Federal

ESSA Rule Negotiators Grapple With Issues of Flexibility, Equity

By Alyson Klein — March 29, 2016 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Should advocates, educators, and others writing rules on tests and spending under the Every Student Succeeds Act hew closely to the new law and preserve as much flexibility as possible for states? Or should they use the opportunity of “negotiated rulemaking” to help advance an agenda focused on educational equity?

Those questions undergirded some of the discussion during last week’s negotiated-rulemaking sessions here. The process allows advocates, practitioners, and others to get in a room and hash out proposed rules for parts of ESSA, the new version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. If the process fails, which it often does, the U.S. Department of Education will write rules through the regular process.

Importantly, negotiators aren’t considering the whole law—or even what’s arguably the most controversial part: accountability.

Instead, they are fleshing out rules for a highly technical provision known as “supplement-not-supplant” (which deals with how federal dollars interact with local spending). They also are negotiating rules on assessment, which covers a host of testing topics, including computer-adaptive tests, as well as tests for special populations of students, such as students in special education, English-language learners, and more.

Tough to Monitor

The panel, which will reconvene in April, is made up of educators, including a state schools chief, classroom teachers, a nationally recognized district superintendent, and other local leaders. Additional members include advocates for the civil rights community, English-learners, students with disabilities, and others. Members were nominated by the public and selected by the Education Department.

There was a spirited debate on how the regulations should handle language in ESSA that says that no more than 1 percent of all students statewide can take tests intended for those with severe cognitive disabilities.

Some advocates have worried that cap will be hard to monitor district by district. Liz King, the director of education policy at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, argued it makes sense to have a definition of the 1 percent cap, in part to deal with that issue.

But Tony Evers, the state chief in Wisconsin, noted that there has long been a 1 percent requirement in the law, without additional parameters. And he suggested the panel refrain from defining “significant cognitive disabilities"—in part so that it sticks as closely as possible to congressional intent.

Another key point in negotiations: What should constitute a “nationally recognized test” that districts could substitute for the state exam when it comes to high school accountability?

Kerri Briggs, the education program officer at Exxon Mobil, who is representing the business community on the panel, said she thinks states should be able to use their best judgment in figuring out what qualifies as a “nationally recognized test.”

Most experts expect that ESSA would allow districts to use the ACT or the SAT, but there’s nothing in the law that requires those tests to be in the mix, said Delia Pompa, a negotiator and senior fellow at the Migrant Policy Institute, a think tank in Washington that deals with issues facing migrants.

She and others voiced concern about the lack of accommodations for students in special education and English-language learners in using those college-entrance tests.

Advanced Courses

Another ESSA provision lets 8th graders who are taking advanced math courses (such as algebra, geometry, or Algebra 2) use a test in that subject for accountability purposes, instead of the state assessment.

In high school, those students must take a test corresponding to the level of math they are in.

The department wants to make it clear that the advanced math tests must meet the rigorous requirements for assessment—and that the state makes sure that all students have the opportunity to pursue advanced math coursework.

While nearly everyone on the panel liked the idea of equitable access to advanced classes, some negotiators were in different places—at least rhetorically—on how far they should go to make it happen.

ESSA, like its predecessor, the No Child Left Behind Act, also calls for states to assess newcomers to the United States in their native language, to get a sense of what they know and can do. Specifically, states must “make every effort” to have native-language tests for any language that a “significant number” of students speak.

But while that requirement had been in the NCLB law, fewer than a dozen states have native-language tests, according to the Education Department.

Pompa would like the department to provide parameters to help states come up with a definition of what constitutes a high-quality test.

A version of this article appeared in the March 30, 2016 edition of Education Week as ESSA Rule Negotiators Grapple With Issues of Flexibility, Equity

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal Biden Calls for Teacher Pay Raises, Expanded Pre-K in State of the Union
President Joe Biden highlighted a number of his education priorities in a high-stakes speech as he seeks a second term.
5 min read
President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on March 7, 2024, in Washington.
President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on March 7, 2024, in Washington.
Shawn Thew/Pool via AP
Federal Low-Performing Schools Are Left to Languish by Districts and States, Watchdog Finds
Fewer than half of district plans for improving struggling schools meet bare minimum requirements.
11 min read
A group of silhouettes looks across a grid with a public school on the other side.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva
Federal Biden Admin. Says New K-12 Agenda Tackles Absenteeism, Tutoring, Extended Learning
The White House unveiled a set of K-12 priorities at the start of an election year.
4 min read
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona participates in a roundtable discussion with students from Dartmouth College on Jan. 10, 2024, on the school's campus, in Hanover, N.H.
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona participates in a roundtable discussion with students from Dartmouth College on Jan. 10, 2024, on the school's campus, in Hanover, N.H.
Steven Senne/AP
Federal Lawmakers Want to Reauthorize a Major Education Research Law. What Stands in the Way?
Lawmakers have tried and failed to reauthorize the Education Sciences Reform Act over the past nearly two decades.
7 min read
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., left, joins Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., left, as Starbucks founder Howard Schultz answers questions about the company's actions during an ongoing employee unionizing campaign, at the Capitol in Washington, on March 29, 2023.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., left, joins Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., left, at the Capitol in Washington, on March 29, 2023. The two lawmakers sponsored a bill to reauthorize the Education Sciences Reform Act.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP