March 26, 2018
EDCAL 3
State Board of Education addresses issues on
ESSA state plan, dashboard indicators
The State Board of Education met recently
and the meeting was attended by Legislative
Advocate Martha Alvarez, who provided the
following highlights.
At the March 2018 State Board of
Education meeting, there were several main
topics related to the state accountability
system. The Board took action by approving
1) proposed revision to the self-reflection
tool for Priority 6: School Climate, and 2) a
proposed standard and self-assessment tool
for local educational agencies to determine
progress on the local performance indicator
for Priority 7: Access to a Broad Course of
Study.
On behalf of ACSA, Superintendent/
Principal Alfonso Garagarza from Butteville
Union Elementary School District in
Siskiyou County and Martha Alvarez pro-
vided testimony on the proposed revisions
to the 2018 California School Dashboard.
Fall 2018 Dashboard
The SBE intends to annually review
the California School Dashboard indica-
tors and performance standards to con-
sider whether changes or improvements are
needed based on newly available data, recent
research, and feedback from stakeholders.
The annual review process requires that the
California Department of Education update
the Board annually at its March meeting on
which indicators are under consideration
for review and/or revisions for action at the
September Board meeting.
The CDE is considering the following
revisions to the 2018 Dashboard:
• Chronic Absenteeism Indicator:
CDE recommends that both “Status” and
“Change” cut scores be brought for con-
sideration at the September 2018 meeting.
Once these cut scores have been approved,
these data, along with performance levels
will be reported in the 2018 Dashboard.
ACSA urged the Board to revisit the defini-
tion of Chronic Absenteeism. While ACSA
supports the inclusion of this data on the
Dashboard, members are concerned that the
data includes transient and medically absent
students (often times with chronic diseases).
ACSA urged the Board to direct CDE to
revisit what type of absences are included in
this indicator, and perhaps consider setting
clear criteria on how to account for medi-
cally ill students who are chronically absent.
ACSA encouraged the Board to remove
these two types of student populations from
the definition for accountability purposes,
and instead, transient students and those
with medically certified absences be disag-
gregated for reporting purposes only.
• College/Career Indicator (CCI): The
Fall 2017 Dashboard includes one year of
CCI results utilizing the first year of grade 11
Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments
results and Status only. Following SBE
approval of the Change cut scores for the
CCI in fall 2018, the 2018 Dashboard will
report Status (Class of 2018) and Change,
which will be the difference between the
Class of 2018 and Class of 2017. It will
also report performance levels (colors) for
the first time. The 2018 Dashboard will
report on three new career measures for the
Class of 2017: Articulated Career Technical
Education Courses; State Seal of Biliteracy;
and th e Golden State Seal Merit Diploma.
During their deliberations, several Board
members raised concerns that the CCI has
become college “or” career, instead of the
intended college “and” career. CDE staff
indicated that the CCI would become an
“and” possibly by Fall 2020 when the CCI
includes a fourth category that defines
students who are “well prepared” for both
college and career.
• Modified Methods for Dashboard
Alternative School Status (DASS). In
July 2017, the SBE approved criteria for
schools to apply for DASS. While DASS
schools did not receive a Dashboard in the
spring and fall of 2017, they will receive
a Dashboard report beginning in 2018.
DASS schools will be held accountable for
meeting all of the same state indicators that
are currently reported in the Dashboard,
although modified methods will be used,
when appropriate, to more fairly evalu-
ate the success of alternative schools that
serve high-risk students. Additionally, local
educational agencies will be held account-
able for DASS schools in their Dashboard
report. To date, the Alternative Schools
Task Force has explored the use of modified
measures for the Graduation Rate Indicator
(one-year graduation rate) and modified
career measures for the College and Career
Indicator.
• Graduation Rate Indicator: The
Graduation Rate Indicator is the only state
indicator that uses a three-year average rate
to calculate Change, whereas all other state
indicators use the difference between cur-
rent and prior year data. CDE’s Technical
Design Group is recommending that the
Board adopt the use of a one-year rate to
determine Change for the Graduation Rate
Indicator so that it will more accurately
represent actual change from one year to the
next. ACSA’s Alvarez raised concerns with
CDE’s intent to make use of a one-year
rate. ACSA members have indicated the
value in looking at the trend over time, and
it was administrators’ impression that the
state’s accountability system would eventu-
ally move all of the state indicators to three-
year averages once additional years of data
became available. ACSA indicated if there
is a decline in performance or it is flat, this
could be an anomaly, and could negatively
impact districts if they are rushed to make
changes to their instruction, curriculum or
practices as a result of the accountability
system.
In regard to the adoption of a student-
level growth model, CDE’s testing vendor,
Educational Testing Service, conducted a
statistical analysis of three proposed growth
models. At the May 2018 SBE meeting, the
CDE plans to share the stakeholder feed-
back, discuss the options for incorporating
the growth model in the 2018 Dashboard,
and request action from the Board to select
one of three growth models for possible
inclusion in the 2018 Dashboard.
The CDE is proposing to produce a
state-level Dashboard report for all state
indicators. Based on feedback from various
stakeholders, there is an interest in being
able to access how the state is performing as
a whole on each state indicator.
ESSA state plan
While it was anticipated that the SBE
would approve revisions to the ESSA
State Plan to comply with negotiations
between California state officials and the
U.S. Department of Education, the Board
decided to postpone action until the public
and the Board has additional time to ana-
lyze the implications of the federal account-
ability requirements.
Several Board members echoed concerns
raised by ACSA, the California School
Boards Association and the California
Teachers Association that the proposed
revisions to the ESSA State Plan could
result in having a bifurcated state and feder-
al accountability system. For example, under
the U.S. Department of Education’s inter-
pretation of ESSA, California would be
requested to only use Status, or proficiency,
to identify the lowest performing 5 percent
of Title 1 schools. If California was to go
in this direction to comply with federal
requirements, ACSA and others expressed
concerns for what this would mean for
California’s approach with the Dashboard
that incorporates both Status and Change.
Because California’s federal funding from
ESSA – primarily from Title 1 funding to
support low-income students – accounts
for approximately $2.8 billion (or less than
3 percent of California funding for public
education), some Board members would
want to entertain seeking a federal waiver
to allow California to preserve the state’s
accountability framework.
While the Board expressed support for
this funding, there are many unknowns as
to whether U. S. Secretary of Education
Betsy DeVos has the authority to withhold
state funds if California was not complying
with the accountability statutory provisions.
The SBE would like to further explore what
the options are for California, as well as the
timeline for California to consider if it will
request a waiver. This question on timing
is important since ESSA requires states to
start identifying their lowest performing
Title 1 schools in the 2018-19 school year.
The Board deferred action on the Title 1
accountability items in the revised ESSA
State Plan to allow for impact analysis and
stakeholder feedback, and will consider tak-
ing action at a special Board meeting in
April 2018.
If you have questions or comments on
the Dashboard or any other aspects of the
state’s accountability system, including the
system of support, please contact ACSA
Legislative Advocate Martha Alvarez at
[email protected].
California State PTA convention to support student success
The relationship between school and
district administrators and parents is vital
to student success, and great administra-
tors know the value of authentic family
engagement. Find out how you can engage
families, grow your family-school connec-
tion and provide meaningful programs to
all students at the California State PTA
Annual Convention in Ontario from April
27-29. Workshops and table talks will cover
hot topics in health, education, and com-
munity issues affecting our state’s children.
PTA has been advocating for all children
for more than 120 years and remain s the
lead organization in family engagement.
Join thousands of PTA parent-volunteers,
leaders, educators and community members
for three days of learning, networking and
sharing.
Explore new ways to help your parents
support their children and your school and
bring the information back to your school
community. Learn about topics in education
with a family and community viewpoint and
network with parent advocates from across
the state. Plus, enjoy inspiring keynote pre-
sentations from ACSA Executive Director
Wes Smith and Teacher of the Year Brian
McDaniel.
All administrators and education leaders
are invited to register for the full convention
or just one day.
Visit www.capta.org/convention for
more details.
www.acsa.org
Barbara. This internationally recognized
program develops skills in communication,
project planning, meeting management,
conflict resolution and teamwork. Advisors
receive training and develop networks with
other professionals. The Earlybird deadline
is April 6 and the application can be found
at www.casc.net.
Student cabinet
Applications are currently open for stu-
dents wishing to serve on the region cabinet
for the California Association of Student
Councils (CASC). The cabinet plans work-
shops and activities for ASBs through-
out Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
Applications can be found at www.casc.net
and must be postmarked on or before May
12, 2018.
Student summer leadership training
From July 30 to August 2 middle
and high school students will attend the
California Association of Student Councils
Summer Leadership Program at UC Santa
Student accreditation teams
Applications for juniors and seniors
who wish to serve on accreditation teams
for the Western Association of Schools
and Colleges are available at www.casc.
net. Each team has only one student who
works alongside administrators, teachers
and school board members to review the
school’s self-study and recommend a term
of accreditation. Applications are available
at www.casc.net.
Supt. of the Year
Apply now for the NASS National
Superintendent of the Year. Details are
available at http://nass.us.
Task force at work
ACSA’s Accountability Task Force met March 7 to discuss the state accountability system, including
potential modifications to the California School Dashboard and to provide feedback on the state’s new
system of support. The Task Force is chaired by Superintendent Ralph Porras, past president of ACSA.