SCHOOL AND DISTRICT ACCOUNTABILITY/ESEA Ann M. Renker, Ph.D. Sequim School District August 17, 2015

THERE HAVE BEEN NUMEROUS OTHER ITERATIONS OF THE ESEA.  History of ESEA The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was signed into law in 1965 by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who believed that "full educational opportunity" should be "our first national goal." ESEA offered new grants to districts serving low-income students, federal grants for text and library books, it created special education centers, and created scholarships for low-income college students. Additionally, the law provided federal grants to state educational agencies to improve the quality of elementary and secondary education. The most commonly known iteration is NCLB.

NCLB ADDED ACCOUNTABILITY MEASURES FOR SCHOOLS AND DISTRICTS RECEIVING TITLE I FUNDS.  The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 ( NCLB ) is a United States Act of Congress that is a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which included Title I, the government's flagship aid program for disadvantaged students. Accountability measures can include: --Student proficiency (across 11 different sub-groups of students) --Participation in state-level testing --Student attendance --States can add other measures

ACCOUNTABILITY ALGORITHMS CHANGE ANNUALLY.  NCLB also requires states to designate Title I schools as Focus, Priority, SIG, or RAD depending on accountability measures, and provide technical assistance to those schools.  Our state extended these designations to non-Title I schools via legislative action. Designations of Focus and Priority schools take place in February of the year following tests. (This is when the Accountability Index is released in our state.)

WASHINGTON STATE IS CURRENTLY THE ONLY STATE REQUIRED TO USE THE NCLB BENCHMARKS FOR STUDENT PROFICIENCY.  Washington State monitors NCLB compliance through the Office of Student and School Success (OSSS) at OSPI. Our state is in this position because we lost the ESEA Flexibility waiver. This is the second year with no Flexibility waiver. This explains why our state uses AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) instead of the AMOs (Annual Measurable Outcomes) used by other states.

THERE ARE FIVE STEPS FOR SCHOOLS AND TWO STEPS FOR DISTRICTS. Current AYP status for the Sequim Schools: Sequim School District – Step 2 Sequim High School – Step 4 Sequim Middle School – Step 5* Olympic Peninsula Academy – Step 5 Helen Haller Elementary – Step 3 Greywolf Elementary – Step 2* *These schools did not advance in the AYP system this year. Due to the new SBA tests, proficiency was waived by DOE in AYP accountability this year. Non- participation levels in SBA testing negatively affected our schools and district.