Washington State’s plan grants schools more flexibility over meeting the needs of every student and places an intentional focus on historically underserved populations of students. According to OSPI, student success will be gauged using many variables, not just test results. Schools will create improvement plans that identify and close gaps in student success. And districts will have the flexibility to make changes that best serve their students.
Those are some of the changes outlined by Reykdal in Washington State’s federal education plan, which the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) submitted to the U.S. Department of Education on September 18. Each state was required to submit its Consolidated Plan to the Department of Education as part of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which was signed into law in December 2015.
Input from WSPTA Members: “We are very thankful for the WSPTA members who helped with this important process and provided their voices and concerns, as well as questions, during the public forum phase,” says WSPTA CEO Kathryn Hobbs. “Representing over 133,000 members in 865 local PTAs across the state, our members also gave important input to the oversight committee’s plans and we know their contributions were significant,” she adds.
Next Steps: The Department of Education will review Washington’s plan within 120 days. The plan goes into effect starting in the 2017-18 school year.
More Information:
OSPI 9/18/17 News Release 09.18.17 https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/WAOSPI/bulletins/1b7dc9e
Every Student Succeeds Act in Washington (ESSA)
http://www.k12.wa.us/esea/essa/default.aspx
Washington’s Consolidated Plan (Full plan) (20-page summary) http://www.k12.wa.us/ESEA/ESSA/pubdocs/ESSAConsolidatedPlan-Submitted.pdf
(20-page summary)
http://www.k12.wa.us/esea/essa/pubdocs/WashingtonESSARevisedConsolidatedPlanSummary.pdf