In several settings Minnesota Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius has said she will be calling together a broad work group of educational stakeholders to consider changes to Minnesota’s accountability plan given the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). In some conversations, she has talked of large scale changes and at other times about modest changes so things are consistent for educators and parents. MREA will be tracking and participating as this issue moves forward.
There is no doubt that the rare bipartisan agreement and year-end passage and signing of ESSA represents more than just a on the part of the nation’s chronically polarized policymakers.
For the first time in more than a decade—and a half-century after enactment of the country’s main K-12 law—Congress has redefined the federal role in elementary and secondary education. ESSA aims to enhance the authority of states and school districts.
To have a sense of the possibilities and what ESSA stipulates: Read this Week in Review