BOSTON, MA – Teach Plus today commended the U.S. Department of Education on its final regulations on assessment under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The regulations will result in fewer, better, and fairer tests while maintaining important civil rights protections for students and ensuring that teachers have the information they need to help students succeed.
“As a member of the ESSA Negotiated Rulemaking committee, I was honored to be a teacher voice at the table to advocate for equitable and meaningful recommendations around funding, assessments, and accountability,” said Teach Plus Policy Fellowship alumni Audrey Jackson, a fifth-grade inclusion teacher at the Joseph P. Manning School in Boston and the 2016 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year. “I am excited that schools, districts, and states will now be reporting on the progress of three new subgroups: students with homeless status, students with an active duty parent in the military, and students in foster care.”
Teach Plus is pleased that the final regulations include a requirement for an annual summative determination aligned to grade level, something that many Teach Plus teachers support. We are also pleased that the regulations ensure that the new pilot assessments will drive innovation in assessment while maintaining comparability across districts and schools between the pilot tests and state assessments.
About Teach Plus
Teach Plus is a national nonprofit organization that empowers excellent, experienced teachers to take leadership over key policy and practice issues that affect their students’ success. www.teachplus.org.
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