Stand Submits ESSA Comments to ISBE

As the Illinois State Board of Education gets closer to finalizing regulations implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Stand for Children Illinois submitted comments offering feedback to strengthen the next draft of the plan. Stand’s suggestions include:

  • More clearly incorporating subgroup scores in school ratings. This should be an integral part of school ratings: the new system should never allow a school to get the highest rating if it is failing any of its student populations.
  • Weighting student growth more than proficiency or any other indicator.
  • Prioritizing the diversity of Illinois teachers, including racial, gender, and linguistic diversity.
  • Expediting the timeline so that we can get a jumpstart on identifying schools more quickly and working to support their students immediately.
  • Improving the supports and interventions process for struggling districts.
  • Supporting summative ratings alongside an easy-to-understand dashboard of information that clearly shows families how their schools are doing overall and in key areas.

Stand and its ESSA Fellows remain committed to continuing to work with ISBE as the ESSA implementation process continues.

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