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The 391-page Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA) governs K-12 public education policy in the United States and provides funds to improve elementary and secondary education. Effective July 1, 2016, it reauthorizes and replaces the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), signed into law in 2002.
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History of the Act
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ESSA originated with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, as a part of his administration's War on Poverty. ESEA was the most far-reaching federal legislation affecting education passed by the United States Congress. It emphasized equal access to education, and established high standards and accountability for student achievement.
ESEA provided supplemental funds for children in poverty, promoted teacher professional development, provided both formula and competitive grants, and mandated programs involving parents in education for schools that accepted the funds. The Act is periodically reauthorized. President George W. Bush signed the ESEA reauthorization known as the No Child Left Behind Act, passed by Congress in 2001 but signed into law in 2002. President Barack Obama signed the ESEA reauthorization titled Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) on December 10, 2015. While President Trump has promised an expansion of school choice and charter schools, the current law supports various versions of school choice already. Senate Education Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander has reinforced his support of the law, passed after years of negotiation with bi-partisan support. Referring to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ support of ESSA, Senator Alexander said, “She believes what 85 of us voted for - the law that President Obama called the Christmas Miracle.” |
What’s New
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The passage of NCLB ushered in an era of increased testing of students. NCLB introduced new annual testing requirements for students at specified grade levels in core subject areas. But in many districts, local testing continued, and students nationwide began taking multiple tests with sometimes conflicting methodologies.
Educators across the nation complained. To address their objections, ESSA moved the role of measuring student achievement and mandating testing back to State Educational Agencies (SEAs), typically State Departments of Education. ESSA also removed Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as a measure of school success. Whereas NCLB required a State Educational Agency to hold schools accountable based on results of statewide assessments and one other academic indicator, the ESEA, as amended by the ESSA, requires each SEA to develop its own accountability system based on multiple measures, including at least one measure of school quality or student success and, at a State's discretion, a measure of student growth. ESSA shifted responsibility for another significant accountability requirement, as well. For schools failing to improve, NCLB required a sequence of escalating interventions such as school restructuring, which included removing staff. The new law, ESSA, leaves such decisions to State Education Agencies, which have substantial authority to take corrective actions to turn around failing schools. |
How ESSA is Organized
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The Act contains nine major sections, called Titles. Title I is the primary title and is designed to supplement core educational programs with additional funding for disadvantaged children. It includes programs for children in poverty, migrant children, neglected or delinquent children, homeless children, children who do not speak English as a first language, and others.
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Title I: Improving Basic Programs Operated by State and Local Educational Agencies
Title II: Preparing, Training, and Recruiting High-Quality Teachers, Principals, or Other School Leaders Title III: Language Instruction for English Learners and Immigrant Students Title IV: 21st Century Schools Title V: State Innovation and Local Flexibility Title VI: Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native Education Title VII: Impact Aid Title VIII: General Provisions Title IX: Education for the Homeless and Other Laws |
Types of ESSA Programs
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ESSA provides funding to schools through formula grants and competitive grants. Formula grants are awarded on just that basis: a formula, typically determined through enrollment and weighted per-pupil allocations. Competitive grants are awarded based on applications. An essential part of monitoring competitive grants is matching program activities with those specified in the grant applications.
Funded programs that have been removed in the most recent reauthorization include, but are not limited to, Race to the Top, Investing in Innovation, Reading First, Advanced Placement, Physical Education, School Counseling, Education Technology, Early Reading First, Even Start, and Improving Literacy Through School Libraries.
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Examples of ESSA-funded programs include:
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Who We Serve
State and Federal Agencies
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Districts, Schools, and Public Chartering Agencies |
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Corporations |
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Sample Project
Bureau of Indian Education
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As part of the program, the Vander Weele Group recommended systemic and site-specific business process improvements, including strategies to improve compliance with statutory regulations, to enhance financial systems, and to conform to educational best practices.
Since 2014, teams comprised of BIE and Vander Weele Group staff members have conducted Fiscal Reviews, which examined schools’:
Fiscal reviews were designed to determine how schools spend federal funds to implement school-wide programs, to assess school financial management systems, and to offer comprehensive technical assistance to stakeholders and tribal officials. Each year, Vander Weele Group has provided a final report with recommended systemic reforms that addresses challenges such as high leadership and teacher turnover, inadequate technological infrastructure, insufficient understanding of student achievement data to drive educational programs, insufficient parental involvement, excessive carryover funds, violations of internal controls, Going Concern problems (schools improperly budgeting and at risk of exhausting their funds), and more. BIE and schools use the information from the monitoring visits and these recommendations to drive new strategies, future training, and technical assistance. |
NCLB reviews included regulatory analysis of standards including but not limited to:
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The project included many components, including an analysis of the 391-page Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 as compared to its predecessor, No Child Left Behind of 2001, and development of 12 modules of training for school boards. Training included modules on Administrative Cost Grants, Fiscal Reviews, Legal Authorities, Fiscal Monitoring, and other topics. Vander Weele Group also developed a 59-page training manual for conducting fiscal reviews accompanied by a training module to support fiscal reviews by the Vander Weele Group team. Vander Weele Group also developed a detailed fiscal review work program for the monitoring team. Additionally, Vander Weele Group developed a web site that provided resources to Indian schools and gave them sample financial policies to aid in their financial policy formulation.
Vander Weele Group developed multiple comprehensive monitoring plans, fiscal review and site monitoring instruments, processes for Corrective Action protocols, templates for entrance and exit interview agendas, communication protocols for assembling information in advance of school site visits, focus group survey tools, monitor training manuals for each step of the process, and site-specific and annual final reports that recommended system improvements, both for schools and for the Bureau as a whole. Vander Weele Group developed multiple web sites, gathering information from sources nationwide to provide sample financial and other policies and resources demonstrating effective practices for BIE educators. Tools developed and implemented addressed data collection and analysis, extensive document reviews, statistical reports, web design, technology, report writing, review of extensive legal and regulatory authorities, research of best practices, focus groups, interviews, and development of business process improvement recommendations, both in schools and system-wide. Vander Weele Group created a matrix of legal requirements and used PowerPoint to create training modules for school boards.
In the Contractor Performance Assessment Report, Contracting Officer Michael Perry (now retired) rated the Vander Weele Group as “very good” in every applicable category and stated “Vander Weele Group has proven to be an excellent contractor and we look forward to working with them now and in the future.”
This project demonstrates the firm’s ability to manage large-scale programs, hire and manage staff, develop internal and external communication tools, complete project deliverables in a high-quality manner on deadline, make business process and performance recommendations, measure implementation against grant applications, assist clients in developing strategies for systemic change, compare field conditions against federal mandates, manage/analyze data, assess internal controls, conduct evaluations, and more. Executing this volume of materials requires strong project management skills, one of the core competencies of the Vander Weele Group.
Vander Weele Group developed multiple comprehensive monitoring plans, fiscal review and site monitoring instruments, processes for Corrective Action protocols, templates for entrance and exit interview agendas, communication protocols for assembling information in advance of school site visits, focus group survey tools, monitor training manuals for each step of the process, and site-specific and annual final reports that recommended system improvements, both for schools and for the Bureau as a whole. Vander Weele Group developed multiple web sites, gathering information from sources nationwide to provide sample financial and other policies and resources demonstrating effective practices for BIE educators. Tools developed and implemented addressed data collection and analysis, extensive document reviews, statistical reports, web design, technology, report writing, review of extensive legal and regulatory authorities, research of best practices, focus groups, interviews, and development of business process improvement recommendations, both in schools and system-wide. Vander Weele Group created a matrix of legal requirements and used PowerPoint to create training modules for school boards.
In the Contractor Performance Assessment Report, Contracting Officer Michael Perry (now retired) rated the Vander Weele Group as “very good” in every applicable category and stated “Vander Weele Group has proven to be an excellent contractor and we look forward to working with them now and in the future.”
This project demonstrates the firm’s ability to manage large-scale programs, hire and manage staff, develop internal and external communication tools, complete project deliverables in a high-quality manner on deadline, make business process and performance recommendations, measure implementation against grant applications, assist clients in developing strategies for systemic change, compare field conditions against federal mandates, manage/analyze data, assess internal controls, conduct evaluations, and more. Executing this volume of materials requires strong project management skills, one of the core competencies of the Vander Weele Group.