Transcripts For CSPAN3 Officials Testify On State And Local Education Reforms 20170728

The committee on Education Workforce will come to order. Good morning and welcome to todays full committee hearing. I thank our panel of witnesses and our Committee Members for joining todays discussion on the implementation of the every Student Succeeds act, essa. Essa can be considereded a milestone for k12 policy because it was a monumental shift in the role and states and School Districts would have in the future of education and it sought to achieve two specific goals for k12 education and autonomy and accountability. States and School Districts were given new independence when creating a k12 Education Program that works best for their own students, ending a washington knows best approach to education. Additionally, essa prohibitively influenced the states adoption of particular standards and repealed federal mandates for teacher performance and protected a states right to opt out of federal Education Programs. Part of this is goal for state and School District autonomy was to force washington to remain at arms length from states and School Districts when it comes to education, and rest assured that this committee will be watching to ensure that washington keeps its districts. While states were given more autonomy, the law maintains provisions to make sure they they have School Performance and states and districts and hold schools accountable for delivering a highquality education for all students. Essa also included pun precedented restrictions on the department of educations authority to take back the state and local flexibility guaranteed by the law. Essa has stripped away powers of the department of education such as the ability of the secretary of education to legislate through executive fiat or the ability of the departments bureaucrats to substitute their judgment for states. History made clear that a topdown approach to k12 education did not serve students, parents, teachers or the states well, and essa directly addressed the short comings. Its important to hear how implementation is progressing. We know the law wont fully take effect until the coming school year and well need time to assess its impacts on schools and students. However, i look forward to hearing from todays witnesses about the progress state, School Districts and the department of education are making. This committee has been keeping a close eye on this implementation process. Last year we held four hearings on implementation of essa. Today well continue our discussion on esss implementation. Essa was truly a change for k12 education, and i do believe this bipartisan law delivers the proper balance of autonomy and accountability to parents and taxpayers while ensuring a limited federal role. This law has the ability to change k12 education for the better and that is why it is of utmost importance to this committee. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses and members during todays hearing. With that, i yield to Ranking Member scott for his opening remarks. Thank you, madam chair for convening this mornings meeting on the every Student Succeeds act. I would like to thank our witnesses for appearing today and their testimony. It is regrettable, however, that we are not hearing from the u. S. Department of education, particularly considering media report of the majoritys intention to critique its implementation of essa during todays proceedings and i know for one, i would greatly benefit from an open dialogue on the essa implementation and for other matters. Chairwoman fox, youll remember i sent you a letter urging secretary devos and other agency heads to appear before the committee to discuss the administrations priorities and the quick has not been fulfilled. I would like to take the opportunity again to ask if secretary devos or any other representative from the department who can discuss the Administration Priorities who appear to engage in an open dialogue with this committee. As has been the law of the land for nearly 20 months and while that may seem like a long time and the life cycle of the law is in the secondary education act which was over 50 years ago, its really just the beginning. States are only now undergoing the peer review and planned approval process and amid the regrettable, chaotic regulatory environment. I said this in february and march, but it bears repeating when congress used the cra to block the regulation of the title one requirements and that was unfortunate and counter to the bipartisan agreement in essa, but this body did go forward with the cra and thats the reality that we have to work with. That lack of regulation, however, means increased subjectivity in compliance with the requirement which makes the actions of this committee which is important. Increased subjectivity without the clarifying regulations is with the state plans submitted in play during the may submission window. Some planned components were praised by peer reviewers and while the same components were questions as insufficient with another, and the violations of ss equity requirements and madam chair, im disappointed that the media description from the reality from some of the comments were characterized with the education departments state feedback plans as overreach. There is a difference between overreach and simply administering the program. We need to remember that essa was not a blank check with the states and districts and it doesnt allow much flexibility and that flexibility must occur within the law, including guardrails concerning the assessments to ascertain persistent achievement gaps and accountability to close those achievement gaps. Congress designed the guardrails to protect the interests of the underserved students and the law contained important requirements. The requirements republicans and democrats all agreed to when they voted and those requirements must be meaningful. Essa is not and never has been a free for all. It is the responsibility of the department as articulated by congress to carefully scrutinize the quality and only approve those that meet the requirements. The law is the law and the law requires them to review the law, ask hard questions and if necessary, disapprove the plans in the interest of the students. While i just mentioned some of the content and overall inconsistency of the departments feedback may be probl problemattic none of us must take issue that it should be not more or less consistent and not more or less vigorous. It must result in approval if only the plans meet the letter of the law, as we are here today, many plans leave much to be desired due to ambiguity or incomple incompleteness in response that violates the laws equity requirements. It is my hope that the department will work with states including supervision of adequate guidance and Technical Assistance to improve the overall quality of the plans and ensure implementation that honors the long civil rights focused on the essa. Such implementation is only possible with the support and partnership of the federal governments and not only the role of the department to support and monitor state efforts to comply with the law and its also the role of congress to Fund Programs authorized by essa. Despite promises to implement the law, secretary devos and President Trump proposed elimination of bedrock esea programs and the 21st century, to support programs and cut to other programs including an effective cut of nearly 600 million in title one. For the House Majority fiscal year 18, labor age appropriations bill isnt as draconian as the president s request, it fails to honor the bipartisan agreement by eliminating title 2a, cutting afterSchool Programs and maintaining an effective cut to title one that will be felt at the local level. Elimination of title 2a would inhibit, teacher, professional and School Leader supports. A defunding this program most certainly does not align with the bipartisan intent of the authorizing statute. Lastly, trump cares proposed cut to medicaid if enacted would devastate services with students with disabilities and undermine state and local efforts to high standards as required by essa. The situation would be even worse if the most recent repeal without a replace plan is enacted. How effective can an implementation be without funding . I know all too often that state and local education agencies face capacity challenges and i would hope to hear from todays witnesses about the negative impact about underfunding programs on faithful implementation. In losing, i remain concerned about many of the actions of secretary deross and this administration concerning our nations students, for example, the recent rhetoric from the office of civil rights and the office of directive to ignore systemic data when they investigate alleged civil rights foundations. The lack of Agency Capacity to carry out key components of the department. Including the access of deputy secretaries and the rollback of protections for student borrowers, the rescinding of protections for transgender students. The sledgehammer like approach for deregulation without transition making of the department to offer 12 million to localities to provide Technical Assistance to help them desegregate their schools. All of these akds point to a troubling pattern that undermines the role and promotes the civil rights of all students. This pattern must not continue with implementation. I say that not out of Wishful Thinking or partisan spending because its within the law that we enacted and that needs to be enforced. Essa is clear. It is the responsibility of the department to review and provide feedback on essa plans and make the determinations of approvals and disapprovals based on compliance with the statute and partner including through enforcement activities with states and School Districts to support the loss implementation moving forward. It is the responsibility of states and districts to innovate within the guardrails of the equity requirements that there may have been a change in administration, but the law is the law and the federal role is clear. I hope this committee commits to a robust oversight of implementation moving forward to ensure that it is responsibly fulfilled. Thank you, madam chair, and i yield back. Thank you, mr. Scott. Pursuant to Committee Rules 7c, all members are to submit written statements. Without objection, the hearing record will remain open for 14 days to allow such statements and other extraneous material referenced during the hearing to be submitted for the official hearing record. I now turn to introductions of our distinguished witnesses, miss jacqueline is for k12 education for the department of u. S. Government accountability office. Dr. Gail pletnick is for the unified School District in surprise, arizona. Mr. Philip lovell is Vice President of policy development and Government Relations at the alliance for excellent education. Dr. K. Wright is the superintendent of education for mississippi. I now ask our witnesses to raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing, but the truth . Let the record reflect the witnesses answered in the affirmative. Before i recognize each of you to provide your testimony, let me briefly explain our lighting system. We allow five minutes for each witness to provide testimony. When you begin the light in front of you will turn green. When one minute is left the light will turn yellow. At the fiveminute mark the light will turn red and you should wrap up your testimony. Members will each have five minutes to ask questions. I now recognize miss nowicky for five minutes. Good morning, chairwoman fox, Ranking Member scott and members of the committee. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss gaos new report on early observations on state accountability systems under essa. As you know, it requires states to have accountability systems to meet certain requirements and grants states flexibility and design in these systems. We focused our work on four areas of state accountability systems, one, determining longterm goals and two, developing perp formance indicators and three, differentiating schools and four, identifying and assisting low performers. We did so because stake holder groups identified these as key components of the accountability systems and areas in which states are making changes. My remarks today will focus two key areas. First, ill discuss stake holder views on essas flexibility for the accountability system. Second, ill discuss next step for the department of education and implementing essa. In regard to my first point all nine stake holder groups with whom we spoke saw the previsions as somewhat flexible. Most praised the ability to design their Performance Indicators. Most indicated that essa strikes a good balance between flexibility and requirements. For example, one stake holder said that essa threads the needle well to Design Systems that meet state needs and requiring states to protect vulnerable populations. The extent to which states are changing their systems vary. Some states are pleased with what they developed and are continuing down that path, but for states to see it lacking . Some way or when they highlighted the need for significant change, we were told that essa provides for innovative revision. Our report provides many examples of how two states, ohio and california are tailoring their accountability systems of each of the four areas i mentioned. Id like to highlight one example here. To address essas requirements to differentiate will skoos ohio plans to tweak the current indicators to assess school and student performance. Some of these indicators would measure current performance while others would measure growth, and schools would receive a letter grade on each indicator as well as an overall letter grade. Ohio officials felt that this approach would provide detailed information on various elements of their performance system as well as provide and easily understandable, highlevel overview of performance. In california, the plan is to use the colorcoded dashboard to differentiate school and student sub Group Performance on each of six indicators. Each indicator will measure current performance as well as growth over time. Unlike ohio, california, does not plan to aggregate the indicator into an overall plan to aggregate the indicators into an official score. The state officials chose not to aggregate because they feel this can mask individual problem areas and also told us that measures current performance and growth for each indicator provides a more complete picture of performance. With regard to my second point, given current timelines, the department of education remains focused on providing assistance to states in developing their plans and on the review and approval process for plans. Moving forward, a key next step in essa implementation is for the department to develop a state monitoring protocols, although draft protocols were not available at the time of our review, education officials said that they planned to pilot protocols with eight or nine states in early 2018. The departments goal is to review all states within a three to fouryear cycle. Education officials also told us that they are considering whether there is a need for Additional Guidance for states. During our review, most National Stakeholder groups told us that states could use guidance on the number of issues, such as how to identify and evaluate appropriate evidencebased interventions. In closing, i hope our early observations shine some light on how states are thinking about their accountability systems in the context of essas flex essa implementation is still in the early days and much work lies ahead for both states and the department of education before the promise of essa can be fully realized. We look forward to working with you to support your efforts to oversee implementation of this important law. This completes my prepared remarks. I would be pleased to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, ms. Nowicki. Dr. Pletnik, you are recognized. Would you turn on your microphone, please. Thank you. Chairman fox, Ranking Member scott, members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity to join you today. I am the superintendent of the School District in arizona and serve as president of aasa, the School Superintendent association. I am here today because i believe it is critical to continue to Work Together to make sure the underserved populations in our schools truly benefit from the educational promise that every Student Succeeds act was designed to deliver. I thank you and the committee for convening this as a hearing. The house of representative and the senate are to be applauded for the hard work to craft e. S. S. A. Moving from the no child left behind to control this in the states and local communities, although e. S. S. A. Is not perfect, the power of the law is the flexibility it is allowing the focus on the individual student. I have the opportunity to talk with superintendents from across the state of arizona and across the nation about the progress made in e. S. S. A. Implement a Common Thread in the conversations is that e. S. S. A. Created an opportunity for stakeholders to become more involved in goalsetting and establishing planning requirements in e. S. S. A. E. S. S. A. Provides efforts to engage stakeholders when developing a consolidated state plan. In arizona, committees and advisory groups were established to provide input at various stages of the planned development. Leading input into the process of building a final consolidated plan. I had the privilege of participating in some of these established subgroups and also attended Public Meetings designed to provide comment on proposed components in the plan. I am not going to tell you that arizona has developed the ideal educational plan for our state. Theres definitely room for continued improvement as we implement e. S. S. A. , see what works and continue to roll back state policies that lock in nclb error constraints. Stake holders are engaged the conversations around the needs of the educational systems, a discussion important to driving the important improvement necessary in quality to each student. A second promise that many states are realizing is the ability to utilize multiple indicators for evaluation of our schools. In arizona, we still rely heavily on annual tests, but the flexibility in e. S. S. A. Started a conversation in other meaningful measures that should be considered. Although not without faults, the revised accountability system in arizona attempts to add indicators of significance. And that is something that we continue to look forward to improving. At the high school level, indicators incorporated include career in Technical Education assessments, advanced academic course work indicators and earned career credentials. The states elementary level measures of accountability are far more restrictive but conversations in the state of arizona continues around exploring additional important measures. While we dont have it 100 right in arizona just yet, i can say the flexibility in e. S. S. A. Around the state accountability systems does encourage conversation among the stakeholders about the accurate indicators of school success. There are challenges with the implementation of e. S. S. A. Law, time was one of the biggest challenges. After the passage of the law, there was discussion related to the interpretation of the law and possible proposed regulations and that debate caused some hesitation. Arizona released its first draft and started the consolidaive planning process in 2016 and the plan required adjustments before our submission before the 2017 deadline. Another complication related to time is that some states, including arizona, had laws in place, better aligned to note no child left behind waivers. With those state laws still in existence, there was an impact on the accountability system. Although that is not a federal concern, it does impact how innovative our state plans may be at this point. A great deal of time and effort went into congress writing this piece of legislation and negotiating on the critical components that make e. S. S. A. A good piece of educational legislation. The ultimate success of e. S. S. A. Lies in implementation, yes, but also in federal appropriations. It is Critical Congress match the bipartisan support demonstrated for the policy of the law and appropriate funding support. I respectfully submit that as we continue to Work Together to implement e. S. S. A. And ensure it has the intended impact, that we be cognizant of the complimentary role of adequate federal investment. The students in our schools are our future leaders, our future workforce and we must invest in our future by investing in public education. In closing, thank you to the committee for the work you have done and continue to do to ensure that the every student succeed act drives the change we all want to see in our schools. Equity in our classrooms regardless of the students background, where they live or the circumstances they live in. Your work has ensured our states and local communities have a voice in what happens in the districts and schools. I know given the opportunity educational leaders across this country will use that voice to deliver on the product of essa. Thank you so much. Thank you, doctor. You are recognized for five minutes. Thank you very much. Chairwoman fox, Ranking Member scott and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on the implementation of the every School Succeeds act. Im phillip lovell. We are a National Nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that every child graduates from high school, ready for college, career and citizenship. I have four core messages for you today. First, essa is a civil rights law designed to have education in education. Second, it is a permanent role in the u. S. Department of education. Third, the quality of essas state plans is uneven. And fourth, funding cuts threaten the implementation of the law. Let me begin with point one. Essa is fundamentally a civil rights law with many federal law requirements designed to promote Educational Equity and prepare students for secondary education in the workforce. Essa provides flexibility in how they achieve equity and excellence, but essa is not a blank check. Both states and the department of education must implement and enforce all of essas ek weforced requirements, the same list appearing in my written testimony. Second, when congress enacted essa, it preserved the limited but Critical Role of the department of education. While i may not agree with all the findings, the department is appropriately carrying out the oversight role as required under the law. I want to be clear that this isnt about whether we trust states, i work with many state leaders and know they are committed to kids, but one needs to look no further than my colleagues testifying today to know thats a fact. The fact does remain, though, that its the departments job to review the state plans and to ensure they comply with the law that this committee wrote. These plans lay out the states vision and commitment to children, parents and the public. And it will impact students and teachers for the next decade. We have to get this right and the department has a critical and statutorily required role to play. Third, the quality of essas state plans is uneven. There are certainly some strengths but there are missed opportunities in many witnesses, including some proposals that simply violate the law. In particular, many plans fall short of the equity promise of essa. Let me give you a few examples. Essa made a commitment that if the school has a single subgroup consistently underperforming in the africanamerican students or the latino students, the school would be identified for targeted support and those kids would receive help. Essa applies this requirement to each individual subgroup separately because groups of students perform differently. And if you combine them together, you can mess the local performance of a single group. Unfortunately, this is exactly what some states are doing. One state combines the achievement levels of africanamerican, latino and nativeamerican students together although it creates a risk that the schools may not be identified for support when they should be. And it also violates the law. A related but distinct problem is that states are not including historically underserved kids in their school ratings. For example, a school might receive an a despite the fact that africanamerican students or latino students or students with disabilities or lowincome kids, other historically underserved groups may have a low Graduation Rate. You can receive an a even though the africanamerican students have a Graduation Rate of 60 . Another problem for equity in essa plans relates to the identification of the subgroups for support. Several states have proposed identifying subgroups for support if they arent on grade level in math or reading or if they have a low Graduation Rate and this makes sense. Unfortunately, the department has pushed back on this approach. Students shouldnt have to fail on everything before theyre identified for support. In addition, its worth noting that while essas flexibility was intended to unleash creativity and innovation, by and large, this hasnt happened. We hope to see policies that would promote Critical Thinking and problem solving. Sometimes called deeper learning. And although there are a few notable exceptions described in my written testimony, state plans thus far are cautious, not courageous. Finally, i join my colleagues in expressing concerns about funding. Money is not magic. But im concerned ab the impact of funding cuts on essa. Essa provides states with flexibility and responsibility. But madame chair, responsibility without resources will not yield results. By freezing funding for title 1, underfunding title 4, proprosing to eliminate or reduce funding for professional development, literacy, after School Programs on top of proposed cuts to medicaid, they were handcuffing states at the exact moment that we have supposedly given them freedom. This is unfortunate because the nation is on the upswing in education. Graduation rates are at the alltime high including Graduation Rates for those historically underserved. But implementing essas requirements and strengthening our investment in education, we can ensure every child in america succeeds. Thank you and i would be happy to answer any questions. Thank you, mr. Lovell. Dr. Wright, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you. Before i start, i want to introduce some people that are key to the implementation of this back in my state. I have my state board chair, ms. Rosemary altman with me, the vice chair jason dean, and one of my chiefs responsible for legislation and communication here with me today. So thank you. Chairman fox, Ranking Member scott and members of the committee, thank you for the community to testify about mississippis work to implement the every Student Succeeds act or essa, i look forward to sharing my perspective from the state of mississippi and president elect for the board of directors for the council of chief school officers. Essa has given mississippi the opportunity to create a plan specifically designed for the students of our state. At the same time, the law provides guardrails to ensure our work is appropriately targeted toward improving Educational Opportunities and outcomes for all students and all schools. Our plan is called mississippi succeeds. And we are proud that it builds upon our state board strong Strategic Plans to prepare students for college and careers. This Strong Foundation includes rigorous academic standards for all students, aligned assessments to track student achievement and the accountability model that clearly measures the performance of our schools and districts. Our essa plans build upon the significant investments mississippi has made in Early Childhood education, literacy, career and Technical Education, advanced course Work Opportunities for students and professional development for all teachers. All of these initiatives have broad stakeholder support and have resulted in improved student outcomes. To design mississippi succeeds, we sought raw input from stakeholders over the 18monday period to craft a plan tailored to the needs of our students. During the 18 months, we conducted a listening tour, which included 15 Public Meetings throughout the state, we hosted targeted meetings with specific stakeholder groups and collected feedback through an online survey. Among our most active participants were at have to cats for the underserved majority africanamerican communities and rural, lowincome areas of the state. Parents of students with disabilities and teachers of english language learners. Mississippi has a small but growing population of English Learners and most of the English Learners who participated in the feedback sessions were the only people in their schools whose work was dedicated to English Learners. Throughout the meetings and online survey, we gathered 7,300 feedback points. We established working groups and established an essa Advisory Committee made up of stakeholders provide feedback throughout the entire development of the plan. We intend to keep all our partners engaged in the implementation of the plan through regular meetings with our stakeholders as well as with the essa Advisory Committee. The robust participation of stake holders help mississippi develop a strong plan to meet the requirements of essa. And im excited about the following aspects of our plan, providing effective teachers with the opportunities to not only teach children but to work collaboratively to lead colleagues to improve their practice. Expanding Early Childhood to support Early Childhood educators in a variety of prek settings to implement developmentally appropriate practices in their classrooms. Improving schools by investing in the local teachers and administrators. Supporting communities through p16 councils. Strengthening parent engagement through schoolbased activities. We appreciate the flexibility of the essa because we intend to include subGroup Performance to identify schools for School Improvement support. This will have the greatest impact on africanamerican students who make up our states largest underperforming subgroup. Were expanding career and Technical Education to provide continuous Computer Science integration to grades k12 and provide School Students with the opportunity to graduate with a career in technical diploma endorsement of equal value to an academic endorsement. We are putting a strong focus on eliminating the efficiency gap between africanamericans and all students entirely to proficiency rates of the subgroups will increase to 70 by 2025. All of these initiatives are dependent upon federal support for public education. As a chief, i understand the federal resources are limited and states must be effective stewards of tax dollars. Mississippis essa plan is built around the targeted and efficient use of federal funds to maximize the impact on student achievement, especially of our most disadvantaged students. I want to thank you for the flexibility that you have provided through the every Student Succeeds act. And as you can see, our mississippi succeeds will expand the States Education Reform Efforts to provide opportunities and outcomes for all students. Mississippis future will be shaped by the students of today. And were deeply committed to ee equipping them to learn, build, create, serve and innovate. We believe in the capacity of our students to achieve, and we believe in the ability of our teachers and schools to guide them to a successful future. Essa is at the heart of our work. Thank you. Thank you, dr. Wright. Thanks again to all of our witnesses. Mr. Wilson, you are recognized for five minutes for questions. Thank you, chairwoman. Virginia fox, for your extraordinary leadership providing for this hearing today. I want to thank each of you for being here today. I especially appreciate your service because im the very happy husband of a dedicated teacher, and i want to keep her happy, too. So thank you for what you are doing. Dr. Wright, South Carolina students benefit from career and Technical Education partnering with companies like. South carolina has been fortunate with division of Technical Education being promoted under the leadership of the state superintendent also of education. In your testimony you include several aspects of your states plans to meet the requirements of the every Student Succeeds act including and you cited the efforts of career and Technical Education. Can you elaborate your promotion of career and Technical Education for the citizens of mississippi . Yes, sir, i will. About 65 of the jobs currently available in our state are requiring middle skills, and so we have formed a committee that is working not only with our state workforce Investment Board but also on the implementation of the workforce investment act. We have four sectors in our state, and what we have done is we have established groups in each of those sectors to work directly with the businesses in those sectors so that we can then come back and design cte plans that will allow our children to go starting in high school, graduate from high school and go immediately into the workforce. Our state needs that immediate piece and thats what we have planned as well. What a meaningful and fulfilling life you help young people achieve, so thank you for what you do. Dr. Pletnick, thank you for your testimony on a very important issue, and that is local elected School Boards. I know that my view is that they work best for our students. I learned this firsthand. My dad was a School Board Member in charleston. I served in the state senate, working with School Boards and found out the extraordinary diversity within a single district that these School Boards have to address and the hard work, but the extraordinary dedication of School Board Members. Your testimony promotes, again, moving from one size fits all. Can you provide more detail on how the every Student Succeeds act will help restore local control of education and allow educators to address the unique needs of individual students . Member wilson, thank you for that question. In our unified School District we utilize a strategic process. Our Community Gives us that feedback. We work with our Business Partners, we work with our parents to ensure we are meeting the needs of our students in our local community. Our school board is that connection. So they are the elected officials. The essa has allowed us then to work through our state to ensure that the multiple measures that we are utilizing speak to those needs of our students. Certainly our underserved population, but really for all students, making certain that theyre future ready. We too have a very strong career and technical Education Program we because we hear from our local community and our Business Partners that there are opportunities. We have Luke Air Force base in our backyard. We recently took a tour, and it takes two billion lines of code to run the f35. They have that mission. So we are ensuring that our students have opportunities with coding and other pieces. That is something that is a strong piece in our Strategic Plan as we move forward, and so, again, essa provides us that opportunity to look at multiple indicators and those that would truly serve our underserved population, but all of our students as well. Thank you for, again, looking out for all students. As i served in the state senate, now congress, i represent a district in lexington, number one. The diversity there, you have resort areas, you have very up scale subdivisions, you have normal middle class subdivisions, you have a small town, you have Rural Communities and then you have agricultural communities. Thats in one district. So the local school board is just so important. Ms. Newicki, i want to thank you for your service and your promotion of flexibility. Can you explain how flexibility of the act would provide for a different approach in adopting Performance Indicators . Sorry, sir. Youre asking how the flexibility of the act could assist with Performance Indicators in determining Performance Indicators. Sure. So there were a couple of different examples in our report where states were making different decisions i think around Performance Indicators, the way they designed subgroups, how they were choosing to use summative or overall ratings versus individual ratings on indicators. I think it provides flexibility for states to do whatever they think makes sense for them in their local context, while providing sufficient guardrails to protect vulnerable populations and sub groups. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Wilson. Mr. Courtney, you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair woman. Thank you for holding this really important hearing, but i want to join the Ranking Member in saying how i think a lot of us feel frustration about the fact that the secretary of education has not yet appeared before this committee. It has been six months into this administration. Weve had a budget out since may, and looking historically we have always had the secretary of education appear before this committee to take questions from members about issues of the day, and clearly what we are talking about today for all of us listening to our commissioners back home, stakeholders who have been working hard on implementation of essa, there is a lot of confusion out there. We need people from the department, particularly the person who is in charge, where the buck stops, to answer questions about where are we going. The essa was signed into law december 10th, 2015. It was actually a really inspiring tabloid to see president obama signing that law with senator lamar alexander, republican leader in the senate, mr. Rokita from our committee was standing behind the president. Again, there was a lot of hard work that went into it to achieve some of the goals that some of the witnesses have talked here today. But fast forward and it is really not that early in the implementation of the law to where we are today in 2017. Theres a lot of confusion out there about just the mixed messages and signals coming out of the department as states are working hard to try and, again, achieve the goals of this legislation. It has not been helped, by the way, by the fact that the republican majority chain sawed out of the federal law the regulations back in may with the Congressional Review Act, enactment that President Trump signed into law that, again, just completely eliminated, you know, the road map that had been put into place by the department. Again, i had questions about some of those regs, but the fact is now we have a black hole in the federal law in terms of, you know, how essa is structured and designed. When you talk about confusion out there, frankly, the majority added to that confusion by in my opinion justin discrimately butchering the regs. My stakeholders worked diligently in terms of coming up with a plan which was submitted. Again, it goss kicked back about a month or so ago. Talking to the folks in that department, they want to work collaboratively, but frankly theres tremendous confusion about which direction theyre supposed to go in. Frankly, again, it is just another reason why the secretary should be here today answering questions to all of us about where she, in fact, intends to take this department. We know when theres confusion in washington, going back to the infamous words of deep throat during the watergate scandal, follow the money, again, mr. Lovelle, i would like to follow up on your comments. We have seen a budget come out of this administration in terms of their priorities as far as title i, title ii, after school. Again, one of the goals of essa was to move away from the punitive approach of no child left behind and to try to help districts who had been identified as underperforming. I would ask you to comment further about, you know, under cutting these programs in fact removes the resources that essa was built around in terms of trying to help School Districts that are struggling. Thank you very much. I couldnt agree more. In fact, it is interesting. One of the issues that came up just a few minutes ago, mr. Wilson, you brought up career and Technical Education, and i think it is a huge opportunity within this law. First, let me applaud the committee for its work on the reauthorization of the perkins law. Unfortunately, because of the levels of funding that are being proposed for things like career and Technical Education and the cuts therein, were not able to implement a lot of those a lot of those programs. Right now with states having the ability to design their plans and implement them, the integration of rigorous academics with cte is a major opportunity. Theres language specifically within the law that you wrote within title i that allows states to do this. Not only that, you allow states to use up to 3 of their funding for direct Student Services. One of the uses of the direct Student Services funding that you allowed was the provision of cte that leads to an industryrecognized credential. Very few states are planning to use this 3 said aside for direct Student Services, and why was because they feel like it cuts into their title i budget. So by level funding title i, by cutting elsewhere, title i dollars have to go towards other things. It means that states dont have the ability to really carry out the vision of the law that this committee set. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you, mr. Courtney. Mr. Wahlberg, youre rec need for five minutes. Thank you, madam chairwoman, and thank you to the panel being here. I would concur with mr. Courtney as well that it would be a great opportunity and time when we have a chance to hear from our secretary of education. I believe my colleagues will be impressed with her as much as im impressed with her abilities, and yet we also hope that theres a stopping of the stone walling and blocking of confirmations that would assist her with people who can be undersecretaries, assistants, et cetera, to help in the process of moving forward with something she has identified, essa she wants to implement, as we intended and fully. I look forward to that as well. Today we have these witnesses here, and ms. Nowicki, thank you for being here. In your testimony you mentioned the department is considering additional area also of guidance that might be needed for states as they implement essa. Has the Department Said what those areas might be and how will they determine if that Additional Guidance is in fact needed . Yes, sir. The department has said that they are conducting a review of all of their current guidance thats available, and looking for gaps or areas where states might need additional assistance. They have various ways to do that. They mentioned webinars that they hold and meetings that provide a forum for states to share some concerns or some areas where they may need guidance. In our work, stakeholders who are working directly with states developing their plans mentioned a couple of areas as well. If you could highlight some of those. Surely. One is how to select evidencebased strategies and measure their efficacy. In the states it is not unusual throughout government and in the states for there to be a lack of capacity in terms of knowing how to evaluate strategy. So that was one area. A secondary was noting that because essa provided much more funding flexibility than did mclb, helping states understand the broad funding flexibilities that they do have available to them in the law would be useful for states. And those flexibilities are just name a few of those flexibilities. Funding flexibilities to combine funding streams under the law in ways they were not able to do under with local states, et cetera . Yes, federal, state, local funds together. Okay. Ms. Nowicki, this is obviously an initial look at early implementation of essa, but do you believe theres future work a gao could do on this topic as states put the law into practice over the next few years . Absolutely. I think in the shorter run two areas may be important. One, i think it will be important to Pay Attention to how educations monitoring protocols are shaping up. Essa obviously encourages a much more statedriven approach in developing their plans, and we would want to see monitoring protocols reflect that, yet developing them in a way that also holds states accountable for federal requirements may take some doing. Two, i think it will be to look at how states are making the public aware of differences in school and district performance in their states and whether Key Stakeholders find that information useful. We like to say at gao that data is only useful if it is used, and that usefulness is in the eye of the beholder. So if stakeholders and parents are not able to access the information or dont find that it is telling them things that they would like to know, i think it would be important to know that. Okay. I appreciate that. Madam chairwoman, i appreciate the fact as we heard that testimony, we talk more about stakeholders at the local and state level as opposed to federal. Thats a good thing. Dr. Pletnick, thank you for being here. Essa returns significant authority to School Districts to determine how to intervene in and how to improve low performing schools, which is important to consider if were expecting education to reach the masses of our country. What initiatives are in place in your district or a working implement that will do just that . Member wahlberg, we have put in place a number of initiatives. First of all, when we are looking at each of our schools we take a proactive approach rather than reactive approach. So we make sure that the programs that we have in place are providing that high quality education. We use an rti process in which we have tiered intervention. Tier one is that classroom. We need highquality teachers delivering highquality instruction. And then if we do have our struggling students, especially in our underserved populations, we need to evaluate what it is their specific needs are. Again, i believe essa versus no child left behind allows us to focus on that individual student, not just the aggregate. So we provide those interventions, sometimes through interventionists. We have online programs because we really want access 24 7 for our students in order to provide the supports they need. Again, the intensity of those interventions continues to grow as we work with the individual student to fill those needs. The other thing that we are doing across the district is personalized learning. So we are looking at what the students strengths are, certainly their area of challenges, but also their interests because we need to engage our students in their learning. We need them to own their own learning. So we are working on ways to really not only have them own that learning, understand about progress, but also ways that we could use space and place dr. Pletnick, im going to have to ask you to wind up. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. I yield back. Mr. Polish, you are recognized. Thank you, chairwoman and Ranking Member, for holding this hearing. When i ran for Congress Several years ago, one reason i ran was to replace our outdated education policy, no child left behind, during my time on the state board in colorado, i saw a lot of the flaws of no child left behind. I was thrilled to work on the every Student Succeeds act in this committee, in the conference committee, a number of bills that i wrote were incorporated into that bill. I was very excited by a step forward that i think everybody felt was better than its predecessor. Im troubled now by some of the comments i have heard from my republican colleagues who seem to be suggesting since we passed the every Student Succeeds act states can somehow do whatever they want. The goal of the every Student Succeeds act was to maintain, of course, our civil rights, guardrails and safeguards. In effect to provide the flexibility of states to do what works but not the flexibility to fail and do nothing. No one here voted to let states and School Districts fail when we passed every Student Succeeds act. We shouldnt be surprised the department of education is providing meaningful and positive feedback to the states that helps them develop and implement their essa plans, and that they only approve plans that meet the laws requirements. That was requirements that we as a body, you know, overwhelmingly voted to include in the actual law. Dr. Pletnick, i wanted to thank you for being here today. One of the ironies i see is while the department of education is doing a good job providing feedback to states, at the same time both by the president s budget and the Congressional Republicans theyre slashing funding. I want to highlight one in particular. Colorado like many other states went through a an extensive stakeholder process to develop title ii as part of our plan. For teacher and professional development. Last week House Republicans moved forward with a budget that eliminates funding for title ii, part a, the real significant funding stream for Teacher Professional Development and classroom size reduction. How can states deal with this uncertainty around the use of funds for teacher and professional development and classroom size reduction that are already included in their plans if the funding goes away . Thank you for that question. That is a problem. When there are funding cuts, that means either the elimination or cutting back on programs, and many of these are critical. I can tell you in the state of arizona for title ii the impact would be about 16. 9 million in professional development. Thats supporting more than 34,000 educators. Class size reduction would be impacted, and that would impact about 137 positions that we have. Statewide, the impact of the total title ii elimination would be about 32. 5 million. So it would have a devastating impact in those areas. Given that those education plans included the use of that money for teacher training and classroom reduction, does that mean that it will send in effect states back to the drawing board for their title ii and teacher training plans . I think that would be correct because our budgets are very tight. Again, when we have elimination of funding that means you have to go back and look at your programs and, quite frankly, all of the programs that we have in our own district i can say are essential, including those we provide professional development. For mr. Lovell, one area where we made progress in the every Student Succeeds act is Early Learning, the studies show investment in Early Childhood education. We authorized a new preschool Development Grant program. The law hopefully will facilitate better collaboration between Early Learning and k12. Can you talk about how states so far have taken advantage of new opportunities to support Early Learning under essa and what lessons we can learn from some of the states that submitted theyre Early Learning components to their plan . Thank you, mr. Polish. Really the answer to that question goes back to your first question, which is plans that might be in place or ideas we might have will be severely undercut if theres no resources to fund them. So you have cuts that are being proposed both by the administration, by the house committee. You have cuts being pondered for medicaid. You put all of that together and it is hard for states to really envision something, a robust and necessary and costly, like a robust Early Childhood program. Yeah. And i think that clarify what youre saying, when our committee writes the authorizing legislation, the every Student Succeeds act, it is only as good as the funding that actually funds those programs we authorize. Dr. Wright, can you share more about what mississippi is doing in Early Learning . Absolutely. Thank you for that. We passed a law establishing Early Learning collaboratives that was the first time we went into that for a. We also were looking and monitoring the results of that. We with our kindergarten assessment, we realized twothirds of our children entering kindergarten were not prepared, so we knew there was a need for prek. We are reaching out to the public and private prek to provide professional development. We do it with anyone that touches three or fouryearolds in our state. We believe it is a lever that will make a difference in the state of mississippi, so we have lot of interest in that and a lot of infrastructure we are putting toward that. I think the gentle lady, and in brief closing i will inquire of the chair if we have invited or plan to invite secretary devos for an oversight hearing to our committee as well. I will yield back with that inquiry. The gentleman yields back. We do plan to invite her. Mr. Guthrie, you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chairman, for yielding. I appreciate the time. This question is based on the testimony from dr. Wright, but, dr. Pletnick, i would like you to answer it as well, but it is based on dr. Wrights testimony. Educational commissioner in the kentucky education, hosted town halls across the state, accepting public comment. When it was all said and done, the department received and input of 6,000 kentuckians on the matter. Based on the feedback you received in your town halls, what were the biggest changes stakeholders wanted to see reflected in your state plan . They wanted to see more communication between schools and districts. They also were interested in not necessarily defining teacher effectiveness by years of experience and licensure, but by linking it more to student outcomes, and that we heard loud and cleared. They viewed an effective teacher as one who produced positive outcomes in children. Those are two key pieces, if you will. There were several, but those are two we take to heart. We are already in the process of designing resources we have continued to push out to our districts and our schools to help them better engage with parents at the local level. Also, we have were revising our whole teacher Evaluation System to really look at it as more of a professional growth system, and driving that around linking it to our student outcomes, which is what we are hearing from our constituents. Dr. Pletnick, did you have similar experiences . We did. There was a great deal of discussion around those multiple indicators and really redefining ready, what future ready means. So there was discussion about the career and college index. There was discussion about what are those other significant and meaningful indicators that would keep us transparent, help our parents, our community understand the accountability system and what Student Success looks like. Okay. What kind of examples of indicators did you so in the end, as i mentioned earlier, we do have college and career indicators. We do also have indicators around other National Assessments that are utilized as kind of opening or gate keepers into higher education. We do have advanced course work as well. So there are there really is a very long list of indicators that are now considered as part of our accountability. How are you to once this is all implemented and moving forward planning like additional town halls to continue to seek feedback for continuous improvements or what kind of methods are you going to have stakeholder feedback, continue what youre doing . I would hope at our state level with the state department, and theres no reason to believe it wont be the case, that we will continue to look at whats in place, analyze the data were collecting and see how we can refine and improve moving forward. Thats exactly what mississippi is planning on doing. We want to stay engaged with our stakeholders. Theyve invested a lot of time and energy in this. I also have a very large essa Advisory Council i intend to keep on board with a very Diverse Group of folks. We have to make sure we are meeting the needs of our constituents, and those are two strong ways we can do that. Thank you very much. I have one for ms. Nowicki. I have heard concerns from the Kentucky Department of education that the department has provided that your department here, the federal department, has provided inconsistent feedback to states and submitted plans early when compared one to another. Is this something the jao has found to be true and if so what is the department doing to provide consistent guidance . Yes, sir. So gao, as you know, does not have a statutory or other role in reviewing state plans. At the time that we did our work there were only a couple of plans that had been submitted in draft for feedback. So we did not have any information from the department about feedback on the plans at the time we did our work. Do you have okay. So you did your study before you would have been able to see whether it was inconsistent feedback. Yes. One plan gets one, one plan gets another. Thats something we hopefully will be able to look into as we move forward. If i may. Yes. I can provide thoughts on this. I think there were definitely areas where feedback was inconsistent. I think part has to do with the fact without the regulations there are fewer specific rules around some of the vague areas in the law. So one area of our and a question came up earlier around areas that the department could provide future guidance is. I think one area as dr. Pletnick was describing, the various indicators that can be selected, this is an area where the law gives states flexibility and even provides example also of the indicators states can use. A number of states are interested in prioritizing college and career readiness, so theyre including things like access and performance in advanced placement, international baccalaureate, dual enrollment, early college. Feedback to one state was somewhat negative about the states approach to this, and were fearful that feedback like that without Additional Guidance as to how those things can be included in the accountability system could put the freeze on state innovation and doing what we all want states to be doing. After all, the law specifically says the states can include access and performance on advanced course work, and then when a state tried to do it they got a little pushback from the department. I think thats an area where you have some additional mr. Lovell. That was helpful. My time has expired. And i yield back. Thank you for those comments. Yes, sir. Ms. Bonadichi, you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you, chairwoman, for holding this important hearing about the implementation of the every Student Succeeds act. I want to join my colleagues who expressed their opinion and i agree it would be helpful to hear from the secretary and department as were talking about implementation. I worked on education issues in my home state of oregon at the local level and then in the state legislature, and it quickly became clear that the real work needed to be done at the federal level. So at the top of my legislative agenda list when i joined congress was rewriting no child left behind. I was thrilled to serve on the committee when we worked on every Student Succeeds act and on the conference committee, and be there at the bill signing. It was a great day and it was looking forward to implementation. Needless to say i was disappointed earlier in the year when the majority, instead of talking about which regulations were problematic and which they could support, instead got rid of all of them through the Congressional Review Act and blocked important regulations related statewide accountability systems, consolidated plan and data reporting. And then at the same time the new administration left without their implementing regulations attempted to rush through revised guidance for peer reviewers, then there was a modified template for state plans, a new explanatory documents, and all of this was taking place less than a month before the initial deadline for submitting the plans and after many states were well on their way to completing their plans. So i dont think we should be surprised that there has been uncertainty and confusion. Disappointed, yes, but not surprised. In fact, without the essa regulations, now theres a conversation about which nclb regulations are still in effect and what do we do about those. So what we really need is for the department to play a reliable role in enforcing compliance with the statutory requirements in the law and clearing up areas of ambiguity and helping states take advantage of the flexibility that such an important part of the law. I know in my home stay of oregon i had conversations as they were working on their plan about the lack of certainty, and they they appreciate the flexibility but dont want to go down a path and then months later be told that, you cant go down that path. So, mr. Lovell, in the departments feedback letter to my state of oregon the department noted that oregons plan proposed to include in the students with disabilities subgroup students who previously had been identified as students with disabilities but exited that status recently. The departments at oregon cannot use that flexibility, even though it was permitted in the accountability that was finalized when they were writing their plans. Can you describe other instances where states lost flexibility because of congresss action to block important implementing regulations . Sure. One area where we lost flexibility my apologies. So one area where we lost flexibility is in the ability of states to provide credit to their schools where kids are performing above proficiency. So we would like to be able to prioritize higher thinking skills, and one way to do that is by providing credit for students that are performing above proficiency. The law very specifically says that kids should be that the academic achievement indicator needs to measure proficiency. So it is questionable as to whether you can actually provide credit for students that are performing above proficient. As a result you have some states one in particular i can think of, where theyre not measuring proficiency at all, which is also not consistent with the law. Right. So i totally agree with you. The removal of the regulation on top of a new template less than 30 days before the applications were due did cause a decent amount of confusion, and i think that had the regulation been in place we wouldnt see some of the inconsistencies were seeing. Thank you. I also want to follow up. We heard a lot about the importance of Stakeholder Engagement, which was a critical component of the every Student Succeeds act. The revised template, it does not include explicit questions about Stakeholder Engagement as well as other important requirement also of essa including provisions related to homeless and foster youth. I know you have reviewed the state plans. How has the departments decision to exclude those statutory requirements effected the development of state plans and based on your views are states meeting requirements of the every Student Succeeds act . Thank you very much for that question. You know, if it is not written, dont know whether it is happening or not. So i agree that especially around some of our most vulnerable kids, our homeless students and our kids in foster care, not having specific questions for those students means we dont know what is going to be happening. That said, just because it is not in the template doesnt mean those requirements dont exist. Right. It is very important that we still carry out and oversee the implementation of those provisions, even if the questions are not asked in the template. Thank you. More need for certainty. Madam chairwoman, as i yield back i want to take a moment to acknowledge my senior legislative assistant, adrienne anderson, who has worked with me for several years on this committee on the every Student Succeeds act especially. He is leaving at the end of the month to go to law school, and i want to thank him. Thank you, mr. Bonavicci. Mr. Boletta, you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you. Doctor, thank you for your testimony and for being here today. There are studies showing that poor attendance can impact academic achievement, ultimately leading to lower reading and math scores. We know that chronic absenteeism negatively affects students success and this has lead some states to propose absenteeism as an additional accountability measure in their essa plans. We also know theres evidence that quality after school and Summer Learning programs are effective in increasing at all grade levels. I have seen this in my district, the shine program. Shine focuses on projectbased learning with an emphasis on a stem curriculum. It gets kids excited about learning again. It is proven to work. 92 of shine students had exceptionally good or satisfactory school attendance. 97 of students indicated they were excited about stem, and the number of students who said they would like to study math or science in college increased by 14 . The numbers speak for themselves. When students are excited about learning, they show up for class and feel personally invested in their education, setting themselves also up for success down the road. Can you speak to how state essa plans may be encouraging School Districts to leverage title i and title iv funds to provide after school and Summer Learning opportunities to their students, and how can districts partner with communitybased organizations to address problems like chronic absenteeism . Thank you for that question. In fact, in arizona that was one of the indicators that we wanted to include because we do see some of those same results that you have. I can speak to my own district, but also neighboring districts. With our underserved populations especially having those after School Opportunities serve many perp of purposes, but certainly engage students in their learning. We too have opportunities to have coding, to have stem, those really Critical Skills that students enjoy being a part of. What we have also what we have also seen is through those programs we have increased parent involvement, because they are able to engage with their students in those activities. So, truly, by using our funding, title i, title iv, those types of programs we believe are having a positive impact academically on our underserved populations. Thank you. Yield back the balance of my time, madam chair. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Tocano, you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. Ms. Pletnick, first of all, congratulations on being named president elect of the assa. Thank you. Given the fact you must be familiar with that organizations position on the essa regulations rolled back under the cra in february, i was hoping you would be able to explain the reversal of aasas position when the final regulations of accountability were released your organization endorsed them, recognizing that your three Major Concerns were addressed. Then in february when they were upward discussion and roll back, your organization supported the cra. What changed between november and february and why this dramatic turnaround . Again, as an organization we truly support what is in the best interests of all of our schools. Certainly when the regulations i had an opportunity, in fact, to testify in front of a Senate Committee about those regulations. Again, although there were some changes that were made in terms of those, we did not feel that, indeed, as a package there werent some issues or concerns with those. So i think aasas position was about making certain that we have the most flexibility and autonomy as we move forward in order to implement essa in terms of the spirit of the law. But, ms. Pletnick, i still dont understand the change. What explains this reversal of position . You supported the regulations when they were first promulgated, and then suddenly your organization turns around and does a reversal, they support the Congressional Review Act overturning those regulations. I mean in my mind the regulations allowed for the implementation of essa. What is i mean i dont have a sense of you explained really gave an adequate explanation. I apologize for not being clear. Again, i am speaking in broader terms, in terms of when you look at is there one specific one or two specifics you can name . I would ask i be allowed to provide that opportunity for the record going back to okay. In order to provide that. Thats fine. Well hear those specifics. Between both the president s Budget Proposal and the fy18 house labor bill, more than two billion dollars in funding for title iia of esea, the largest funding stream directly supporting teachers and School Leaders in 90 of School Districts will be completely eliminated. Completely eliminated. In your role as superintendent and now being president elect of assa, how would the elimination of title ii funding affect your ability to support teachers . And implement e. S. S. A. . I would share the most Critical Resources we have in our schools are human resources, and thats especially to our teachers who touch our students every day. Not having that funding in order to support the professional development that would allow them to continue we have the strategies in our underserved populations as well, also monies are used in our districts to reduce class size. So, again, an increase in class size would be an issue if title ii was eliminated. Certainly what we would find is that it would be very difficult for schools to continue programs like peer mentoring, other things that title ii provides under for us to do without that funding. So is it fair to say that your organization would strongly support the restoration of that funding . Title ii gives us the opportunity to do without funding. So is it fair to say your organization supports this funding . Yes. Okay. I yield back. Youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, chairman. Thank you for being with us here today. Essa was a significant bipartisan achievement we initiated to empower state and local education Decision Making while attempting to restrain some of the authority of the secretary of education particularly at the local level. Since the law has been enacted my state of georgia has been diligently working with 140 stakeholders to create a stake plan. Of course we call this the bottom up approach rather than the federal top down approach. Georgia has gone to Great Lengths to maximize the flexibility sproided by essa to support its vision of offering a Holistic Education to chaev child in the state. Of course i support this vision and our states commitment to engaging georgians in this plan development. Of course i look forward to working with the department and the interpretation of essa does not exceed the intent and limits of it law. Our goal here is to achieve every child succeeds. So dr. Wright, have you been encountering some of the same problems that georgia has as far as, you know, bringing stakeholders together and then submitting the plan to the federal department of education and getting push back . We have not yet submitted our plan. Were going to be submitting in september. But weve had absolutely no problem gathering stakeholders. Theres a lot of people out there who want to have their voice heard. So thats been a very exciting and invigorating process, actually. Meaning all across the state with our stakeholders. We have experienced that in georgia, as well which like you said is a very good thing. Mrs. Pletnick, what has your experience been as far as working with the department of education and the federal department of education. In terms of the federal department trying to get a plan approved with that process. So arizona has submitted that plan, for that smgz date of september 2017. We have not yet are received feedback on the plan. You have not, okay. Do you see as far as what youre trying to implement, is there any lack of interpretation of exactly what you think the law that we pass says versus what youre trying to accomplish . I think the arizona plan reflects the essa law. And so we feel confident in our ability then to have that approved and move forward on the implementation. Ms. Wright, dr. Wright do you feel what youre trying to do reflects the law weve passed in every respect . Absolutely. Weve had no difficult whatsoever in working within the garld rails provided. And with as much input as weve had. My advisor committee, my teacher advisor committee, my teachers Advisory Committee, were meeting with those folks on a regular basis to get the input. Weve had no any interference whatsoever by the guardrails. Thats really good to hear. Its good to see the effort putting forth by the states to make sure every Student Succeeds. And i want to thank you and congratulate you on what youre doing, and i yield back. Ms. Davis, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair, and thank you all of us for being here today. Just the capacity right now of the department of education to work with states, to work with districts in looking at all of these plans, hasnt been addressed much. So i really inquire about the number of vacancies. I mean look at that. 12 out of 15 nominees have not even been put forward or 70 of senior staff is vac want. Just thinking about which ones those are. The deputy secretary, there has been no nominee put forward for the assistant secretary for civil rights. We have an acting person thats been quite under fire as you probably know. Theres no nominee for the assistant secretary of planning and evaluation and policy development, no nomination for the assistant secretary of special education and rebilitative services. No nominee for the assistant secretary for career, technical and adult education. And weve talked about that in the capacity of districts. As the gao representative here, how does that capacity affect the ability of states to move forward . Yes, maam. I think to the degree that there is no Political Leadership in place in any federal agency, i think that does, you know, certainly play a role in the ability of the very talented and dedicated Civil Servants in any agency. I think were respectfully not trying to get out in front of where an Administration May wish to go. Yeah, i think so. As you said theyre dedicated but when youre in limbo and waiting for leadership and direction, thats a difficult thing to do. Do you want to comment on that as well . How much of a problem is it . I think its definitely a problem. When you combine lack of staff capacity with lack of clarity as a result of the decision or the regulation, it really puts a lot of pressure on the career staff to go through these hundreds and hundreds of pages of material. Its complex, its dense. I think there are certainly areas that warrant clarification such as when a state submits a plan, and the question in the template requires a state to define the term consistently underperforming students. And when the state says we will identify low performing students, what does that mean without the regulation in place, you dont have a lot of guidance to determine what that means or what that doesnt mean, if its consistent with law or not. So the departments feedback basically now is serving as that guidance. And the states are looking at that really closely to see what rules do i have to follow. Sure. And i think you mentioned earlier when it it comes to those regulations, looking atika rear and tech. We also talked earlier about the consistency about higher level thinking skills and where that is placed as well. In addition to that issue, of course we have the budget issues that have been discussed. And im wondering what the impact of deeper cusp of education will have the ability of states to really serve our vulnerable students. In one of those areas we have included a requirement in essa for 95 of all students in each subgroup to participate in annual aassessments ensure low performing students are not allowed to be absent on test day. One particular example. And if were just aggregating data, thats going oo be a very important effort that moves forward for all students. How are states implementing this policy, and how is the department of education going to over see that . So you raiesed two issues, one around fund [the 95 participation requirement. On the funding, i want to go back to a question raised by mr. B barletty. Specifically with regard to title iv, its pretty hard to leverage something that doesnt exist. Title iv has been so woefully understood, so its questionable how those funds are going to be used. Being able to use those dollars for things like after School Programs is a real problem. The 95 Participation Rate is also a real problem. One place where the department has not been inconsistent is inconsistently not mentioning the 95 test participation requirement. There are a number of states that either simply say we are not going to abide by this part of the law or have very little of an explanation of how theyre going to and mums been the word on the 95 test participation requirement. Any other comments you all would like to make to those questions . I know we dont have any time left hardly. I think, you know, this is really an important hearing. And i think when we look back a few years from now and see how did it go, how was it implemented, i think what youve provided today, all of you, has been helpful. Thank you very much. Thank you, ms. Davis. Mr. Mitchell, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. Upon the passage of essa the wall street journal noted and this a quote, it represented the to the states in a quarter century. Unfortunately for the administration, they did not endorse the bill. They submitted a let door the secretary of pages of concerns that frankly largely were ignored. The minority here wishes to relitigate the discussion and the rules put forth by the previous administration. The 95 that you referenced however the final rule referenced only four options and require schools implement a plan to address those. Theres a whole series of things the department did that over reached the intent of this congress or the Previous Congress or this committee. I wasnt here at the time but frankly voted in favor of cra. So rather than spend quality time, frankly whining about the cra we ought to get on and talk about the effect and needs of the students in education. Dr. Wright, if you could please, describe some of the means of what you consider quality Stakeholder Engagement . We scheduled meetings around the state, and we scheduled them at two different times. We scheduled a total of 15 initially, but that doesnt count all other specific stakeholder groups we met with. These were regional meetings. We scheduled our first one typically in the afternoon around 4 00 so those people could be there. And our second one typically at 6 00 so parents could go after they got off work. So we made sure to cover all areas of the state. And also reaching out to our essa advisory group, has a number of different individuals on it. We met with them on a regular basis. I meet with my teachers every other month. And so it gave us an opportunity to really hear from a lot of people. Thank you. Dr. Pletnick, as well the important stake hold, the parents, what did you do to make sure we got effective parental engagement in this process . They felt they were hurt. In arizona there were a number of committees and subgroups established, and they would have representatives from all stakeholder groups. Certainly are parents are important, our businesses are important. In addition we did have a survey. And anyone could provide feedback for instance on our measures of success, those indicators that we were including. There were also, again, meetings that were held across the state, a number of meetings where people could come and engage, ask questions, get clarification and get feedback. What percentage of the parents responded approximately . I honestly do not have those numbers with me, but i know it was open and there was participation. I im sure its open my concern is we do everything we can to maximize the engagement of parents and how this is structured, engagement them in the education process. Thats critical. And i would ask we make sure Going Forward that we look at the effectiveness of engaging not only stakeholders but teacher groups, those types of things. So parents in the process prospectively and after its underway, can be sure thats going to happen . We would be happy to work with the committee. Madam chair, i ask we at least consider that as we go forward in assessing essa, the parental engagement. Last question if we could, would be about the last stage of essa is identifying School Districts that are low performers. Michigan has some legendary low performing School Districts, unfortunately. A variety has been done to try and address that. Is there a process by which assessing the effectiveness, whether the plans are effective at addressing low performing School Districts . I think when we be an opportunity to see the monitoring protocols that the department eventually develops, that is one of the things we would be interesting in looking at how theyre approaching that. I would be curious if the other two education witnesses, dr. Pletnick and dr. Bright, if we get any feedback on how youre going to monitor that, because it seems its going toby a plaguing problem. We need to not only talk about how were assessing them and how were supporting them and getting improvements. Or are we just sping our wheels and students are being lost . Actually, its one of our geels in our Strategic Plan that are schools ask districts would be rated krrkts or higher. Were going to be using subgroup data to do that. We also have a protocol in place where we have required all our low performing schools to come in for an interview, which includes their board member and principal, et cetera. The bottom line is our super intendant improves it. Thats where were coming from. Thank you. And i yield back. Dr. Plet nrk, if you could respond to mr. Mitchell in writing, id appreciate it. Youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. Dr. Pletnick, welcome and im glad youre here. Im going to ask some questions in terms of mitigating factors in terms of how the state plan is approved, when its approved and the implementation of essa in arizona in the public School Districts. Mitigating plans points being arizona along with mississippi are at the five lowest states in terms of people expenditures to the Public Schools. Arizona, 3,300 under the national average. So that lack of state support in terms of public construction theres a constant in arizona. Its been litigated, referendum. It continues to happen yearly at the state level. But now let me ask so thats a constant. And you couple that with the cuts being proposed in the education budget, and thats an additional layer of lack of support of Public Schools in arizona and across the country. But then you have also the threat of public funds going to private School Vouchers for profit, Charter Schools. Theyre very real now given President Trump and secretary devoss singular focus on that concept. Under the repealed regulation, Charter Schools are going to be held accountable through an authorized reporting. Now without that regulation, its been repealed, theyll be even less accountable because of that. And the proliferation of for profit schools in arizona, Charter Schools in general, dont you think that that regulatory requirement would help to improve the transparency of the States Charter sector, doctor . So what i would say is i truly do believe in accountability. So i do believe if any School System receives federal or state funding that they should be held to the same accountability as every other. Because i think that is about transparency. And, you know, i also mentioned the Affordable Care act, goes to the state of arizona 26 million to work with children with disabilities. Thats 26 million that if the repeal scenario is what were talking about now, then that would be, again, another layer of nonsupport that would not be there particularly for disabled kids. During the discussion, im assuming that the discussion of a National Voucher tax credit proposal, probably using a tax vehicle reform probably that is modeled after state programs like the one we have in arizona, do you feel that arizonas Voucher Program is indeed helping students . And would you recommend as a National Policy that we model a National Policy after arizonas Voucher Program . I am here at the invitation of chairperson fox to speak on essa implementation, so i am not as prepared in this hearing to speak to that. Certainly i could provide Additional Information regarding it. But there is certainly an impact when we have expansion of those programs, and we know that at the state level. And if its public money being diverted to those programs as a conquence its another layer of nonsupport of Public Schools in arizona. There is an impact. So we have those mitigating factors. Where is the state plan at this point . Waiting for review . Whats the story on that . Yes, it was submitted so it was submitted i believe in may, which would make it for that deadline in september for review. And you heard the complaints im sure of many parents, stake ho holders, education groups relative to the fact the access and the lack of real dialogue in terms of what that plan was going to be that i think essentially went on to the governors office, that there was some opposition and discomfort with the way the plan was put together, correct . So, again, i think there are components in the plan as i have shared. I do not think it is a perfect plan. So i believe there needs to be continued dialogue as we look at what we need to do to continue to drive improvement especially for our underserved populations in arizona. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. But without resources asking Public School systems to meet any bench mark, and you see an eroding support at the state level, at the National Level and at all levels for our Public Schools, i think youre putting not only the School System in a bad place, youre putting parents in a bad place and youre jeopardizing a lot of children. And with that i yield back. Youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you. I know theres been some discussion about this and apologize if its a duplicate question, but its a top priority of this committee and a top priority of mine as well. Pennsylvanias working on developing their own state plan, response to essa. And just wondered what ideas you may have for pennsylvania and other states to integrate career and Technical Education into those plans. Well, thats one thing weve been very proud of is working with our businesses around the state. We serve on the states work force Investment Board. And i think having a seat at the table i think has a very powerful reality for us. We then separated the state into the local work force boards and have been working directly with them. They have been very receptive to our work. Were intending to create as i said earlier, those cte plans in hoosk. But wereulus looking to see how early we can start these plans in middle school. Because i think were realizing not everybody wants to go to college. But everyone deserves the right to have a wonderful job as soon as they walk across our stage. So our job is to ensure allf of our children are career and college ready. Weve got one thats going to have a cte endorsement am, and thats going to be nationally recognized endorsement. The children will be able to go right to work if they so choose. The way to develop our economy is to ensure we have a strong work forceout there that can do that. And the children in our classrooms are the wungs were going to depend on. So weve got to ensure theyve got the Academic Skills to do that but also the career and Technical Skills to do that. You said National Endorsement. Yeah, were looking at National Endorsement that schools can have certifications. Weve got a large number of different manufacturering companies, toyota has a big presence, the space center has a big presence. And weve got a huge medical area as well as well as some the smaller businesses that are looking for people to come to their employment as i said earlier 60 of Jobs Available are children that are going to leave middle school. Next question poegt for dr. Wright and dr. Pletnick. Yes, sir i had the honor of welcoming chairwoman fox to my district. And we had a round table discussion with education leaders from across the district and stakeholders as well. And a topic came up that i heard a lot about in the state senate, in my state and chair of the education committee. Im just curious what your states are doing in regards to standardized testing, super intendants who are there and who ive heard over the past few years felt theres been too much emphasis, i guess, on having all students achieve a certain standard as opposed today we have technology or education available to provide more individualized learning to meet a student exactly where they are and help all students achieve to their full potential. So i guess curious how both your states are responding to that. In mississippi we have established a adopted a set of very rigorous standards, prek through grade 12. And i think we owe it to our parents in our community to be transparent what our children should be able to do by the time they leave 12th grade. I feel very strongly youve got to have a strong set of standards in place that are going to enable children to be successful when they leave us. And thats the approach we have, and thats the approach were sticking to. Dr. Pletnick, your response. In arizona we do have what we call the arizona merit. And thats aligned with our standards. As the super intend want i also believe theres many other skills and dispositions we have to ensure our students have before they leave us if theyre going to be future ready. I think about the fact i didnt have to think about coding when i was in elementary, yet that is a school that a future ready school when we talk about the four cs, communication, and Critical Thinking, all of those things. So i think there have been to be multiple measures and thats what weve worked towards in arizona. So one test can give us some feedback, but we need multiple inticators to get the true picture of Student Success and school ques. Thank you. Youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you madam chairwoman and also ranking pleb scott. And also thank you to the panel. I was really pleased to hear that our chairwoman has invited secretary devos to our committee. Education and implementation is problem one of the things ive heard most from delawarens. Whether it is the champions of civil rights that ive talked to, those people interested in lifting people out of poverty to the corporations in my state, which we have many and all of the small businesses. This is probably one of the top issues. And so my question i first want to start with ms. Pletnick. You stated in your testimony, that quote, consistency in how essa is interpreted and regulated is critical. Unsurnt created by shifting interpretations of the essa law continues to be a concern. Given that theres currently no regulatory scheme for essa interpretation, what position do you think that that this puts states in developing and implementing their plans . So i believe in whether were talking at the federal level, were talking at the state level, again, its important to have that consistent feedback. Because then in turn we can move on with the implementation of essa and make certain we are all directing our efforts to that implementation and check those outcomes. So its critical as we move forward we make certain exactly what our targets are, that we can get to work and get the work done. So my concern is really about consistency across the board at all levels. I want to follow that up. And mr. Lowe, if you could also join in. What impact would it also have on underserved populations . That is monumentally important question. The concern is that the lack of the regulation will result in too few children being identified and then receiving the support that they need to succeed. We want to make sure that states when theyre proposing to identify students for additional support, that well, we will to use all the indicators in the system to support them. We want to make sure kids dont have to fail on everything before theyre actually identified. I think thats a very concern. A few states have been very clear they want to look at if kids are performing on grade level, and if they arent, lets do do something about that. The department has pushed back on that a little bit. Frankly, if students arent performing at grade level or not graduate, i need to know a lot more to do about it. But i dont need to know a lot more that theres a problem. And the question around regulations, the rule of regulations provide a lot of clarification. And there was a comment earlier about the 95 requirement and the regulation scripted. One of those options was essentially states choose your own venture, come up with your own option. So to say it was only four options is not entirely the case. And as a result when we have states when it comes to how are they going oo be implementing this very important provision of the law, either not being clear about it or not doing it at all. You know i really want to touch a little bit on both regulation and also on copsety. We were talking about under secretaries and the positions not being filled. I had the opportunity in delaware to serve as deputy secretary of health and social services. And while i was also secretary of labor. And secretaries do have an Important Role. Theyre external, visionary and all of that. But a lot of the detail gets done at that under secretary level. A lots of the of the administrative things. The theres so much importance also to that level. And so my concern about filling positions is i share ms. Davis concern, also about regulations having come from state government, i believe theres a place for regulation. Can we over regulate things, yes. But i think theres a real place. And i think what were hearing from all of our testimony across the board is consistency, clarity that helps people to be able to do their jobs better. It helps us to get better outcomes. So i have no more questions. Im just going to yield the balance of my time. Thank you very much ms. Rochester. Mr. Grossman, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you. Could you first of all just give us a general over view . We passed the Student Success act, get around this top down of how your run your schools. Are you happy with that or would you like further things done along those lines . Well start with dr. Pletnick. As i had shared earlier, i think there are still some things even at our state level that were legislation that was tied more closely to the no child left behind era than with essa law. I think theres still room for improvement. Teacher evaluation is an example of that, some other pieces. So yes essa has provided us with some of that atonomy and flexibility. But at the state level i think we still have some things we need to do. Okay. But are you satisfied . I can tell you we have submitted that plan but not gotten any feedback on that plan. Same question to you, dr. Wright. I think the states plan is setting longterm goals per subgroup areas so we know what we want for our children ten years out. But i think its the local districts and local schools that need to be developing their own respective plans on how they meet the needs of their children. I trust my super intendants and the principleples and teachers at school. Youre satisfied with the act, though . Yes, very much so. A little while ageyou kind of were talking very positively about kind of more preschool. Have you ever had any indication preschool is not necessarily a benefit . No, quite to the contrary. Preschoolb, theres too Much Research out for us to not be paying attention to our 3 and 4yearolds. Quite honestly were going to be looking to how we can help our children the amount of research being conducted recently and the longterm effects even in mississippi that we can verify by research that has been done by mississippi on mississippi children. Okay, youve never read kbag contrary to the fact . In the past, but not recently, not to my knowledge. Okay. Next question. One of the metrics ill go with this one. What is an underserved population . Mr. Lowe just used that as a phrase, but could anyone describe what you consider an underserved population . Well, the law stipilates states are supposed to create data for groups for English Learners, low income students, and students with disabilities. Does underserved mean lack of money . Does it just mean poor outcomes . Well, it ultimately refers to both when you look at schools that are predominantly served, those populations of students. Some of these under performing districts have the most money. Thats why i wasntered what you meant by underserved. I think we would present data that would suggest otherwise. Nationwide or across the country. Okay. Final question. Sometimes one metric is used to measure quality School District Graduation Rates. I know Graduation Rates are over all up. On the other hand, you a lot of times you hear from employers today people who teach in secondary education, they feel the kids arent doing as well or as prepared as they used to be. Could you comment, on the contradiction there . Is it possible were lowering the standards of what it take tuesday graduate or how can Graduation Rates be up by employers and people in secondary education sometimes feel the kids graduating arent doing as well the. Gao has not done any recent work around Graduation Rates. So i cant comment from that r perspective. I know the department of education has done some looking at Graduation Rates. Our organization has looked at this, and actually were going to be releasing a report in the next few weeks. Because that contradiction definitely exists. By addressing items in their accountability system to your question ulier on Early Childhood, i havent seen anything that Early Childhood is necessary, but i have read that it is insufficient youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, chairwoman fox and Ranking Member scott and thank you to those who testified today. I want to reemphasize one of the main points that mr. Lowal mentioned in his testimony. The federal gauchlt has an Important Role to play in ensuring education in our children. And while states have flebsability in determining how success is measured, the federal government sets the standard for success. States have the discussion to create and define the metric used interest consistent under performance. How are states defining consistently under performing, and do you think this equitly guardrail and the law is being executed as intended to ensure schools struggling to meet the needs of students are identified and supported to improve . Thanks very much for your question. I think this is one of the most important provisions in the law. If were not identifying kids who are continually under performing, then what are we here for . And if were not supporting them, then were certainly not doing our jobs. A number of states have proposed ways to do this if the student is not performing at grade level, math or reading or if there are low Graduation Rates, those children are identified and something will happen as a result of it. Theyll receive some sort of report. Unfortunately, a number of states are also putting together these sort of indexes where youre including a whole bunch of different factors to determine whether a kid is under performing or not. What were concerned about is if you are performing well in one area, that might mask if youre performing less well in another area. So when you combine all these things together, you come up with not a whole lot thats actually usable. So we want to be sure that states interest have the flexibility as i believe is being proposed in mississippi, to look at if youre performing on grade level, math or reading. If youre not, then you should be able to receive charter support. You dont have to fail on all of them in order to receive support. Thank you. Dr. Wright, you mentioned in your testimony that is mississippi is including student subGroup Performance and identifying schools for support and imp provement. I know that your plan is only in draft form, but how is mississippi planning to measure subGroup Performance and factor subGroup Performance into the rating . We have data that we collect on our statewide assessment. Those data will be disaggregated by subgroup and then monitored not only at the state level but at the district level and at the school level. So we will be able to track that data over time to determine whether or not those subgroups of children are continuing to under perform or are making progress. Okay, thank you very much. Madam chair, i yield back. Thank you. Mr. Garret, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. Said i think 35 years ago the nine most frightening words from the government and im here to help. Essa is a 50yearold precursor to the Johnson Administration war on poverty. And weve seen money spent on candidly from a state where we rank anywhere between fourth and sixth of regulation outcomes of the 50 states on a regular basis, i wonder why were competing against 49 other states as opposed to other nations because thats the Playing Field on which our children will ultimately compete. Its often said the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and ive seen far too often if you dont support this, you dont care. If you dont support this, you dont like children. If you dont support this, youre not interested in finding solutions to poverty and expanding opportunity. Its all horsefeathers. What we need to be focused on as opposed to intentions is outcomes, results, what happenmizech and ill tell with frustration that goes back to 6, 7 years ago when i was serving in the state ledge saslaser, where we identify failing schools and leave kids in these failing schools we doom those children with inferior outcomes and inferior career opportunities. The color of a Young Persons skin or the job of their appearance isnt so much of precursor of experience as opposed to what theyre exposed to. But we run into the institutional all the time. These young people who have just as much fundamental intitle and single birthright of of americanship and that is opportunity of any kid. Im sick of watching kids fail based on their zip code. My colleague from oregon stated she thinks the solution to our education problems have to be at the federal level and then lumented essa prevented standards she felt might best help dr. Pletnick, do smart people work with you. I have very intelligent people. And theyre professional and trained people . Yes, they are. And they care about the district and children you serve . Yes. How many children does your district serve . Approximately 25,000. And can you name any of those kids that you are serving yourself . I could. Ms. Nuwicky, youre familiar with the United States student ranks versus their global peers as it relates to academic performance as it relates to are you familiar with the historic data . Not specifically. R are you talking about the i would submit by way of brevity because ofb a minutet and nine seconds, as weve spent more weve actually gone down in competition. Ive got an idea that folks a county in arizona and a state of mississippi know better whats needed. Dr. Wright, we talked about cte. Is it if good in cte to align the training with the needs of the job providers in the communities . Absolutely . And who knows the Job Performance correct. Im just a little biased here. I guess what im driving at here is this is great. I think its a step in the right direction. It has warts and dimples, but you are good smart people, who give a damn, pardon me about the outcomes of your children in your committees. And the way we arrive at the best solutions is letting loose for democracy and finding out what works. Should be able to power those down to states and localities would you agree to let you do what works best. Thank you. Thats rhetorical. Im out of time. The gentlemans time has expired. That was only 12 seconds. Thats a new record. Youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you for having this hearing. A comment i heard by a stanford researcher a few years ago that if we just continue to do what we knew was the right thing tuesday invest in 30 years ago, for the past 30 years we wouldnt have an achievement gap. So when we look at the difficulties in the achievement cap, could you talk a little bit about where accountability comes, that yes we want local jurisdictions to decide . On the other hand, theres a benefit to this research so they can be informed on whats happening around the country and why its important for consistency theres some accountability there . Thank you very much for the question. I think that chairman fox said it very well at the beginning of this hearing that essa provides balance between accountability an and atonomy. It provides a broad framework and ensures those kids who have the least, have a shot at success. Its also needs to be wellunderstood we have seen improvements in educational outcomes over the last decade. Look at Graduation Rates as an example. Back in 2000, 2001, if you were going to draw a line between the Graduation Rate in 2000 and 2007, 8, then youve got a straight line. Then the u. S. Department of education under president george w. Bush issued a regulation with the Graduation Rate accountability. One state was using one calculation, another state was using another. After the federal government issued the regulation in 2008, we saw something pretty remarkable happening. Graduation rates started increasing. Vumt since 2000, 2. 8 million more kids have graduated. Thats a big deal for them and the nations economy considering that by 2020 two thirds of job are going to require post and secondary education as a requirement to getting there. I appreciate we had a really robust field hearings that the chair woman and the Ranking Member were a part of. And i was lucky enough to be a part of those. But particularly as you will remember, madam chair, the last part of that field hearing at stanford university, the harvard of the west coast i might add to the Ranking Member, i get this all the time. We have our challenges on housing and transportation. But the thing that comes up for employers we need a to provide a work force for an economy thats changing at warp speed. Again, a lot of these companies will move i dont want them to move from the bay area, but they are. And one of things determining theyre moving are the housing costs and also education. I very much support local control and what, dr. Wright, you have said. There are things in this economy that require i think the federal government and the Business Community to inform us at a local level, this is what were looking for and this is what we have to invest in. So ill let any of you respond to that. I think the urgency for me is how do we maintain our preeminence in this country. And ill say specific in Northern California the answer to that is not vus investing but doing it smartly given how quickly the work force is changing, the demands in that work force. Id be happy to. The essa asserts that when theres low performing schools or low performing students, something has to happen. It doesnt describe what happens, and theres the balance. The federal government assures that we are taking care of our low performing schools and leaves it to states and drikts ask schools and how to do that best because the federal government cant do that. But what they can do is ensure playing by the same rules. I pick on california in a positive way in this regard. Cte has come up on a number of occasions. And in california theres a lot of great work going onto integrate rigorous academics with cte. And theres an important federal role to play. And this committee has played that role by reauthorizing the career and Technical Education act. So theres a role for everyone to play. But i appreciate you raising this need to really acknowledge that the federal role here is important. It doesnt displace the local role, but its two different roles. One is to ensure our low performing kids are being supported when needed and then the second role is to implement them. Thank you. Youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. Did the gao conduct a compliance review on policy decisions made by states like ohio, california, make any valued judgments concerning the planned development or did you just make an observation of those plans . It was just an observation of those plans, sir. We did not make a compliance judgment. Thank you. And we heard some complaints of representatives of civil Rights Groups that flexibility could result in an abuse of equity compliance. Your plan didnt comment on equity as i understand it. Did you act representatives of parents, state level advocates, advocates of children with disabilities or civil Rights Groups . Generally not for this work, sir. We were primarily engaged with National Stakeholder groups who were working with states. Thank you. The whole point of essa and esa is to eliminate gaps providing equal education opportunities. Youve kind of gone around this, but can you show how subgroups so far have addressed equity . How states have addressed the equity . With the with accountability . Thank you for the question. So theres a spectrum. So youve got states that as ive said are looking at students performing at grade level. And if they are, lets doing something about it. You have states that are going to be looking at a whole bunch of different indicators. And as i said, i fear in doing that what well be doing is providing the chance of low achievement to be masked by higher achievement. Actually to the conversation that was taking place earlier on high Graduation Rates. You can have a high Graduation Rate, which means kids are getting a dipploma, but they may not reading or doing math at grade level. If you combine those two things together youre not getting the right read on whats going on in the schools. When states have report cards, so if your school gets an a, b, c, d, f, theyre not adequately incorporating the performance of each group within their grades. So you can have a high letter grade, but you can have a low performance for historically underserved kids. And if you have a subgroup thats not doing well in the School System, what support do members of those subgroups get in schools that are otherwise doing well . Well, its really up to the states, the districts, and the schools to determine that. Law stipulates theyre to receive intervention, the law, the law and the districts will determine what those interventions are. And then how is that a credible plan who decides whether theres a credible strategy to address achievement gaps . Well, thats a great question. The template that should be by the department of education on the questions around school imp provement, there really arent a lot of questions. And so whats really going to be happening is fairly unclear. Why is the 95 testing rule important the. For a few reasons. One, we have to have accurate data. And two, we want to ensure low performing kids are not intentionally or unintentionally encouraged not to perform on test day. And what happens if you dont get 95 tested, what happens to the data . The data becomes unreliable. Dr. Wright, you indicated that your credentials arent nationally recognized . Whats wrong with credentials that arent nationally recognized . I think some of our local businesses, those cte programs are going to be developed specifically for them, so they may not be a national credential. Having the cte endorsement on the diploma is a students option. So they can either go for the traditional diploma or a cte endorsement on their diploma. But the local businesses may not have a local certification but a certification that will allow them to assume a job in the local business. Whats the National Certification . They can go anywhere in the United States. I think thats the power of having National Certification that children are mobile and families are mobile. They can look around and see where it can earn them the most money. Theres the National Academy foundation, students that participate in a naf academy and get the naf track certification, theyre graduating from high school with a diploma, they get the naf track certification, and 13 Big Companies give those students preferential hiring treatment when theyre done with postsecondary educating. So there are ways to incentivize to make sure when kids are graduating, theyre graduating with something down the road. Thank you, mr. Scott. Now my turn to ask questions with the panel. Dr. You talked about how the Mississippi State plan is relate today the state boards Strategic Plan in mississippi. And we hope essa allows you the ability to implement the plan youre developing with the work the state is already doing. Do you all see that ingration as plausible and desirable or is your essa work something thats happening separate from the other reform work going on in the state . Thats a great question. And we look at it as very much integrated. We feel very strongly our states Strategic Plan is a very strong one. And we looked at essa as a way to strengzen that plan and define that plan. But thats been our message right from the very beginning. Dr. Pletnick, could you respond to that same question in terms of whats happening in arizona . As a matter of fact, there was an effort, again, to establish goals at our state level. And i have the privilege of serving on a longterm Goal Committee that establish the goals as part of essa. And we were certain to align those goals to make certain that what the state had developed was also reflected in the state plan when the agency submitted those. Great. Thank you. Dr. Wright, weve heard criticisms throughout the proce for what became as a, states cant be trusted to hold schools accountable and intervene in lowperforming schools. And serum mr. Garrett touched on this in his comments. You talked about School Improvement being an important element in the plan mississippi is developing. Obviously this is something that states and districts must do and should do. But as a largely puts the actual strategies back in your hands, would you tell us more about how your state and School Districts are thinking about improving lowperforming schools under essa . Absolutely. As i mentioned earlier, that is our goal 6 of our strategic brand, insuring our districts and schools are rated c or higher. I feel strongly that Everybody Needs to be held accountable and that starts with me. My team and i think we owe it to our parents to insure that were looking out for all children across the state. Regardless of zip code. As someone mentioned earlier. We are putting together protocols for our lowperforming schools. To follow and as i mentioned earlier weve got a totally different process that were using about having them come in. And justify even their spending. And to insure that they do have evidencebased interventions that theyre spending their money on and not just interventions that do not have any evidence of working. So that is going to be something that were doing on an ongoing basis. I feel strongly that the children of our state deserve nothing less than the best we have to insure as a state that were monitoring that closely. Not only but our children, but your our parents depend on this to make sure this happens. Another question dr. Wright, dr. Pletnick has talked about how she applauds the planning aapproach in arizona, even though she doesnt agree with everything in the plan. Youve talked about the stakeholders youve engaged with and how your state plan reflects the view of the stakeholders. And by the way, its an impressive process that you talked about. Im sure that not every stakehold stakeholder, though, dprees with everything thats in the draft plan so far. How have you insured that everybody has the opportunity to be heard . I think its really important that everybodys voice is heard. Im a big believer in advocacy and i think that anybody thats in front of you thats advocating, theyre advocating for a reason. And weve been very forthright about what we can and cannot do. We went through a series of three different assessments in three different years and that kind of drove my teachers and superintendants a little crazy. I said were going to hold tight on an account ability system. At least for three straight years under the same assessment. So they did not feel i was continuing to change the target. When weve got stakeholders come in and say wed love to have a School Survey embedded in our accountability system. I said were putting a task force together to look at our entire accountability system and say are there any unintended consequences. So weve acknowledged what theyve wanted and tried to provide a reason why we either cant or cannot include that in our plan . Thank you very much for that. I want to thank all of our witnesses for taking time to testify before the committee today. And even though most of our members have left. I really appreciate members on both sides coming and asking good questions. Sometimes pontificating, but participating. I would like to recognize Ranking Member scott for his closing remarks. Thank you, madam chair. Madam chair, weve heard the necessity to get the department of education before us to respond. Some of the concerns about inconsistencies in terms of responding to the state plans and other priorities. By the department. Particularly in terms of the funding. Weve heard the necessity for having many of the programs within funded if were asking them to get the job done weve identified Technical Assistance to teamers, afterschool and other things that can be very helpful if we dont fund them it just complicates their life. The elementary and secondary education act passed in 1965 was designed as a civil rights law to guarantee equal Educational Opportunities. Weve gone through many iterations and last of course is essa. It has two major requirements, one is a requirement that localities assess to ascertain whether or not there are achievement gaps and when they find achievement gaps, having a meaningful strategy to eliminate those. Dr. Wright has said what a meaningful strategy would look like it starts with Early Childhood education and following the students to ascertain whether or not the strategy is working and making sure that you actually address their achievement gap. Theres flexibility and how to assess. And the strategy to eliminate the achievement gaps, theres no flexibility on the requirement that the, that the assessment be done and that the accountability doing something about it is credible. And if a state fails adequately explain how theyre going to assess for achievement gaps, outlined a credible strategy to address those achievement gaps, its a responsibility of the department of education to intervene. Madam chair, we have letters from several organizations, id like to submit for the record. Letters from advocacy organizations and stakeholders about their engagement in essa approval so far. Letters are from the advocacy institute, council of parent attorneys and advocates and naacp, Legal Defense in Education Fund and the national Downs Syndrome congress. Without objection. I yield back. Thank you very much, mr. Scott. I have found this to be very, very interesting hearing today. And i think that a lot of what it boils down to is a subject we deal with a lot in this committee. And i talk about fair amount. And that is, the role of the federal government in education. I think it was very important that both dr. Wright, dr. Pletnick brought up the fact that essa is not your entire educational program. In your states. I think that many times people tend to think what the federal government is providing in terms of funding or what we are providing in terms of law, is it. That thats all youre doing. And i think weve done a disservice in many cases to the American People, in many things that the federal government has done, to make it appear as though the federal government is the savior. We have a big program and all of a sudden everybody thinks its the answer. I think my own experiences, as a member of a board of education, tell me, a lot about what mr. Garrett was talking about. My experiences since then in visiting schools all over the country, we have a lot of wonderful teachers. Principals, superintendants, custodians. Who want to provide a great educational experience for the students in their schools. And i think in many cases, the federal government has a very limited role in that. And that for us to always look to the federal government to solve every problem that exists out there is a mistake. And we have to understand the limitations i think, that we have. I think essa was a big step forward in giving the flexibility that the locals and the states need to be able to provide that education. My colleague said what we should be about is providing equal Educational Opportunities. And i certainly believe that i believe that education is the answer to so many things. So many challenges facing people in this country. From getting out of poverty to finding meaningful work. To having a successful life. So i want those opportunities, i think too many times what we say to the American People is that we can have equality and outcomes. Having taught for 15 years, i know that just isnt going to happen. I was shocked when i taught, i said to my students, everybody in here can make an a, and i really meant that. And i gave unlimited opportunities to students to do that. But i had a bellshaped curve. Every semester and i was truly shocked by that. Because i didnt believe, i thought everybody would take every opportunity to make the best grade that he or she could maketh and it didnt happen. So i believe in equal Educational Opportunities. But i dont think were going to have equal results. And i think we have to temper what we do, but we have to trust people at the local level. And i appreciate very much those people who are out there every day, teaching, committing themselves to helping students and for those of you who are administrators, bless you for what you do. Particularly ples you if you listen to your teachers, you listen to your parents. And you listen to the stakeholders. The other thing that we hear a lot about and im really glad enter desagner brought this up, its true on both sides of the aisle, in most cases we think of education as preparation for the workforce, we dont have many people who can go through an educational system and then not do anything to provide for themselves. And were all hearing about this. And so i think emphasis on what were doing out there, whether people end at the secondary level. And dont go on for any other formal education, theyre going to get educated. Whether its a formal process is really important. But i think were moving in the right direction with essa. Again im particularly glad to hear our two administrative people talk about how this is one piece of the answer, not all of it. Because i think we have to understand the proper role of the federal government. So thank you all very much. There being no further business, the committee stands adjourned