Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Flexibility Initiative

1. Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Flexibility Initiative Possible Opportunities for Louisiana

2. Initiative Overview

3. Introduction • Announced in September 2011, the ESEA Flexibility Initiative is an attempt to: • Remove proscriptive regulations and encourage innovation • Ensure ESEA incentivizes high standards • Address serious state concerns while awaiting reauthorization

4. Specific Waivers Offered • Ten (10) waivers of current ESEA restrictions to allow flexibility in the use of $375,000,000+ federal education funds • Waiver to replace expectations for “highly qualified” teachers and school leaders with expectations for “effective” teachers and school leaders (based on evidence of student achievement) • Waiver of NCLB proficiency requirements to allow state-determined aggressive goals for increasing students’ readiness for college and careers

5. What’s Expected in Return • Reduce burdensome reporting and administrative requirements for districts and schools • Provide differentiated recognition, rigorous accountability, and turnaround support for schools • Ensure meaningful interventions in low-performing schools and schools with achievement gaps • Support increases in teacher effectiveness by using student performance data to retain, support and release teachers • Adopt and transition to college- and career-ready standards and assessments

6. Process/Timeline • Deadline: February 21, 2012 • 11 states submitted requests in the first round (November 15, 2011) • A total of 39 states have submitted an intent to request (non-binding)

7. Review • Requests are evaluated by expert peer reviewers • It is a non-competitive process; no set number of states are eligible • USED has indicated the process will be cooperative and iterative such that states can work with reviewers to clarify and make changes as needed

8. Principle 1: College and Career Ready Expectations • State must: • Adopt college and career ready standards in at least reading/language arts and mathematics • Transition to and implement such standards statewide for all students and schools • Develop and administer annual, statewide, aligned, high-quality assessments, and corresponding academic achievement standards that measure student growth in at least grades 3-8 and at least once in high school. • Louisiana is meeting these requirements through its support of the CCSS and participation in PARCC

9. Principle 2: Differentiated Recognition, Accountability, and Support • Reward schools that are high-performing or high-progress • Focus on schools with largest achievements gaps • Prioritize lowest-performing schools, as determined by statewide assessments • System must include: • Student achievement in at least reading/language arts and mathematics for all students and all subgroups • Graduation rates for all students and all subgroups • School performance and progress over time, including the performance and progress of all subgroups

10. Principle 3: Supporting Effective Instruction and Leadership • Must commit to develop, adopt, pilot, and implement teacher and principal evaluation and support systems • Used for continual improvement of instruction • Meaningfully differentiate performance using at least three performance levels • Use multiple valid measures in determining performance levels, including as a significant factor data on student growth • Evaluate teachers and principals on a regular basis • Used to inform personnel decisions • This requirement is addressed through Louisiana’s work underway to revise teacher and school leader evaluations per Act 54 of the 2010 Regular Session (“Compass”)

11. Principle 4: Reducing Duplication and Unnecessary Burden • In order to provide an environment in which schools and LEAs have the flexibility to focus on what’s best for students, we must remove duplicative and burdensome reporting requirements that have little or no impact on student outcomes.

12. Highlights of Stakeholder Survey Results

13. Survey Overview • 20 questions • Posted on the LDE Website • Targeted Groups: • Superintendents and Charter Leaders • Education Organizations/Associations (e.g., LAE, LFT, APEL, LASBO, Principal’s Association) • Advisory Councils/Commissions (e.g., Blue Ribbon, Accountability, CCR, 8(g), Non-public, SEAC, ACEE) • Committee of Practitioners • PTA • Business Groups (e.g., LABI, Committee of 100)

14. Participants

15. Results: Principles • Respondents believe the following principles and goals are critical to an accountability system: • Motivates improvement (78.7%) • Easy to communicate (75%) • Focuses on proficiency (85.7%)

16. Results: Strengths of the Current System • Respondents considered the following elements to be strong: • Goal of proficiency for all students (67.3%) • Expectations for annual growth (66.9%) • Interventions/remedies for low-performing schools (66.2%)

17. Results: Weaknesses of the Current System • Respondents considered the following elements to be inadequate or restrictive in improving low-performing schools: • Restrictions on the use of federal funds (55.5%) • Operational restrictions or bureaucracies (54.9%)

18. Results: State v. Federal System • 81.1% of respondents discuss accountability in terms of SPS, rather than Critical Goals (1.6%) or AYP (17.2%) • 60.3% of respondents understand the difference between SPS and AYP. • Only 44.7% of respondents understand the difference between federal and state rewards/sanctions.

19. Results: Supporting All Students • 79.7% of respondents believe that Louisiana schools have an obligation to educate and be held accountable for the performance of all students, including students with disabilities, English language learners, and at-risk students.

20. What’s In It for Louisiana

21. What’s In It For Louisiana • Significant flexibility in Louisiana school districts’ use of federal funds • Relief from burdensome regulations and reporting • Ability to enhance and improve Louisiana-developed and Louisiana-led accountability through continued rigorous expectations for districts and schools • Build on key Louisiana reforms: • Compass (Act 54) • Common Core State Standards • Clear, transparent accountability system • Intensive district support • Intervention in persistently failing schools

22. Challenges with Current Federal Regs • Louisiana LEAs are forced to implement federal interventions that have been inadequate to improve schools. • Louisiana’s accountability system is more rigorous and transparent. • Focuses on whole-school performance, which serves as an additional motivator for subgroups • Communicates school and district performance through easily understood letter grades • Includes real consequences for continuous failure and real opportunities for school improvement – the RSD • Louisiana’s system, with continued enhancements, should become the sole accountability driver for Louisiana schools

23. Preliminary Concepts for Enhancing Accountability

24. Louisiana Core Values for Education • All children can learn and grow academically. We should expect and aim for all students to be proficient in order to achieve the ultimate goal of college and career readiness. • Because every child can learn, we must set high standards that demand academic growth for every student. • We must hold schools and districts accountable for failing to meet our standard of proficiency. • We must stop interfering with high performing or high progress schools. • We must focus supports and strategies in failing schools that are not demonstrating improvement. • If schools and districts consistently fail to meet performance standards, then interventions must be applied.

25. Guiding Principles for LA Accountability • Transparent and easy to communicate • Motivates higher performance • Clearly differentiates district and school performance • Clearly differentiates school and subgroup performance based on overall performance, growth, and graduation rates • Rewards high-performing and high-progress schools • Requires interventions in persistently low performing schools • Expands access to higher performing schools • Builds on the state's implementation of Common Core State Standards, aligned assessments, and teacher/leader evaluations

26. Preliminary Recommendations • Simplify and increase transparency for SPS/DPS and letter grades by emphasizing • Student performance • Graduation rate • For accountability purposes, align terminology across K-12 for iLEAP, LEAP, and EOC • Focus on and incentivize district- and school-wide subgroup performance • Retain aggressive proficiency goals, but alter interventions and rewards • Interventions in failing schools/districts that are not improving or in decline • Rewards for high-performing and high-progress schools and districts • Support schools and districts through dramatic, ongoing burden reduction