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This update on the Every Student Succeeds Act and the education plans now being refined by state legislatures is produced in partnership with ESSA Essentials, a new series from the Collaborative for Student Success. It鈥檚 an offshoot of their听听newsletter, which you can听! (See our recent ESSA updates听from previous weeks right here.)

Andrew Ujifusa听听for听Education Week听that if Democrats win back control of the House of Representatives in November, 鈥渆xpect civil rights to grab the spotlight and for congressional subpoenas in the name of education oversight to become more popular,鈥� particularly through the lens of ESSA. Democrats could refocus on their 鈥減ast criticisms that [Secretary of Education Betsy] DeVos has approved too many ESSA plans that leave disadvantaged students, especially students of color, out in the cold when it comes to labeling schools that need improvement.鈥�

More broadly, Ujifusa听writes that Democrats will 鈥渉ave to prioritize where education stands in the list of areas where they want to push back on the Trump administration, as well as what education issues to investigate.鈥� Ultimately, elementary and secondary education might be deprioritized in favor of higher education, including issues such as cutting college costs and 鈥渉ow DeVos has handled student loans and for-profit colleges.鈥�

See below for more ESSA news.

1 Feds, Tennessee finally agree on fixing low-performing schools

After months of wrangling, 鈥渇ederal and Tennessee education officials have come to terms on how to identify and address the state鈥檚 lowest-performing schools in light of last spring鈥檚 problem-plagued student assessment program,鈥� Marta W. Aldrich听听for Chalkbeat. This agreement 鈥渘avigates conflicting state and federal laws over the use of test results鈥� 鈥� including ESSA 鈥� and 鈥渕eans the state Education Department will release three lists of challenged schools in the coming weeks.鈥� One of these lists, the state鈥檚 鈥渉ighly anticipated鈥� tally of 鈥減riority schools,鈥� which are in the bottom 5 percent, will not include last year鈥檚 problem-plagued TNReady scores. This priority-schools list is issued every three years and will 鈥渟erve as the basis for determining state interventions and supports for at least the next year,鈥� Aldrich reports. The other two lists 鈥渨ill include those results in deciding which schools will receive additional federal funding.鈥�

2 Closing the opportunity gap

In a听, the Learning Policy Institute examines how states are leveraging ESSA to address educational inequities, increase inclusivity in schools, and help all students reach their potential to succeed. The report 鈥減rovides information on which states have committed in their ESSA accountability plans and school improvement efforts to use one or more of five measures (or 鈥渋ndicators鈥�) to diagnose and address sources of inequity and school failure and to support the success of all students.鈥� These indicators include suspension rates, school climate, chronic absenteeism, extended-year graduation rate, and access to a college- and career-ready curriculum. The report also includes 鈥渁 series of that show which states are using which indicators and how they are measuring student performance on that indicator.鈥�

3 Democrats look to block using ESSA funding on guns

Andrew Ujifusa听听for Education Week that 鈥淒emocrats on Capitol Hill are using just about every tool they can think of to try to stop Every Student Succeeds Act money from being used by schools to purchase firearms鈥� 鈥� including the federal budget. On Sept. 7, two top Democrats on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, Bobby Scott of Virginia and Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon, 鈥渁sked congressional leadership to include a ban on Title IV money from going toward guns and firearms training in the education funding bills currently under consideration on Capitol Hill.鈥� These grants are meant to fund school safety, ed tech, and 鈥渟upportive school climates,鈥� but Scott and Bonamici say if that if DeVos 鈥渓ets those grants go to guns, she’ll be subverting the fundamental purpose of the grant.鈥�

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