Building Your Monitoring Program
Developing or revising an ESSA monitoring program is a complex and significant undertaking. Many factors must be considered. To get you started, we listed a few.
Who Will Be Monitored?

ESSA specifies that certain funded programs must be monitored, but beyond that, it gives latitude on how funds are monitored and how often each school program is to be monitored. There is a caveat. The Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, in conjunction with the Inspector General, is required to develop guidance on how monitoring is to be undertaken - and that guidance is expected to provide more specifics. But for now, leeway exists.
When the number of schools or programs is large, monitoring every school every year becomes impractical. So districts and states typically divide the total number of schools by the number of years in the monitoring program, and monitor the same number of schools each year.
Schools and programs can be selected randomly on a cycle-based rotation or based on risk. The latter is the required approach for title programs, according to updated Uniform Grant Guidance. In a risk-based approach (depending on the program), criteria for prioritizing a school could include low or declining achievement test scores, significant findings in audits or past monitoring reviews, failure to meet important deadlines, failure to respond to important requests for information such as completion of fiscal self-assessments, complaints, slow expenditure or misspending of funds, overspending of funds, application quality, and indicators ranging from high student dropout rates and safety incidents to high staff absenteeism and leadership turnover.
When the number of schools or programs is large, monitoring every school every year becomes impractical. So districts and states typically divide the total number of schools by the number of years in the monitoring program, and monitor the same number of schools each year.
Schools and programs can be selected randomly on a cycle-based rotation or based on risk. The latter is the required approach for title programs, according to updated Uniform Grant Guidance. In a risk-based approach (depending on the program), criteria for prioritizing a school could include low or declining achievement test scores, significant findings in audits or past monitoring reviews, failure to meet important deadlines, failure to respond to important requests for information such as completion of fiscal self-assessments, complaints, slow expenditure or misspending of funds, overspending of funds, application quality, and indicators ranging from high student dropout rates and safety incidents to high staff absenteeism and leadership turnover.
What Standards will be Monitored?
Outside of specific mandates, the myriad of federal requirements in ESSA permits a state or school system creativity in designing a monitoring program, particularly in the area of educational programs. Want to review how many times a school suspends children out of school? ESSA addresses that practice and, therefore, such a standard can be included in a monitoring tool. Want to focus on how children transition from preschool to kindergarten? Or from high school to college? That can be monitored as well. Monitoring can address a wide range of activities, but they should begin with those specified in ESSA and in program initiatives contained in approved grant applications.