ESSA in Washington State – Vancouver Public Forum

On Thursday evening June 16th Gil Mendoza and Gayle Pauley (both are Assistant Superintendents reporting to Randy Dorn) conducted a two (2) hour Town Hall event at ESD 112 from 6 to 8pm. The audience consisted of ~40-50 people. Most appeared to be teachers, some school board members and a few parents/grandparents. In addition there appeared to be 8-10 people from OSPI. This was the 3rd in a series of 9 events to be held throughout the state. Below we share our notes as well as thoughts and impressions for your consideration:

The opening 45 minutes was a series of slides in a presentation. This link will take you to the slides they used: http://www.k12.wa.us/ESEA/ESSA/CPTMeetings/2016-March22ESSAConsolidatedPlanTeam-MeetingPresentation.pdf

Our notes: (based on their comments)

• State creates it’s own accountability system
• Claim biggest change is state control and said the Federal government has been “defanged”
• Full implementation will occur in 2017/2018
• Bottom 5% of performers will be the focus as well subgroup performances
• Special support for high schools with a graduation rate of 67% or less
• A Report Card Committee will determine what is reported to the public
• They claim to reduce testing. ELA and Math for grades 3-8 plus high school for SBAC still required. (No explanation of what is being eliminated)
• Claim ESSA makes different “title groups” work together
• The new accountability system will mesh state and federal
• For the public comment period they offered three (3) questions and said they were not there to debate. They only wanted feedback, suggestions and ideas

Key Changes

• More state authority
• Limit USDoE authority
• Consolidate smaller grant programs

Details

1. Plan must be approved by the USDoE
2. Inslee has 30 days to review and comment (although no authority to make changes)
3. State Senate has 30 days to provide input
4. Public will have 30 days to provide input
5. Intent is to submit in November 2016
6. USDoE will begin reviews in March 2017 and has 120 days to approve or not

Thoughts and Comments

1. Public involvement in the various committees appears to be virtually non-existent. Apparently there are 7 members of the PTA acting as public members plus a few others. So, in essence, this entire process is being run by education related people as well as administrators
2. We asked if the State really had any power given the number of federal rules that must be adhered to (including the SBAC). They agreed there were only moderate changes
3. We asked “How are student outcomes going to be improved under ESSA vs. previous iterations of the law?” They couldn’t answer and said it was TBD
4. There were multiple comments about the high stakes testing. Mr. Mendoza pointed out that the use of SBAC for graduation was a state mandate and not federal
5. Based on what they claimed in the way of “changes” and State control when we consider all the restrictions from the federal level it appears they are misleading the public
6. They claim that if people still want to be on any of the committee’s you can contact OSPI and you will be added (although they only have about 3 months left to complete the plan)
7. When asked for one change that should be made to make things better we said: Get rid of the USDoE (Mr. Mendoza smiled and said he understood)
8. In the end our impression? ESSA extends the control of the Federal government, gives virtually no control to the state (given all the federal demands and mandates) It’s all about control

For those who would like to be updated on changes you can register at: https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/WAOSPI/subscriber/new?topic_id=WAOSPI_315

For those who would like to provide feedback click this link: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/2689742/essa-feedback

Last but not least I sent a letter to OSPI with comments regarding their Town Hall presentation. We offer it here should you want to read it: Letter_OSPI_ESSA_June162016