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Governor’s ESSA Committee Has Completed First Round of Meetings, Here’s What’s Next
The statewide committee charged with planning for implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) recently completed their first round of sub-committee meetings.
The Governor’s web page for ESSA has been updated to include meeting notes from four of the seven committees as of the time of publication of this article. Click here to read the meeting notes.
The next round of sub-committee meetings is planned for Friday, July 22. All seven sub-committees will meet on the same day.
Dr. Mark Kirkemeier leads the Educator Effectiveness committee on Friday, June 24.
The full 32-member committee plans to meet as a whole on Thursday, August 18, at 1:00 p.m. in the Capitol auditorium.
In addition to sub-committee members, there were between eight and 12 audience members in each of the four meetings attended by the Alabama School Connection on June 24 and June 27. I attended the Accountability, Data Collection and Reporting, Educator Effectiveness and Title Programs sub-committee meetings. Much of the time was spent getting organized and getting questions answered by members.
All sub-committees are chaired by Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) officials.
The public is not allowed to participate during the sub-committee meetings but sticky-notes and index cards were provided for the public to leave written comments after the meeting. Additionally, the public can provide comment at any time through the Governor’s website.
The Alabama Association of School Boards, School Superintendents of Alabama, and the Alabama Parent Education Center all had representatives attending each meeting.
Department of Early Childhood Education Sec. Jeana Ross, who serves as Chair of the full statewide committee tweeted this after the meetings concluded.
A great day for engaging stakeholders in developing a unique plan for Alabama’s children and educators- seeing B-20 @ work in AL #ALESSA
— Jeana Ross (@JeanaRoss4kids) June 27, 2016
State board of education member Stephanie Bell (R-District 3) has been vocal about her desire for the state board of education to be driving the ESSA committee’s direction, but no one from the ALSDE nor the state board of education has shared publicly any plans for any work to be done outside of the work of the Governor’s committee.
The statewide committee, created through an Executive Order in March, is charged with the state plan for implementation of ESSA in collaboration with the Alabama State Department of Education. The Order prescribes the committee to submit a plan to the Governor, the Alabama State Board of Education and the ALSDE by December 1.
There will be two windows for states to submit their plans to the U.S. Department of Education for approval: March and July 2017.
Full implementation of ESSA is expected by the start of the 2017-2018 school year.
The next round of sub-committee meetings on July 22nd will be held at the Department of Early Childhood Education in the Alabama Community College System building. Here’s the time of each the sub-committee meetings:
- Accountability – 11 a.m.
- Data Collection and Reporting – 9 a.m.
- Early Learning – 1 p.m.
- Educator Effectiveness – 9 a.m.
- School and District Improvement – 9 a.m.
- Standards, Assessment, and ELL – 1 p.m.
- Title Programs – 1 p.m.
Notes from all sub-committee and committee meetings are expected to be posted on the Governor’s website soon after each round of meetings.
Further Reading
ESSA Transition FAQs from the U.S. Department of Education, updated June 29, 2016
