September 25, 2017
California to continue working on
overall accountability system
California and 30 other states submit-
ted their Every Student Succeeds Act plans
to the U.S. Department of Education by a
Sept. 18 deadline. At the same time, there
continue to be many moving parts to the
state’s overall system of school measures
and support.
On an 8-2 vote, the State Board of
Education approved the State Plan for
ESSA, which SBE President Michael Kirst
called “an application for federal funds.” He
pointed out federal compliance was only
one part of a “totality” of effort that began
in California well before ESSA, referring to
the Local Control Funding Formula as the
foundational statute guiding the work.
The $8 billion the state stands to receive
in overall federal funding, of which $2.5 bil-
lion is for ESSA, represents a small portion
of the $92.5 billion California will spend on
K-12 education in 2017-18, Kirst said.
The State Plan for ESSA was submitted
without a final methodology for defining
the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools
the federal government wants identified for
improvement under Title 1. Reconciling
California’s system of measuring continuous
improvement with federal requirements has
not been easy. The SBE wants to ensure the
state’s system of support links low-perform-
ing schools to the local education agencies
identified for support under LCFF.
The SBE is expected to settle on meth-
odology in January 2018 and submit an
addendum to the federal plan. Compl iance
under ESSA begins in 2018-19.
Two dissenting votes, by SBE members
Patricia Rucker and Feliza Ortiz-Licon,
included concerns about significant equity
issues. Rucker said she had “many, many,
many questions” about the ESSA plan,
particularly in the area of real, sustainable
change.” She said she did not think the
work that is being done on accountability
is effectively moving down to stakeholders.
“Schools are failing some students, and
they are successful with others,” she said.
“It’s going to continue to be the same stu-
dents (who are underserved) if we don’t have
the hard conversations. I’m not saying the
work is not important, it’s just not inclusive
with all stakeholders.”
Ortiz-Licon agreed, stating that the
collaborative model should include more
voices. “Bureaucracy is very resilient; things
don’t trickle down,” she said.
Ortiz-Licon
expressed concerns
“I'm not saying
that the plan did
the work is not
not go far enough in
addressing the per-
important, it's
sistent performance
just not inclusive and equity gaps
that exist in public
with all stake-
schools. In particular,
Ortiz-Licon was dis-
holders.”
appointed that the
plan does not articu-
Patricia Rucker,
late clearly defined
State Board
interim goals and
member
academic progress
schools are expected
to make from year to year in order to close
achievement gaps.
The board spent several hours Sept. 13
hearing about and responding to proposed
refinements to the state’s new accountabil-
ity system. Of particular focus were refine-
ments to the state and local indicators on
the California School Dashboard, as well
as how management of supports will actu-
ally work. Other areas of interest included
college and career readiness, parent involve-
ment indicators, a new English learner test,
charter school reporting, small school dis-
trict flexibility, and ensuring a broad course
of study in elementary grades.
Speaking on behalf of ACSA, Legislative
Advocate Martha Alvarez and Sheldon
Smith, assistant superintendent, business
services for the San Luis Obispo County
Office of Education, cautioned the SBE to
be mindful of making too many changes all
at once. Balance and adequate training, they
said, are important to a system that will be
understood by all stakeholders.
“Constant changes are particularly dif-
ficult to explain,” Smith told the board.
ACSA supports an annual review process
the California Department of Education
intends to pursue as a better approach for
refining individual state and local indicators.
The CDE anticipates public release of
the 2017 Fall Dashboard the week of Nov.
27. Over the coming year, the SBE will
continue its discussions to strengthen the
college and career indicator and determine
how alternative schools will fit into an
overall single, coherent accountability sys-
tem. More immediately, the CDE plans to
bring forth recommendations to the SBE
in November with the goal of making the
school conditions and climate local indica-
tor more meaningful.
In addition to building out account-
ability measures, the CDE, SBE, California
Collaborative for Educational Excellence
and county offices of education, via
CCSESA, are responsible for providing
assistance to LEAs under LCFF and will
continue to meet to discuss coordination
and alignment of assistance activities.
A short-term focus this fall will include
the California School Dashboard being
used to determine whether COEs must
offer assistance to districts under LCFF.
ACSA has invited the state agencies
to seek input from administrators at the
October Leadership Assembly meeting.
This feedback will complement other input
ACSA staff has received through vari-
ous committees and councils and ACSA’s
Accountability Task Force. For questions or
to provide input, contact Martha Alvarez at
[email protected].
Surveys record what public wants from schools
Two reports on the public’s opinion of
education in the United States offer varying
results on schools, but support for charters,
vouchers and private schools appears to be
waning.
The trusted “PDK Poll of the Public’s
Attitudes Toward the Public Schools” finds
Americans overwhelmingly want schools to
do more than educate students in academ-
ics. According to the 2017 poll, they also
want schools to help position students for
their working lives after school. That means
both direct career preparation and efforts to
develop students’ interpersonal skills.
When judging school quality, the public
gives more weight to students’ job prepara-
tion and interpersonal development than
to their standardized test scores. That said,
though, Americans do still value traditional
academic preparation, especially opportuni-
ties for advanced academic studies.
As in past years, the 2017 poll shows
little public support for using public money
to send children to private schools. The
more Americans know about how voucher
programs work, the less likely they are to
support them or to say they’d participate
in them.
These and other results suggest that
some of the most prominent ideas that
dominate current policy debates – from
supporting vouchers to doubling down on
high-stakes tests to cutting federal educa-
tion funding – are out of step with parents’
main concern: They want their children
prepared for life after they complete high
school.
PDK takes great care to frame poll ques-
tions as objectively as possible and to share
the full and unvarnished results. Find more
information at http://pdkpoll.org/results.
Rather than offering a partial or restricted
view of the data, pollsters are committed to
allowing the public to speak for itself.
The 2017 PDK survey is based on a
random, representative, 50-state sample of
1,588 adults interviewed by cell or landline
telephone, in English or Spanish, in May.
The strong emphasis on job preparation
is consistent with and expands upon the
findings from PDK’s 2016 survey, in which
fewer than half of respondents said aca-
demic preparation should be the main goal
of a public school education. The rest were
divided between preparation for work or for
citizenship as the top pri ority. This year’s
survey sharpens the point:
• A vast 82 percent of Americans sup-
port job or career skills classes, even if that
means students might spend less time in
academic classes.
• 86 percent say schools in their com-
munity should offer certificate or licensing
programs that qualify students for employ-
ment in a given field.
• Eight in 10 see technology and engi-
neering classes as an extremely important
or very important element of school quality.
• 82 percent also say that it is high-
ly important for schools to help students
develop interpersonal skills, such as being
cooperative, respectful of others, and persis-
tent at solving problems.
These interests complement rather than
supplant an interest in academics: 76 per- cent of respondents see advanced academic
classes as highly important indicators of
school quality. Notably, nearly as many
say it’s also extremely or very important
that schools offer extracurricular activities
(70 percent) and art and music classes (71
percent).
The public offers little support for stan-
dardized testing in contrast to the deep
interest in testing by policymakers over the
last two decades. Less than half of adults
(42 percent) say performance on standard-
ized tests is a highly important indicator of
school quality – that includes just 13 per-
cent who call test scores extremely impor-
tant. Far more point to developing students’
interpersonal skills (39 percent) and offer-
ing technology and engineering instruction
(37 percent) as extremely important.
Another poll, from the Gallup
Organization, finds that Americans believe
private schools provide students with the
best K-12 education of five different types
of schools in the U.S. The 71 percent who
rate the quality of private school education
as excellent or good exceeds the ratings for
parochial, charter, home and public school-
WEBINARS takes time and skill. This presentation will
identify the degree to which trust building
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During this session a meta-analysis of trust
theory will be also shared to include those
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Further, participants will learn simple and
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Go to https://goo.gl/ugG6SR to register.
Continued from page 2
A New Mindset in Special Education:
Building bridges to trusting
relationships
Thursday, March 1, 10 a.m.
The topic of trust within individuals,
groups and teams is seen as an under-
explored topic, though fundamental to our
everyday work in the field of education and
more specifically to that of special educa-
tion. Intentionally building and maintaining
trusting relationships between parents of
children with special needs and their teach-
ers, administrators, and service providers
See SURVEYS, page 7
EDCAL 3
FROM THE
Executive
Director
As student advocates,
we know that provid-
ing a first class edu-
cation for California’s
6.2 million public school students
goes beyond strong curriculum and
good teachers.
To ensure a healthy and safe
learning environment with the
cutting-edge technology needed
to prepare students for college
and career, we have to push for
future-based facilities.
Voters approved Proposition 51 in
November, providing a $9 billion
facilities bond for K-Community
College schools. The expectation
from the approval was communi-
ties would receive funds to build
and renovate their local schools.
As of now, Gov. Brown has com-
mitted to selling only $400 million
at the upcoming fall bond sale.
That equals about 4 percent of
those bonds, and the financial
impact on districts could be colos-
sal as construction costs and
interest rates escalate over time.
ACSA anticipates approximately
a $2 billion backlog in projects
identified for modernization and
new construction due to the lack
of bond funds available from the
state for the past 10 years.
I am proud to see ACSA taking
a leadership role in pushing Gov.
Brown to take appropriate actions
regarding our facilities and com-
mitment to the voters’ mandate.
Last month, ACSA President Lisa
Gonzales joined other education
leaders in a lobbying effort to
move the governor. She believes
the facilities bond is about more
than adding technology. Some
school campuses are more than
50 years old, requiring new air
conditioning units or larger caf-
eterias to accommodate more
students.
Our voice at the political table has
a very large impact, bigger than
we have ever had. The credit for
that goes to our members and
the ACSA Governmental Relations
team who have worked tirelessly
to move the message of educa-
tion leaders and advocate on
behalf of students.
Because of their hard work, ACSA
has been approached to help
push the Brown administration for
a stronger commitment to fund-
ing this bond. With the backing
of the voters, I believe we have a
unique opportunity to shape the
future of our students.
I encourage you to volunteer to
assist in moving the message
locally about why a larger bond
should be sold in the spring. We
have to let our communities know
that it isn’t about seeking more
money or a new bond. It’s about
securing the funds for the bond
they have already passed.
Please contact Laura Preston at
[email protected] if you can help
us in your community.
– Wesley Smith
Executive Director