201cclearly defined and easy-to-understand A-F grading system, which places a strong emphasis on academic growth and accelerated coursework.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the peer reviewers recommended that the state rework its accountability system to incorporate student subgroups and English-language learner proficiency. They also noted that Florida\u2019s use of dual accountability systems \u201craises issues with school improvement implementation as it can cause confusion about which schools are being identified and how to prioritize efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n