Teach Plus Teaching Policy Fellowship Alumna and 2016 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year Audrey Jackson Among 3 Teachers in the U.S. to Set the Law’s Implementation Guidelines
Washington D.C.— Teach Plus Teaching Policy Fellowship alumna Audrey Jackson is among the 24 negotiators from around the nation who begin work today on developing proposed regulations on key topics under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Jackson, a fifth-grade inclusion teacher at the Joseph P. Manning School, a Title 1 school in Boston, MA, and the 2016 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year, is one of only three teachers on the Negotiated Rulemaking Committee for ESSA.
“We congratulate Audrey on this incredible opportunity to help guide the implementation of the new law,” said Dr. Celine Coggins, Teach Plus Founder and CEO. “As states and districts define and use the new flexibilities built into ESSA it is essential that teacher leaders like Audrey, who have a powerful policy voice, are at the table ensuring that this law is good for all students.”
“As a teacher in an urban, Title 1 school, I know firsthand how important it is for our education system to serve all students equitably,” said Audrey Jackson. “I am honored to have this opportunity to help inform the law’s regulations and guidelines in a way that prioritizes equity.”
Jackson will represent teachers on the Negotiated Rulemaking Committee, which is focusing on Title I, Part A of the ESSA. The committee will address the law’s assessment provisions and the requirement that federal funds supplement, not supplant, non-federal funds in high-need schools. In addition to teachers, the committee’s negotiators include administrators, tribal leaders, parents, students, principals, and members of the civil rights and business communities. The committee meets March 21-23 and April 6-8, with an optional session on April 18-19.
About Teach Plus
Teach Plus empowers excellent, experienced teachers to take leadership over key policy and practice issues that affect their students’ success. Teach Plus runs three programs designed to place teacher leaders at the center of improvements in policy and practice: Teaching Policy Fellowship, C2 Initiative, and T3 Initiative. The programs focus on demonstrably effective teachers who want to continue classroom teaching while also expanding their impact as leaders in their schools and in district, state, and national policy. Since its inception in August 2009, Teach Plus has grown to a network of more than 22,000 solutions-oriented teachers across the country. www.teachplus.org
