Transcripts For CSPAN3 Officials Testify On State And Local Education Reforms 20170719

Reporte. Next, hear from state and local education officials in a house education and the Workforce Committee hearing on the implementation of the every Student Succeeds act. The hearing runs two and a half hours. The committee on Education Workforce will come to order. Good morning. 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 effort. As it can be considered a milestone for k12 policy because it was a monumental shift in the role of states and School Districts would have in the future of education. As it sought to achieve two specific goals for k12 education. Autonomy and accountability. 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, as the specifically prohibited the federal government from influencing states adoption of particular standards. It also repeals federal mandates for teacher performance and protected a states right to opt out of federal Education Programs. Part of the goal for state and School Districts 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 distance. While states and School Districts were given more autonomy and the law maintains provisions ensuring parents have transparent information about School Performance in states and districts and can hold schools accountable for delivering a high quality education to all students. As also included unprecedented restriction on the department of educations authority to take back the state and local flexibility guaranteed by the law. It has stripped away powers from 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 it clear that a topdown approach to k12 education did not serve students, parents, teachers, or the states well. And it directly addressed these shortcomings. Given the monumental shift in education policy its important we hear implementation is progressing. We know the law will not fully take effect until the coming school year and we will need time to assess its impact on schools and students. However, i look forward to hearing from todays witnesses about the progress state schools 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 e. S. S. A. And today will continue our discussion on e. S. S. A. s implementation. It was truly a change for k12 education and i do believe this bipartisan law delivers the proper balance of autonomy and accountability for parents and taxpayers while ensuring a limited federal role. This law has the ability to empower state and local leaders 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 remark. Thank you, madam chair, for convening this mornings hearing on implementation of the every Student Succeeds act. Thank our witnesses for appearing today and look forward to their testimony. It is regrettable, madam chair, we are not hearing from the u. S. Department of education. Particularly considering media reports of the majoritys intention to critique its implementation of e. S. S. A. During todays proceedings. I, for one would greatly benefit from an open dialogue from the department on their implementation and for other matters. Chairwoman fox will remember i sent a letter urging secretary devos and agency heads to appear before the committee to discuss the administrations priorities. That request has not been fulfilled. I would like to take the opportunity gen again to ask th secretary or any other representative who can discuss the Administration Priorities to appear to engage in an open dialogue with this committee. This has been the law of the land for nearly 20 months. While that may seem like a long time in the life cycle of a law its really just the beginni beginning. States are only now undergoing the peer review and approval process after months of work ad midst the regrettable chaotic environment. As i said in february and march but it bears repeating when congress used the c. R. A. To block the regulation of title 1 score requirement and that was, unfortunate and counter to the bipartisan agreement in e. S. S. A. But this body did go forward with the c. R. A. And thats a reality that we have to work with. That lack of regulation, however, means increased subjectivity determining compliance with the laws requirement which makes oversight of this committee more important. It increased subjectivity without clarifying regulations is impairment in the departments early feedback on state plans submitted in may during the may submission window. Some plans components were praised by peer reviewers and one states plan while the same component was questioned as insufficient in another. All the while other violations of e. S. S. A. s equity requirements were overlooked by the department completely. Madam chair im disappointed that the media description of the reaction from some of our colleagues in the majority have characterized the Education Department state feedback plans as overreach. It is a difference between overreach and simply administering the program. We need to remember that e. S. S. A. Was not a blank check for states and districts and while the law for it in states and districts much flex sdinibf that flex sdinibility in the la. Congress designed the laws guardrails to protect the interests of the underserved students. While it contains important requirements that republicans and democrats all agreed to when we voted to it and they must be meaningful. It 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 of safelands and only approve those that meet the laws requirements. Even without regulations, the law is the law. And the law requires the secretary to review the plans, ask our questions and, if necessary, disapprove the plans in the interests of the students. And while as i just mentioned some of the content and overall inconsistency of the departments feedback may be problematic none of us should take issue with the department attempting to do its job. Feedback must be more not less consistent and more not less vigorous. As well hear today many state plans leave much to be desired either due to ambiguity, incompletely, or it is my hope the department will work with states including supervision of adequate guidance and Technical Assistance to improve the overall quality of the estate plans and insure implementation that honors the long civil rights focus of the e. S. E. A. Such implementation is only possible with the support and partnership with the federal government. It is not only the role of the department to support and monitor state efforts to comply with the role but also the role of congress to Fund Programs authorized by e. S. E. A. Despite promises to implement the Laws Congress continued the secretary and president proposed elimination of bedrock programs. Like title 2a to support teachers, 21st Century Learning Centers and cuts to other programs including an effective cut of nearly 600 million in title 1. The House Majority fiscal year 18 labor appropriation bill isnt as draconian as the president s request it fails to honor the agreement limiting title 2a siting afterSchool Programs and maintaining effective cuts to title 18 be felt at the local level. It would result in thousands of layoffs and inhibit local and state efforts to improve teacher and support. Defunding this program does not align with the bipartisan intent of the statute. Lastly trump proposes are cuts to medicaid would high standards as required by it. The situation would be even worse if the most recent repeal without a replace plan is enacted. Now, how effective can implementation be without funding . I know all too often the state and local education agencies face capacity challenges and hope to hear from todays witnesses about the negative impact of underfunding these programs on faithful implementation. In closing i remain concerned about many of the actions of the secretary and this administration concerning our nations students, for example, the recent rhetoric from the office of civil rights and offices of directive to ignore systemic data when they investigate alleged civil rights violations. The lack of Agency Capacity to carry out key components of the department including the absence of the deputy secretary. The rollback of protections for student borrowers, rescinding of protections for transgender students. The sledgehammerlike approach to deregulation without transparency, Decision Making of the department and the decision to cancel a Grant Program to award 12 million to local kalts to help them desegregate their schools. All point to a troubling pattern this pattern must not continue to implementation not out of Wishful Thinking or partisan spin but because it is in the law we enacted and needs to be enforced. It is clear it is a responsibility of the department to review and provide feedback on plans, make determination also of approvals or disapprovals based on compliance with the statute and partner including through enforcement activities with states and School Districts to support the laws implementation moving forward. It is the responsibility of states and districts to innovate within the gaushd guardrails of 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 ro bust oversight of implementation moving forward to ensure it is responsibly fulfilled. Thank you, madam chair. I yield back. Thank you, mr. Scott. Pursuant to Committee Rule 7c all members will be permitted to submit written statements to be included in the permanent hearing record without objection the hearing record will remain open for 14 days to allow such statements and other extraneous material to be submitted for the official hearing record. Now turn to introductions of our distinguished witnesses. Miss nowicky, director of k12 eddati u. S. Government education office. Summit for the disart unified district in arizona. Phillip lovell from the alines of excellent education. Dr. Kerry wright from mississippi. I now ask our witnesses to raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony youre 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 are 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. Now recognize miss nowicky for five minutes. Good morning, chairwoman and members of the committee. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss our new report on early observations on state accountability systems under e. S. A. E. As you well know it requires states to have accountability systems that meet certain requirements, grant states flexibility designing these systems. We focused our work on four areas of state accountability systems one determining longterm goals, two, developing Performance Indicators, three, dif rensiating schools and, four, identifying and assisting low performers because stake holder groups identified these as key components of accountability systems under it. And areas in which states are making changes. My remarks today will focus on two key areas. First, ill discuss stake holder views on its flexibility to redesign accountability systems second discuss next steps for the department of education in implementing e. S. E. A. In regards to my first point all Nine National stake holder groups with whom we spoke saw accountability provisions somewhat flexible. For example most praised the ability to define their own Performance Indicators. Most also indicated it strikes a good balance between flexibility and requirements. For example, one stake holder said it threads the needle very well between offering flexibility to Design Systems that meet state needs and requiring states to protect vulnerable populations. The extent to which states are changing their current systems varied. Some states are pleased with the systems they developed under their waivers and are continues down that path. But for states that see their current systems lacking some way or when stake holder consultation highlighted the need for significant change we were told this provides room follow statno states to consider innovative solutions. Ohio thing a california tailor systems in the systems i mentioned. I would like it highlight one example. To address the requirements to differentiate schools ohio plans to tweak its indicators to assess school and student performance. Some would pressure current performance while others would measure growth. Schools would receive a letter grade on each indicator as well as overall letter grade. Ohio officials felt this approach would provide detailed information on various elements of their Performance Systems as well as provide an easily understandable high level overview of performance. In california the plan is to use a colorcoded backboard to differentiate school and student performance on six indicators, each will measure current performance as well as growth overtime. Unlike ohio california does not plan to aggregate the indicators to an overall score. State officials said they chose that because they felt doing so can mask individual problem areas and also told us measuring current performance and growth for each indicator provides a more complete picture of performance. With regard to my second point, given current time lines the department of education remains focused providing assistance for states developing their plans and the review and approval process for plans. Moving forward, a key next step in implementation for the department to develop and implement state monitoring protocol. Although drafts were not available at the time of our review education officials said 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 they are considering whether there is a need for Additional Guidance for states. During our review, most National Stake holder groups told us states could use guidance on a number of issues like how to identify and evaluate appropriate intervention. In cloegsing i hope this shines light on how states are assessing their systems. This is still in the early days and much work lies ahead for both states and the department of education before the prom mess of e. S. A. E. Can be realized. We look forward to working with you in your efforts of implementation of this important law. This completes my remarks and look forward to any questions you may have. Thank you. Dr. , you are recognized for five minutes. Would you turn on your microphone, please. Chairman fox, Ranking Member scott and members of the committee thank you for this opportunity to join you today. I am the superintendent of disar dsdz distri t district in arizona. I am here today because i believe it is critical we continue to Work Together to ensure the underserved population in our schools truly benefit from the educational promise that the every Student Succeeds act was designed to deliver. I thank you and the committee for convening this hearing. The house of representatives and senate are to be applauded for the hard work to craft this. Moving for the one size fits all of no child left behind restoring control of education to the states and local communities, although it may not be perfect, the power of the law is the flexibility it provides to states and schools. Allowing the focus to be on the individual student. I have the opportunity to talk with superintendents across the state of arizona and the nation about progress made in implementation. A Common Thread in those conversations that it has created an opportunity for stake holders to become more involved in goal setting and establishing account sdainability processes t of the plan requirement. It requires efforts to cult with and engage stake holders when developing a consolidated state plan, in arizona committees and advisory groups were established to provide input at various stages of the planned development. I had the privilege participating in some of these established subgroups and also attended Public Meetings designed to provide comment on proposed components in the plan. I ham not going to tell you that arizona has developed the ideal educational plan for our state. There is definitely room for continued improvement as we implement this, see what works and continue to roll back state policies that lock in restraints. Stake holders are engaged in conversation around the needs in our educational systems, a discussion that is important to driving the improvement necessary to provide an equitable, quality education to each student. A second promise of the statute many states are realizing, the ability to utilize multiple indicators for evaluation of our schools. In arizona, we still rely heavily on annual tests but the flexibility in this started a conversation about other meaningful measures that should be considered. Although not without fault, 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 and Technical Education assessment, advanced academic course work indicators and earned career credentials. The states elementary level measures of accountability are far more restrictive, conversation in the state of arizona continues around additional important measures. While we dont have it 100 right in arizona just yet, i can say the flexibility around state accountability systems encourages conversation among stake holders about more accurate indicators of student and school success. There were challenges with the implementation of the law. Time was definitely one of the biggest challenges. After the passage of the law there was a discussion related to the law and possible proposed litigation and caused hesitation. Arizona released its first draft and started the consolidated planning process in september 2016 and the plan required adjustments before our submission for the september 2017 deadline. Another complication as it related to time some states including arizona had laws in place for no child left behind waivers. With those in existence there was an baimpact on what was required in our system. Although not a federal concern, it is affects how innovative our plans may be at this point. A great deal of time and effort went into congress writinging this legislation and negotiated those critical components that make this good legislation. The ultimate success lies in our implementation, yes, but also federal appropriation. 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 this and ensure it has the intended impact that we be cognizant of the important implementary role of federal investment ooh. The student in our scoops are our future leaders, workforce and we must invest in our futures investing in public education. Thank you to the committee for the work you have done and continue to do to to ensure that the every Student Succeeds act drives the change we all want in our schools, equity in our classrooms regardless of a 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 our districts and our schools. I know given the opportunity educational leaders across this country will use that voice, deliver on the promise of e. S. A. E. Thank you so much. Thank you. Mr. Lovel, you are recognized for five machineinutes. A Nonprofit Organization dedicated to ensuring every child graduates from high school, ready for college, careers and citizenship. I have four core messages for you today. First, echlts s. S. A. . A civil rights law designed to ensure equity and excellence in education. Second, it preserves an Important Role for the u. S. Department of education. Third, the quality of its state plans is uneven. And fourth, funding cuts threaten the implementation of the law. Let me begin with point 1. This is fundamentally a civil rights wllaw provides states with am significant level of flexibility when it comes to how they achieve equity and excellence but it is not a blank check. Both states and the department of education must implement and enforce all of its equity focus requirements a sample list of which appears in my written testimony. Second, when congress enacted it it preserved the limited but Critical Role of the department of education. While i may not agree with all its findings, the department is appropriately carrying out oversight role required by law. I want to be clear this isnt about whether we trust straits. Many states leaders are committed to kids and one needs look no further than my colleagues testifying today to know thats a fact. The fact remains, though, its the departments job to review their plans and comply with the law this committee wrote. These plans lay out a commitment to children, parents and the public and will impact students and teach sdeers at least the n decade. The department has a critical and statutorily required role to play. Third, the quality of the state plan is uneven. Certainly some strengths but missed opportunities and many weaknesses including some proposals that simply violate the law. In particular, many plans fall short of the equity promise of e. S. S. A. , let me give you a few examples. It made the commitment if a school has a single subgroup that consistently underperforms africanamerican students, latino students, the school would be identified for target the support and those kids would receive help. It applies this requirement to each individual subgroup separately because groups of students perform differently and if you combine them together, you can mask the low performance of a single group. Unfortunately, this is exactly what some states are doing. One state combines the achievement levels of africanamerican, latino and native students together even though it risks the schools may not be identified. It also violates the law. A related but distinct problem that states are not including historically underserved kids in their school ratings. For example, a school might receive an a despite the fact africanamerican students or latino students or students with disabilities or low income kids might have, say a low Graduation Rate. You can receive an a even though africanamerican kids have a Graduation Rate of 60 . Another problem relates to the identification of subgroup for support. Several states have proposed identifying subgroups for support if they arent on grade level in math or reading or have a low Graduation Rate and makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, the department has actually pushed back on this approach. Students shouldnt have to fail on everything before being identified for support. In addition, its worth noting while flexibility was intended to unleach creativity and innovation by and large this hasnt happened. We hoped this would promote Critical Thinking and problem solving. A few notable exceptions in my written testimony [ inaudible ] state plans by far are cautious, not courageous. Finally i join my colleagues expressing concerns about funding. Money is not magic. But, im concerned about the impact of funding cuts on e. S. S. A. , it provides states with flexibility and responsibility. Madam chair, responsibility without resources will not yield results. Freezing funding for title 1, underfunding title 4, proposing to eliminate or reduce funding for special development, literacy, afterSchool Programs on top of proposed cuts of medicaid will handcuff states as the exact moments we supposedly gave them freedom. This is unfortunate because we have seen an upswing in education. By implementing an enforcing requirements and strengthing our investment in education we can ensure every child in america succeeds. Thank you. I would be happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Dr. , you are reg o recognized for five minutes. Thank you. Before i start, i wanted to introduce people key to the implementation back in my state, my state board chair miss rosemary altman, vice chair, jason dean, 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 opportunity to testify about mississippis work to implement the every Student Succeeds act. I look forward to sharing my perspective this has given mississippi an 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 improving Educational Opportunities and outcomes for all students and schools. Our plan is called mississippi succeeds and were proud it builds upon our state boards strong Strategic Plan to prepare students for college and careers. This Strong Foundation includes academic standards for all students, [ inaudible ] to track student achievement and accou accountability model it also builds upon 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 stake holder support and have resulted in improved student outcomes. To design mississippi succeeds we sought broad input from stake holders over 18 months to craft a plan tailored to the needs of our students. During those months we conducting a listening tour including 15 Public Meetings throughout the state. We hosted targeted meetings with specific stake holder groups. And collected feedback through an online survey. Among our most active participants were advocates for the underserved, majority africanamerican communities and rural low income 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 teachers of the English Learners who participated were the only people in their schools whose work was dedicated to English Learners. Throughout these meetings and the online survey, we gathered 7,300 feedback points. We established working groups and an Advisory Committee made up of stake holders to provide us feedback and input throughout the entire development of our plan. We intend to keep all of our partners engaged in our implementation of the plan through regular meetings with our stakeholders as well with the e. S. S. A. Advisory committee. Robust participation of stake holders helped mississippi develop a strong plan to meet the requirements. Im especially excited about the following aspects of our plan providing effective teachers with an opportunity to not only teach children but work collaboratively to lead colleagues to improve their practice. Expanding Early Childhood to support Early Childhood educators in a variety of prek settings to develop practices in their classroom. Improving schools by investing in the local teachers and administrators. Supporting communities through p16 counciling, strengthing parent engagement schoolbased activities. We appreciate its flexibility 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 education in grades k through 12 and provide our High School Students with the opportunity to graduate with a career in technical diploma endorsement that is of equal value to an academic endorsement. Were putting a strong focus on eliminating the proficiency gap between africanamericans and all students entirely so that the proficiency rates for all of our subgroups will increase to 70 by 2025. All of these initiatives are dependents on federal support for public education. As a state chief i understand federal resources are limited and this state must be effective stewards of tax dollars. Mississippis plan is still surrounded targeted and efficient use of federal funds to maximize students achievement especially of our motorcycle disadvantaged students. Thank you for the flexibility youve provided through the every Student Succeeds act. As you see our mississippi succeeds will spanexpand the efforts were deeply committed to equipping them to learn, build, create, serve, and innovate. We believe in the capacity of our students to achieve an we believe in the ability of our teachers and schools to guide them to a successful future. The e. S. S. A. Is at the heart of our work. Thank you. Thank you, dr. Wright and thanks again to all of our witnesses. Mr. Wilson, you are recognized for five minutes for questions. Thank you, chairwoman. Thank each of for you being here today. I especially appreciate your service because im the very happy husband of of a dedicate the teacher. And i want to keep her happy, too. So, thank you for what youre doing. And dr. Wright, students greatly benefit from career and Technical Education, partnerships with companies such as bmw, mtu, michelin and boeing. Very fortunate of Technical Education promoted under the leadership of the state summits 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 our workforce investment act. We have four sectors in our state and what we have done, 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 plans that will allow our children to go starting in high school, graduate from high school and go immediately into the work force. Our state needs that immediate piece and we have that planned, as well. What a Meaningful Life you help young people achieve. Thank you for what you do. Doctor, thank you for your testimony on a very important issue, local elected School Boards. I know that my view is they work best for our students. I learned this first hand my dad was a School Board Member in charleston. I served as state Senate Working with School Boards and found out the extraordinary diversity within a single district the School Boards have to address and the hard work but the extraordinary dedication of School Board Members. Your testimony promotes, again, moves from one size fit 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. Amber wilson. Thank you for that. In our Unified School District we ut lies a Strategic Planning process. Our Community Gives us our that feedback. We work with our Business Partners and parents to ensure we are meeting the needs of our students in our local communities. Our school board is that nexus. They are the elected officials. The e. S. S. A. Has allowed us then to work through our states to ensure the multiple measures we are utilizing speak to those needs of our students. Certainly our underserved population but really for all students making sure they are future ready. We, too, have a very strong career and technical Education Program because we hear from our local communities and 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. And so, were ensuring that our students have opportunities with coding an other pieces. That is something that is a strong piece in our Strategic Plan as we move forward and so, again, e. S. S. A. Provides us that opportunity to look at multiple kalt indicators and those that truly serve our underserved population but all students, as well. As i served in the state senate and now congress i represent a district like yours, number 1. The diversity there you have resort areas, upscale subdivisions and middleclass subdivisions, a small town, Rural Communities and agricultural communities all in one district. And so, a local school board is just so important and miss nowicky, thank you for your service and promotion of flexibility. Can you explain how flex sdinib of the act would help in adopting the approach for Performance Indicators. Sorry, sir. You are 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, um, overall ratings versus, um, 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. Um, while providing sufficient guardrails to protect vulnerable populations and subgroups. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Wilson. Mr. Courtney, recognized for five minutes. Thank you for holding this really important hearing. I want to join the Ranking Member saying how i think a lot of us feel frustration about the fact the secretary of education has not yet appeared before this committee. Its 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 were talking about today for all of us looking to our commissioners back home, stake holders who have been working hard on implementation of the e. S. S. A. There, is a lot of confusion out there and we need people from the department particularly the person whos in charge with the buck stops to answer questions about where are we going. The e. S. S. A. Was signed into law december 10th, 2015. It was actually a really inspiring tableau to see president obama sign that law again, a lot of hard work went into that. Again, to achieve some of the goals some of the witnesses have talked here today. Fast forward and its 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 work hard to try, again, achieve the goals of this legislation. It has not been helped, by the way, by the fact the republican majority changed [ inaudible ] out of the federal law, regulations, back in may with the Congressional Review Act enactment that the trump signed into law. 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 e. S. S. A. Is structured, designed. When you talk about confusion out there, frankly, the majority added to that confusion by, in my opinion, just indiscriminately butchering the regs that were in place and so thats where we are today. Again, my state of connecticut did everything right i think in terms of pulling together stake holders, they worked like, you know, very diligently in terms of coming up with a plan which was submitted. Again, it got kicked back about a month or so ago. Talking to the folks in that department, you know, they want to, you know, work clab rat tiffly but frankly there is tremendous confusion about which direction theyre supposed to go in and frankly, again, another reason why the secretary should be here today answering questions from all of us about where she, in fact, intends to take this department. We know when theres confusion in washington going back to the infa famous words of deep throat during watergate scandal, follow the money. Again id like to follow up on your comments. Weve obviously seen a budget out of this administration in terms of their priorities, title 1, title 2, afterschool. One of the goals of the e. S. S. A. To move away from the punitive approach of no child left behind and try and help districts who had been identified as underperforming and again, i just would ask you to comment further about, you know, cutting these programs, in fact, removes the resources that e. S. S. A. Was built around in terms of trying to help School Districts that are struggling. Thank you very much. I couldnt agree more. In fact, its interesting, one of the issues that came of this minutes ago, you brought up career and Technical Education. I think thats a huge opportunity within this law and first let me applaud the committee for its work on the reauthorization of the law. Unfortunately, because of the levels of funding being proposed for things like Career Education and the cuts therein were not able to implement a lot of those programs. Right now, with states having the ability to design their plans and implement them, the integation of rigorous academics with s. T. E. Is a major opportunity. This language specifically in the law wrote within title 1 that allows states to do this and not only that, you allowed states to use up to 3 of their funding for direct Student Services. And one of the uses of the direct Student Services funding that you allowed was the, um, provision of t. T. E. That leads to industry funding that you allowed was the provision of cte that recognized credential. Very few states are planning to use this 3 for director Student Services. And why because they feel like it cuts into the title 1 budget. So by level founding title 1 by cutting elsewhere it means title 1 fund sg going to go elsewhere and that means dont really have the ability to carry out the vision of the law the states have set. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you, madam chairwoman, and thank you to the panel being here. I concur it would be a great opportunity and time when we get to hear from the secretary of education. 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 under secretaries, assistants, et cetera to help her in the process Going Forward as something she has identified e. S. S. A. As something we had intended and she intended fully. Today we have witnesses here. In your testimony you mentioned that the department is considering additional areas of guidance that might be needed for states as they implement e. S. S. A. 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. Theyve mentioned webinars that they hold and meetings that provide a forum for states to share some concerns or areas where they may need guidance. In our work, stakeholders who are working directly with the states developing, their plans mentioned a couple of areas as well. If you could highlight some of those. Surely. One is select evidence based strategies and measure their efficacy. In the states its not unusual throughout government and in the states for there to be a lack of capacity in terms of knowing how to evaluate strategies. So that was one area. A second area was noting that because e. S. S. A. Provides much more funding flexibility, then did helping states understand the broad funding flexibilities they did have available to them, and the law would be useful for those states. And the flexibilities, just name a few of those. Funding flexibilities to combine funding streams under the law. With local states, et cetera . Yes, different state, local, federal together. This is obviously an initial look of early implementation of e. S. S. A. , but do you believe theres a future work gao could do on this topic as states put it into practice in the next few years . Absolutely. 1, i think itll be important to Pay Attention to education monitoring protocols are shaping up. E. S. S. A. Obviously encourages a much more state driven approach in developing their plans. And we would want to see monitoring protocols reflect that. Yet developing them in a way that also holds state accountable for federal requirements may take some doing. Two, i think itll be important 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 data is only useful if its used and usefulness is in the eye of the beholder. So if stakeholders and parents are not able to access the information or dont find its telling them things theyd like to know, i think it would be important to know that. Well, i appreciate that. We talk more about stakeholders at the local and state level as opposed to federal, and thats a good thing. Dr. Pletnick, i thank you for being here. E. S. S. A. Returns significant authority to School Districts in how to intervene and how to improve schools, which is important to consider if were expecting education to reach other masses of our country. What initiatives are in place in your district or are you working to implement that will do just that . Well, 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 a reactive approach. So we make the programs we have in place are providing that high quality education. We use an rti process in which we have tiered intervention. So tier one is that classroom. We need high quality teachers delivering that high quality instruction. And if we do have struggling students particular in those high populations, we need to evaluate. So we provide those interventions sometimes through interventionists. We have online programs because we really want that access for our students. And the intensity of those interventions continues to grow as we work with the individual student to fill those needs. The other thing we are doing across the district is personalized learning. So we are looking at what the stupiditys strengths are, certainly the area of challenges but certainly their interests. Because we need to engage our students in their learning. We need to own their learning. So we are working on ways to not only learn that learning and understand the process but also ways we could use space and place dr. Pletnick, going to have to ask you to wind up. Thank you very much. I yield back. Thank you, chairwoman fox and Council Member scott. And as a school super intendant i saw a lot of the flaws of no school left behind. A number of bills i wrote were incorporated into that bill. And i was very excited by step four that i think everybody felt was better than its predecessor. Now im troubled now by some of the comments ive heard from my republican colleagues that states could somehow do whatever they want. The goal of every Student Succeeds act was to maintain of course our civil rights and safe guards to of course to provide our School Districts and states the flexibility to do what works but not the flexibility to fail and do nothing. No one here voted to let School Districts fail when we passed the every Student Succeeds act. It helps them develop and implement their e. S. S. A. Plans. The plans meet the law requirements. That was requirements that we as a body overwhelmingly voted to include in the alcohol law. Dr. Pletnick, i want to thank you for being here today. While the department of education is doing well to provide feedback to states, at the same time both the president s budget and the republicans funding are slashing key funding for states. Colorado went through an expensive stakeholder process to develop title 2 as part of our state plan for teacher and professional development. Last week the House Republicans went forward with the budget that eliminates funding for title 2 part a for Teacher Development and classroom size reduction. How can states deal with this uncertainty around the use of funds for teacher and professional development for class size reduction 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 2, the impact would be about 16. 9 million in professional development, thats supporting more than 30,000 educators. That would impact about 137 positions we have. And statewide the impact of total title 2 would be about 32 million. Given those education plans included the use of that money does that mean itll send states in fact back to the drawing board for their training plans . I think that would be correct because our budgets are very tight. And again, when we have an elimination of funding that means you have to go back and look at your programs. And quite frankly all the programs we have in our own district i can say are essential, those we provide for professional development. One area we also made progress in the every students succeeds act is Early Learning. Most important studies show early investment in education. The law will hopefully facilitate better collaboration between Early Learning and k12. Can you talk about how states so far are taking advantage to support Early Learning and what lessons we can learn from states that are already spt t submitted their Early Learning and compone ntsz of the plan . It goes back to your first question that the ideas we might are going to be severely undercut if theres no resources to fund them. You have cuts being proposed by the house legislation committee, cuts for medicaid. You put all that together and its hard for states to really envision something robust and necessary and costly like a robust Early Childhood program. And when our committee writes the authorizing legislation, every Student Succeeds act, its only as good as the funding that actually funds those programs we authorize. Dr. Wright, can you briefly explain what the Early Learning is doing . Thank you for that question. Were also monitoring the results of that. With our kindergarten assessment we realized two thirds of our children entering kindergarten were not prepared. So we knew there was a need for prek. So now we were reaching out to all the prek public and private to provide them with professional development free of charge. We honestly believe it is a reliever that is going to make a difference in the state of mississippi. So weave a lot of interest in that and a lot of infrastructure were putting towards that. I think in general and just in brief closing if we havent invited or plan to invite secretary devos for our over sight Committee Hearing as well, and so ill yield back. The gentleman yields back, and we do plan to invite her. I appreciate the time. And this question is actually based on the testimony from dr. Wright, but dr. Pletnick, id like for you to answer this as well. It says in Kentucky Education commissioner Steven Pruitt in the department of education found similar successes in hosting town halls across the state in hosting Department Organizations and public comment. When it was all said and done the department received an input of 6,000 kentuckyians on the matter. 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 defectativeness by linking it more to student outcomes. And that we heard loud and clear. They really viewed an effective teacher as one that produced positive outcomes in children. Those were two we take to heart. Were already in the process of designing resources we continue to push out to our districts and our schools to help them better engage with parents at the local level. And also 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. Okay, dr. Pletnick, did you have similar experiences . We did. And there was a great deal of discussion around those multiple indicators and really defining what future ready means. So there was discussion about the career and college index, discussion about what are those other and significant indicators that would keep us transparent, help our parents, our community understand the accountability system and what students success looks like. Okay, what kind of examples of indicators did you in the end as i mentioned earlier, we do have career and college indicators. We also have indicators around other National Assessments that are utilized kind of open or gate keepers into higher education. We do have advanced coursework as well. So there really is a very long list of indicators. Once this is all implemented and moving forward, planning like dilgts town halls to receive feedback for Continuous Improvement or what methods are you going to continue to have Stakeholder Feedback . I would hope with our state level, at our state department, 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 involved with our stakeholders. Theyve invested a lot of time and energy in this. Weve got to make sure were meeting the needs of our constituents, and those are two very strong ways we can do that. Thank you very much. Ive heard concerns from the department of education that the department has provided that the department here, the federal department, has provided inconsistent feedback to states and submitted plans early when compared one to another. Is this something the goa has found to be true, and if so what has the department done to provide consistent guidance . Yes, sir. So gao as you know doesnt have a stachory renewal of state plans. At the time we did our work tlfrp only a couple of plans that had been submitted for feedback. So we didnt have information at the department. Thats something that we hopefully will be able to look into as we move forward. If i may, i can provide some thoughts on this. I think there definitely were areas where feedback was inconsistent. I think part of it has to do with the fact without regulations there are specific rules around some of the vague areas in the law. Of course you came up with areas that the department can provide future this is an area where the law gives states flexibility and even provides some examples of the indicators that states can use. Number of states are really interested in prioritizing college readiness. And so theyre including things like access and performance and advance placement, dual enrollment, early college. The 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 the state innovation and doing what we all want states to be doing. After all the law specifically states the law can include access and performance on advance coursework. And then when the states tried to do it, they got some push back. Okay, that was helpful. My time has spired and i yield back. Youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you for holing this important hearing about the implementation of the every Student Succeeds act. I want toologist join my colleagues who expressed their opinion and i agree it would be very helpful to hear from the secretary and the department as were talking about implementation. I worked on education issues in my home state of oregon at the local level and then in my state led legislature. I was thrilled to serve on the committee when we worked on the every Student Succeeds act and on the Conference Committee and be there at the bill signing. And it was a great day and looking forward to implementation. Needless to say i was disappointed early in the year when the majority instead of talking about which regulations and which they can support, instead got rid of all of them in the Congressional Review Act. And then at the same time the new administration left without their implementing regulations intended to rush through revised guidance for peer reviewers, and then there was a modified temp lmt for state plans. 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 there has been uncertainty and confusion. Disappointed, yes, but not surprised. And in fact without the e. S. S. A. Regulations now theres a conversation about which mclb regulations are in effect and what we do about those. So they need to play a compliant role in clearing up areas of ambiguity and helping states take advantage of the flexibility thats such an important part of the law. I know in my home state of oregon i had conversations as they were working on their plan about the lack of surnt. They dont want to go down a path and be told months later you cant go down that path. So the department noted that oregons plan proposed to include in the student disability subgroup, students who had been previously identified as students with disabilities but who had exited that status recently. The department cannot use that flexibility even though it was included in the regulations when they were writing their plan. So can you include any other states that were actually blocked . Sure, 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 really prioritize higher thinking skills. And one way we could do that is by providing credit to our students that are performing above proficiency. The law specifically says that the academic achievement indicator needs to measure proficiency. So its questionable as to whether you could actually provide credit for our students at providing above proficient. For example, you have one state not measuring proficiency at all, which is also not consistent with the law. So i totally agree with you the removal of the regulation on top of a new temp llate less than 3 days before the regulation was reviewed thank you. And i also want to follow up. We heard a lot of talk about Stakeholder Engagement. The revised template does not include specific questions about Stakeholder Engagement as well as other questions about e. S. S. A. And i know youve reviewed state plans. And how does the departments decision effected the development of state plans, and based on the review of state plans, are states actually meeting the requirements of the every Student Succeeds act . Thank you for that question. If its not written, you dont know whether its happening or not. And 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 its not in the template doesnt means those requirements dont exist. So its very important we carry out and still oversee the implementations of those questions. Madam, chairwoman, as i yield back i want to take a moment to acknowledge my senior assistant, andrea, w andrew, and he is leaving at the end of the month to go to law school, and i just want to recognize him. Thank you. Dr. Pletnick, thank you for your testimony and being here today. Ultimately leading the lower reading and math scores. This has led to some states to propose absenteeism ive seen this firsthand through an after School Organization 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. And its proven to work. 92 of shine students had exceptionally good or satisfactory school attendance. 97 of studentsenedicated 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 up for success down the road. Can you speak to how state so plans may be encouraging School Districts to leverage title 1 and title 4 opportunities to their students. And how can district partner with state and Community Based . Thank you for that question. And in fact in arizona that was one of the indicators we wanted to include. Because we do see some of those same results that you have. And i can speak to my own district, having those after school opportunities, serve many purposes. But certainly engage students in their learning. And 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 seen as 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 1, title 4, those types of programs, we believe are having a positive impact academically on our underserved populations. Thank you. I yield back the balance of my time, mad amchaam chair. Thank you. Youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. Ms. Pletnick, first of all congratulations on being elected with the e. S. S. A. I was hoping youd be able to explain the reversal of a. A. S. A. s position. Your organization endorsed them, recognizing your three Major Concerns were addressed. Then in february when they were up for discussion and role back, your organization supported the c. R. A. What changed and why this dramatic turn . Again, as an organization we truly support what is in the best interest of all of our schools. And certainly when the regulations i had the opportunity, in fact, to testify before a Senate Committee about those regulations. And 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 a. A. S. A. s position about about making certain we have the most flexibility anda tonomy as we move forward flord to implement e. S. S. A. In terms of the spirit of the law. But ms. Pletnick, i still dont understand the spirit of the change. What explains this reversal of position . You supported the regulations and then suddenly your organization turns around and does a reversal. They support they overturned those regulations. In my mind the reg lags allowed for the implementation of e. S. S. A. I mean i dont have a sense you explained the youve given an adequate explanation. I apologize for thought being clear. Again, i am speaking in broader terms. Are there one or two specifics you can name . Again, i would ask that i be allowed to provide that opportunity for the record going back to a. S. A. In order to provide that. Thats fine. Id love to hear those specifics, read those specifics. Between both the president s Budget Proposal and the fy18 house labor bill, the largest funding stream directly supporting teachers in 90 of districts will be completely eliminated. In your role as super intendant and now being president elect of a. A. S. A. , how would your role now effect teachers in being able to implement it in e. S. S. A. . Not having that funding in order to support the professional development that would allow them to continue to ensure that weave the strategies needed to serve or underserved populations as well as all. Also monies are used in our districts to reduce class size. So an increase in class size would be an issue if title 2 was eliminated. And certainly what would we would find is that it would be very difficult for schools to continue programs like peer mentoring and other things it uhuh lows us to do without that funding. Thank you. I yield back, madam chair. Mr. Allen, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, chairwoman fox and thank you for being with us today. E. S. S. A. Was a significant achievement we initiated to empower state and local education Decision Making while attempting to restrain some of the authority particular 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 road and the federal top down approach. Georgia has gone to Great Lengths to maximize the flexibility provided by e. S. S. A. , to provide its vision. Of course i support this vision and our states commitment to engaging georgians in this planned development. Of course, i look forward to working with the department if the interpretation of e. S. S. A. Does not exceed and the attempt and limits of the law. Our goal here to achieve the every child succeeds. So dr. Wright, have you been encountering some of the same problems georgia has in terms of bing bringing the stakeholders together and 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 we have had absolutely no problem gathering stakeholders. There are a lot of people who want the opportunity to have their voice heard in terms of what happens with their children. 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 federal department of education . In terms of the federal department of arizona trying to get a plan improved in that process . So arizona has submitted their plan, so it would be for that smgz date of september 2017, we have not yet received feedback on the plan. You have not, okay. You have seen as far as what youre trying to implement, is there any lack of interpretation of exactly what you think the law we pass says versus what youre trying to accomplish . I think the arizona plan reflects the e. S. S. A. Law. And so we feel confident in our ability then to have that approved and move forward on the implementation. Okay. Dr. Wright, do you feel what youre trying to do reflects the law that we passed in every respect . Absolutely. Weve had no difficult whatsoever with working within the guardrails that are provided and with as much input as weve had. As ive said weve had over 7,000 pieces of feedback. My advisor committee, the teachers advisor committee, we meet with those folks on a regular base to get the input. Thats great to hear. Because its really exciting to see the efforts that are being put forth by the states to make sure that every Student Succeeds. Ask 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 you for being with us today. What hasnt been addressed so much is just the capacity right now for the department of education to work with states, to work districts in looking at all of these plans. So i really inquired about the number of vacancies. I mean look at that. I mean 12 out of 15 nominees have not even been put forward or 70 of senior staff is vacant. Just thinking about which ones those are. The deputy secretary, there has been no put forward for the assistant secretary of civil rights. We have an acting person whos been quite under fire as you probably know. Theres no nominee for the assistant secretary of planning evaluation and policy development. No nomination for the assistant secretary of special education and rebilitative services. No nominee for the assistant secretary for career and technical adult education. And weve talked about that in the capacity of districts. As the gao representative here, how does that effect the capacity 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 civil serveabouts in any federal agency i think who are respectfully not trying to get out in front of where an Administration May wish to go. I think so. Because as you said theyre dedicated when when youre in limbo, awaiting leadership and direction, thats a difficult thing to do. You want to comment on that as well . How much of a problem is it . Maybe its not a problem. I think its definitely a problem. When you combine lack of capacity with lack of clarity as a result of the decision of 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 consistly and underperforming students. And when the state responds by saying we will identify low performing students, what does that mean . With that regulation in place you dont have a lot of guidance what that means or what that doesnt mean, if its similar with the law or not. So the departments feedback is basically now serving as that guidance. And states have to look at that really closely to see what rules do i have to follow. Sure. And i think you mentioned earlier when it comes to those regulations, looking atika rear and tech, you mentioned that. 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 will have on the ability of states to really serve our most vulnerable students. And one of those areas we have included a requirement in e. S. S. A. Where 95 of all students in each subgroup to participate in annual assessments to make sure low performing students are not encouraged to be absent on test day, one particular example. And if were disaggregating data, thats going to 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 situation they have . So on the funding, i want to go back to actually a comment raised he asked about how states are being able to leverage title 1 and title 4 problems with specific programs. Its pretty hard to leverage something that doesnt exist. Authorized level was 1. 6 billion. Last year 400 million was provided. Thats less than a third of the authorized amount. So being able to use those things like the after School Programs is a real problem. The 95 participation is also a real problem. One place the department has not been consistent is consistently not mentioning the 95 test participation requirement. There are states that simply say were not going to abide by this part of the law or have too little explanation of how theyre going to and mums been the word on the 95 participation requirement. Any other statements youd all like to make to those questions . I know we probably dont have any time left probably. I know this is a really important hearing and when we look back years from now and see how did it go, how was it implemented, i think what you all provided today has been very helpful. Mr. Mitchell, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. The wall street journal noted unfortunate in the Previous Administration apparently did not endorse that bipartisan bill. In fact the previous chair and the chairman of the senate submitted a letter to the secretary three pages of concerns and objections. They frankly were largely ignored. A minority here wegss to relitigate the discussion by the cra. And there are areas of concerns. Theres a whole series of things the department did that overreached the intent of this congress or the Previous Congress and this committee. I wasnt here at the time but frankly voted in favor of the cra because i was offended by the fact that a bill was put forth by the house and senate and the administration decided to do the way it wanted. Thats not the way this administration works. So rather than spending quality time, frankly, whining about the caa we need to get down to questioning the students education. We scheduled meetings around the state, and we scheduled them at two different times. We scheduled a total of 15 initially, but that does not count all the specific stakeholder groups we met with. These were regional meetings mchb we scheduled our first one typically in the afternoon somewhere around 3 00, so those people that could be there could be there. And we scheduled the first one nft area typically at 6 00 or 6 30 to ensure the parents who were working could go after they got off work. So we make sure to cover all areas of the state and also in reaching out to our e. S. S. A. Advisory group is one that as a Diverse Group of individuals on it. Weve 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. Dr. Pletnick, the most important stakeholder, their parents. What did you do to make sure we got effective involvement with this process . In arizona there are a number of committees and subgroups that were established. Certainly our parents are important, our Business Partners are important. All of those people were represented on the various committees. And in addition we did have a survey, and anyone could provide feedback for example, on our measures of success, those ipdicators we were including. There were also, again, meetings that were held across the state, a number of meetings where people could come and engage, get questions, provide clarification and get feedback. I honestly, do not have those numbers with me, but i know it was open, and there was good participation. Im sure it was open. I wasnt questioning that. My concern is we do everything we can to include parents and how this is structured. So thats critical. And i would ask if we can make sure as we look at i know you have nothing to do with the operation, but if we look at Going Forward the parents in the process prospectively. Can you make sure thats going to happen . We can make sure we have stakeholder and parent involvement, absolutely. Last question for you if we could, i guess, would be about the last stage of e. S. S. A. Is identify and assist School Districts that are low performers. Michigan has some legendary low performing School Districts, aunfortunately. My question to you also would be is there a process by which to assess the effectiveness, the identified ones, whether the plans are effective at addressing low performing School Districts . Yes, sir. I think when we have an opportunity to see the monitoring protocols, that the department eventually develops that is one of the things we will be interested in looking at how theyre approaching that. I would be curious if the other two education witnesses dr. Pletnick and dr. Wright, if we get any feedback on how youre going to modify that. We need to talk about not only how were assessing them but are we getting improvementments . Actually, its one of the goals of our Strategic Plan that all schools and districts will be rated c or higher. And our system was to identify the lowest performing schools using subgroup data to do that. We also have protocol in place we have required all our low performing schools to come in for a personal interview, which includes their board members, principals, et cetera and go through what were going to be monitoring and how frequently. The bottom line is are state schools improving. Thank you. If you could respond in writing, i would appreciate it. You have five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. Dr. Pletnick, welcome and im glad youre here. I want to talk about some mitigating factors in terms of how the state plan is improved, how its approved and implementation in the School Districts. Mitt fwating plans being arizona along with mississippi are at the five lowest states in terms of people expenditures to the Public Schools. Arizona about 3,300 under the national average. So that lack of state support in terms of public instruction is a constant in arizona. Its been litigated, referendum, continues to happen yearly at the state level. But now let me ask so thats a constant. And you couple that with the cuts that are being proposed in the education budget, and thats an additional layer of lack of support upon the 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 trumps and secretary devoss singular concept with that regulation. Several schools are going to be held accountable through authorized reporting. Now without that regulation thats been appealed, 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 regulatory requirement would help to improve the transparency of the states, doctor . I do believe if any School System receives federal or state funding 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, 26 meeting go to the state of arizona for medicate to work with children of disabilities. Thats 26 billion that 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 a discussion of a National Voucher tax credit proposal, probably using the tax reform vehicle praprobably that is modeled after state programs that we have in arizona, do you feel that arizona Voucher Program is indeed helping students, and would you recommend as taa National Policy that we model a National Policy after arizonas Voucher Program . I am here at the invitation of chairperson fox to speak on implementation. So im 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 consequence its less of 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. It was submitted and i believe in plai, which would make it for that deadline in september for review. And youve heard the complaints im sure of many parents, stake holders, educational groups relative to the fact that the access and the lack of real dialogue in terms of what that plan was going to be that i think was essentially at 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 share. 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 for that. Without resources asking public School Systems to meet any bench mark, and we see an erode in 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, madam chairwoman. Dr. Wright you mentioned your experience in expanding. And i know theres been some discussion about this. I apologize if its a duplicate question, but its a top priority of this commit eand a top priority of mine as well. Pennsylvania is working on developing their own state plan, response to e. S. S. A. 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 in working with our businesses around the state. We serve on the states Work Force Investment bord. And i think having a seat at the table 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 c. T. E. Plans in high school, but were also looking at how early we can start them in middle school. I think we realize 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 all of our children are career and college ready. Were also reviewing our employment options. Weve got one thats going to have a c. T. E. Endorsement, and thats going to be a nationally recognized endorsement. The students will be able to go right to work if they so choose. The children that are in our classrooms are the ones were going to be depending on. So weve got to ensure theyve got the Academic Skills to do that, but they also have to the career and Technical Skills to do that as well. You mentioned the National Endorsement. Yeah, were looking at the National Endorsement certifications they can have. Weve got a large number of different manufacturing companies. Toyota has a big presence, nissan, stupidity space center has a big presence. So weve got a huge medical area as well as well as smaller businesses looking for people to come to their employment. As i said earlier 65 of Jobs Available are children that are going to need middle school so that would be part of theyre employment . Yes, sir. Interesting idea. Next question both for dr. Wright and dr. Pletnick. Yesterday i had the honor of welcoming chairwoman fox to my district. And we had a round table discussion with education leaders across the district and industry stakeholders as well. And a topic came up that ive heard a lot about in my state senate, in my state and chair and education committee. Im just curious what your states are doing in regards to standardized testing . Super intendants that were there and who ive heard from the past few years kind of felt there was too much emphasis, i guess, on having all students achieve a certain standard as opposed to today i think 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 im guess im curious how both your states are responding to that. Well, in mississippi we have established and adopted a set of very rigorous standards. Prek through grade 12. And i think we owe it to our parents and our community to be very transparent. They depend on us chaev day to ensure theyre children are getting what they deserve. So 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. So thats the approach we have, and thats the approach were sticking to. Dr. Pletnick, could you respond . So in arizona we do have whats called the arizona alignment. As i super intendant i also believe there are many other skills and dispositions we have to ensure students have before they leave us fw they are to be future ready. I think about the fact i really didnt have to think about coding when i was in elementary, yet that is a school that is future ready school. When we talk about the four cs, communication and Critical Thinking, all of those things. So i think there have to be multiple measures, and thats what weve worked towards in arizona. So one test can give us some feedback, but we need multiple indicators to get the true picture of Student Success and school success. Thank you. Ms. Rochester, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chairwoman and Ranking Member scott and also our panel. I was really delighted to hear our chairwoman invited secretary devos to our committee. Whether it is the champions in civil rights that i talked to, those people who are interested in lifting people out of poverty to the corporations in my state, which we had 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 and how e. S. S. A. Is interpreted and regulated is critical. Uncertainty continues to be a concern. Given theres currently no regulatory scheme for the e. S. S. A. Interpretation, what position do you think this puts states in developing and implementing their plans . So i believe whether were talking at the federal level, 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 e. S. S. A. And make certain we are directing all our efforts to that implementation and checking our outcomes. So its critical moving forward we make certain exactly what those targets are so 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 if you could also join in. What impact would the lack of regulation have on underserved populations . That is a monumentally we want to make sure that states when theyre proposing to identify students for Additional Support that while we want to use all the indicators in the to support them we want to make sure kids dont have to fail on everything before theyre actually identified. I think thats a major concern considering a few states have been very clear they want to look at are kids performing on grade level. If theyre not, lets do something about that. The department has pushed back on that a little bit and thats very unfortunate because, frankly, if students are not performing at grade level or not graduating, i dont need to know much else to know something needs to help. I need to know a lot more to know what to do about it but not to whoa s theknow theres a que. The role the regulation provide a lot of clarification. There was a comment earlier about the 95 requirement and whether the and the regulation being overly proscriptive, four options were presented. One of those options in the regulation around the 95 was essentially states choose your own adventure. Come up with your own option. To say there was only four options is not actually entirely the case. As a result, we have states when it comes to how are they going to implement the 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, um, capacity. We were talking about undersecretaries 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. They are external, visionary and all of that but a lot of the detail gets done at that undersecretary level. A lot of the administrative things, theres so much importance, also, to that, that level and so my concern about filling positions is i share miss daviss concern, also, about regulations, i guess, having come from state government, i believe theres a place for regulations. Can we overregulate things . Yes. But, there is a real place and i think what were hearing from all of your testimony across the board is consistency, clarity, that helps people to be able to do their jobs better. It helps us to be able to get better outcomes. So, i have no more questions. Im just going to yield the balance of my time. Thank you very much. Mr. Grossman you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you. I guess ill ask a question either doctor best able to answer it. Could you first give a general overview. We wanted to get a round and past the act around this topdown approach to how you run your schools. Do you feel weve succeeded in that . Are you happy with that or would you like further things done along those lines . Well start with dr. Pletnick. As i 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 to what currently is in place with essa law. I think theres still room for improvement and we need to work on that, teacher evaluation an example of that, some other pieces. So, yes, essa has provided us with some of that autonomy and flexibility but at the state level i think we still have some things well need to do. Okay. Are you satisfied with [ inaudible ], though . Yes. Again i will tell you that we have submitted our plan, we have not gotten any feedback on that plan at this point. Same question for you, dr. Wright. I think the states role at least in mississippi, setting the longterm goals per subgroup area so that we know what we want for our children ten years out. But i think its really the local districts that and the local schools that need to be developing their own respective plans on how they meet the needs of their individual children. I wouldnt presume to know ive got 144 districts all the needs of that so i trust my superintendents and teachers you are satisfied with Student Success. Yes, i am very much so. A little while ago you kind of were talking very positively about kind of more preschool. Have you ever ready anything indicating preschool is not necessarily much of a benefit . No. Quite to the contrary. Preschool, theres too Much Research out there now for us not to be paying attention to our 3 and 4yearolds. Honestly well look to start looking to help children birth through 3. I think thats a thing we have pushed across our district, the amount of Research Conducted recently and longterm effects even in mississippi we can verify, Research Done by Mississippi State on mississippi children. Okay. Youve never ready anything to the contrary, never a long time ago but not within the past i would say five years. Not to my knowledge. Okay. Hmmm. Um, next question, one of the metrics thats supposed to show a Quality School well, ill go to this one. What is an underserved population mr. Lovell, just use that as a phrase but could anybody describe what you consider an underserved population . Well, the law stipulates states are supposed to [ inaudible ] data for accountability and purpose porting purposes for major ethnic and groups for learners, low income groups so those are the categories but generally speaking speaking of underserved populations were referring to. Does it mean lack of money, just poor outcomes . It often refers really to both when you look at the schools that predominantly serve those populations of students, um. In wisconsin, some were underperforming districts have the most money and thats why i wondered what you meant by underserved. Well, so, i think that we would present data that would suggest otherwise. Nationwide or . Oh, sure, across the country. Okay. Okay. Um, final question sometimes one metric used to measure a quality School District is Graduation Rates. I know Graduation Rates are overall up. On the other hand, a lot of times you hear from employers today people who teach in secondary education that they feel the kids arent doing as well or prepared as they used to be. Could you comment, say, on miss nowecky, on the contradiction there. Is it possible or lowering the standards on what it takes to graduate or helping Graduation Rates be up by employers and people in secondary education sometimes feel the kids graduating arent doing as well . Gao has not done any recent work around Graduation Rates so i cant comment from that perspective. I know that the department of educations i. D. Has done some work looking at Graduation Rates statistics and what they mean and dont mean in particular states. Our organization has looked at this and actually will be releasing a report in the next few weeks because that contradiction definitely exists in states in their essa plans have the opportunity to address this including items in their accountability system prioritizing not only a diploma but you get a diploma that really represents you know something. To your question really around Early Childhood. While i havent seen that shows it is ineffective or not necessary, i have Read Research that shows Early Childhood on its own is insufficient, in other words, you cant Early Childhood is not an inoculation, you have to continually invest in kids in their development. I would hope dr. Wright would google that and have no problem finding other things. Dr. Adams, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, chairwoman fox for convening this hearing and thank you to those of you testifying today. I want to reemphasize one of the main points that mr. Lovell mentioned in his testimony that essa is at heart a civil rights law. Federal government has an Important Role to play ensuring equity in education for our children and while states have wide discretion and flexibility to determine how success is measured the federal government sets the standard for success. It is especially true in hi historically underprivileged groups. Mr. Lovell states have the discretion to create and define the metric used for consistent underperformance. In your analysis of state essa plans how are states defining consistently underperforming and do you think this equity guardrail in the law is executed as intended to ensure schools strugglinging to meet those needs 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 continually under performing, then what are we here for . Were reare not supporting them, we are certainly not doing our job. A number of states have proposed ways to do this that ensure that if you are as a student not performing at grade level in math or reading or if a low Graduation Rate those children are identified and something will happen as a result of it. They will receive some sort of support. Unfortunately a number of states are also putting together sort of indexes including a whole bunch of different factors to determine whether a kid is performing or not. And what were concerned about is that if you are performing well in one area, that might mask if you are performing less well in another area. And so, when you combine all these things together, you come up with not a whole lot thats actually usable. We want to be sure that states have the flexibility to, as it is proposed in mississippi, to look at performing grade level, math, reading, if youre not, then you should be able to receive target and support. You dont have to you need to look at each indicator in the system but dont have to fail all of them to in order to receive support. Thank you. Dr. Wisright, you mentioned in your testimony mississippi is including subgroup performance identifying schools for support and improvement. I know only in draft form but how is mississippi planning to measure subgroup performance and get that into the schools rating . We have the data we collect on our statewide assessments that we have just redone grades through 3 and once again in high school. Those data will be disaggregated by subgroups and monitored not only at the state but district level and school level. We will be able to track that data over time to determine whether or not those subgroups are children are continuing to underperform or are making progress. Okay. Thank you very much. I yield back. Thank you. Mr. Garrett, you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. 35 years ago, frightening words from the government aare government and im here to help. Local education rose first correlation in the performance of United States students versus students across the globe and candidly from a state where we ranked between fourth and sixth in educational outcomes on a regular basis i wonder why we are competing are against 49 other states as opposed to a world of other nations. Because thats the Playing Field upon which our children will ultimately compete. Its often said the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Ive seen people attack based on what program they supported or didnt. Its all horse feathers. What we need to focus on as opposed to intentions, outcomes, results, what happens and ill tell you speaking with frustration back six, seven years alg go as i served in the state legislature where we identified failing schools and leave students in these without option for parents who lacked the socioeconomic and financial wear with all to vote with their feet, we doom those children to inferior outcomes and opportunity. If i can i believe in nature or nurture, i will tell you nurture every single time and if the corof theco but we want them to be institutional monopoly all the time trying to create escape hatches for students in places like the five whopping five schools we had the courage to identify failing in virginia that will find a way out. Young people who have just as much fundamental entitlement to single birthright of americanship that is opportunity as every other kid. Im sick of watching kids fail based on their zip code. But jefferson said wisely ill paraphrase the government close to home is most effective, accountable and grchs beoverns. My colleague lamented that essa prevented oregon from particular standards she might felt would best affect outcomes of students in oregon. Doctor, do smart people work with you . I have very intelligent people. And they are professional and trained people . Yes, they are. And they care about the children and district you serve . Simplsts they do. You are the superintendent, correct. I am. How many students does your district have. About 25,000. Can you name one or two of those kids with special needs trying to overcome challenges yourself. I could but im not asking you to but you could. Nobody in this room could, right. You could and care and have smart people and we dont have a monopo monopoly on good ideas. You want, what, best outcomes for the students you serve, is that correct . Absolutely. Okay. You are familiar with the United States student ranks versus their global peers relating to academic performance in math and science. Are you familiar with Historical Data . Not specifically. Are you familiar how we did in 1950, 1960, 1970, versus 1990, 2000, 2010, versus global peers. Are you talking about surveys of outcome occasionally. I would submit with a minute nine seconds as we spent more we go down against the competition. Let me be clear we need to spend money on education but i got an idea that folks in a county in arizona and state of mississippi know better whats needed. Dr. Wright, we talked about cte. Is it good to align the training we give students with the needs of the job providers in the communities . Absolutely. Okay. And who knows better the needs of the job providers in tupelo or biloxi, the people there or in jackson, or the people in washington, d. C. . The people in tupelo and biloxi. Correct. Im biased here. I guess what im driving at here is that this is great. I think essa is a step in the right direction, doesnt have like anything from which washington has warts and pitcherples but you are good smart people who give a damn, pardon me about the xhichildren your communities and we let loose 50 laboratories and finding out what works. Our role since we co opted so much at the federal level to shift the power to the states and localities would you all agree to do whats best and others fall on the plans that proceed. Thank you. Thats rhetorical. Im out of time. The gentlemans time has expired. I was only 12 seconds over, madam chair. Thats a record. Mr. Dusannge, recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair for having this hearing. Mr. Lovell im always taken when i look at the achievement gap by a comment i heard by stanford researcher linda darling some years ago. Well not that long ago, a few years ago if we just continued to do what we knew was the right things to invest in 30 years ago for the past 30 years we wouldnt have an achievement gap. When we look at the difficulties people in mississippi or in concord, california where im from and achievement gap, could you talk a little bit about where accountability comes that, yes, we want local jurisdictions to decide but on the other hand theres a benefit to this research that applies across all 50 counties and the federal government affording that to local communities to be informed on whats happening around the country and why its important for consistency that there is some accountability there. Thank you very much for the question. I actually, i think that chairwoman fox said it very well at the beginning of this hearing saying that essa provides a balance between accountability and autonomy. The reality is that Everyone Needs to have a role in this and there is a federal role to be played, essa is a civil rights law and what essa does, provide a broad framework for the accountability and ensures those kids who have the least have a shot of success. So, its also needs to be well understood that we have seen improvements in educational outcomes over the last decade. Graduation rate as an example. Back in 2000, 2001, if you were to draw a line between the Graduation Rate in 2000 and 2007 8, basically you have a straight line. But then in 2008, something happened. The u. S. Department of education under president george w. Bush issued a regulation around Graduation Rate accountability because apples were not compared to apples across states. Comparing graduation recalculation one state was using one calculation, another was using another. After the federal government issued the regulation in 2008, we saw something pretty remarkable happen. Graduation rates started increasing. As a result, since 2000, 2. 8 million more kids have graduated. Thats a big deal, a big deal for them and a big deal for the nations economy considering that, by 2020, twothirds of jobs are going to require at least some Postsecondary Education and High School Diploma is the first step to getting there. The second part of my questions are, coming from the bay area and appreciate the fact we had a robust field hearings that the chairwoman and Ranking Member were part of and i was lucky enough to be 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 for the Ranking Member, i get this all the time in the bay area is from tech people, we have our challenges on housing and transportation but the thing that comes up all the time from employers, we need to provide a workforce for Global Economy thats changing at warp speed. So, accountability is a big part of my business sector. Again, a lot of these companies will move, i dont want them to move from the bay area but they are but one thing that determines it things like housing costs but also the education system. While its important i think and very much important local control and what doctor wright you had said there, are things in this economy 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. Let any of you respond to that. I think the urgency to that is really the predominant thing to me, how do we maintain our preem mens, innovation in this country and specifically for northern california, the answer to that, investing in not just an education but doing it smartly but doing it in a way thats informed, given how quickly the workforce is changing and demands on that workforce. Mr. Lovell if you can start any of the id be happy to. You know, the essa effort that when theres lowperforming schools or lowperforming students, something has to happen. It doesnt proscribe what happens. And theres the balance. The federal government ensures that we are taking care of our lowperforming kids and leaves it to states and districts and to schools and to my colleagues on my right and my left as to how do that best. The federal government cant do that. Buff what the federal government can do ensure were all playing by the same rules. And i also say that we see a lot of really effective innovation taking place at the local level and a take on california in a positive way in this regard, cte has come up on a number of occasions and in california in the learning initiative there is a lot of really great work going on to integrate rigorous academics with cte. A lot of Important Roles to play and this committee has realized that 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 that our lowperforming kids are being supported when they need it and then the state and local role is to actually implement that. Thank you, mr. Lovell, madam chair. Thank you. Mr. Scott, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. Did the gao conduct a compliance review on planned components or policy decisions made by states like ohio or california, did the gao make any value judgments concerning the planned developments or just and observation of those plans . Just an observation of those plans, sir. We did not make a compliance judgment. Thank you. And we heard complaints from some representatives of civil Rights Groups that flexibility could result in an abuse of of equity compliance. Your plan didnt comment on equity as i understand it. Did you contact 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 gruns who were working with states. Thank you. Mr. Lovell, the whole point of essa and to eliminate grasp providing Educational Opportunities. C youve kind of gone around this but can you show how subgroups so far have addressed equity . How states have addressed equity . Yeah, with with accountability . Thank you for the question. So, um, theres a spectrum, right. Youve got some states that, as i said, are looking at are students performing at grade level and, if they are lets do something about it. You have some states that will be looking at a whole bunch of different indicators and, as i said, i fear that in doing that what well be doing is providing the chance for low achievement to be masked by higher achievement so if you say actually the conversation taking place earlier around Graduation Rates, you can have a high Graduation Rate mean pg kids are actually getting a diploma but may not be reading or doing math at grade level. If you combine those two things together you are not getting the right read on what is happening in the school. Another thing i fear is happening with regard to the role of subgroups in these plans is that when states have report cards, a school gets an a, b, c, d, f, they are not adequately incorporating the performance of each group within their within their grades. So you can have a high letter grade but can have 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. The law stipulates they are to receive evidence based intervention but the schools, districts and states will determine what those interventions are. And well how is that a credible plan . Who decides whether that is there is a credible strategy to address achievement gap . Well, thats a great question. The template that should be by the department of education on the questions around School Improvement there really arent a lot of questions. And so, whats really going to be happening is fairly unclear. Hmm. Why is the 95 testing rule important . For a few reasons. One, we had to have accurate data and, two, we want to make sure that lowperforming kids are not intentionally or unintentionally encouraged to not be present 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 nationally recognized, whats wrong with credentials not nationally recognized . There may be some cte i assume you are referring to the cte program. I think some of our local businesses, those cte programs are going to be developed specifically for them so they may not be an national credential. Having the cte endorsement on the diploma is a students option so they can either go for the traditional diploma or for a cte endorsements on their diploma. That is their option but the local businesses may not have a National Certification but they will have a certification that will allow them to assume a job in the local business. But, they went for National Certification. They can go anywhere in the United States. I think thats the power of having National Certification, children and families are mobile and allow them to look around the nation and see where it can earn them the most money or where they want to move to. The National Academy foundation, students that participate in the academy, again the navtrack certification are graduating from high school with their diploma and get that certification and 13 companies have Big Companies like at t, cisco, Jpmorgan Chase give those students preferential hiring treatment when theyre done with Postsecondary Education. There are ways to really incentivize this and make sure when kids are graduating they graduate with something that will help them down the road. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you very much, mr. Scott. Its now my turn to ask questions of the panel. Dr. Wright, you talk about mississippi how Mississippi State plan is related to the state boards Strategy Plan in mississippi. And we hope that essa allows you the flexibility to integrate the plan youre developing under essa with the work the state is already doing. Do you and your department, state board and other stakeholders around the state see that integration as possible and desirable or is it your essa work something thats happening separate from the other reform work going on in the state . Thats a great question. We look at it very much as integrated. We feel very strongly our state Strategic Plan is a strong one and looked at essa as a way to strengthen that plan and refine that plan and give us the opportunity to add other components we may not have had in that. 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 had the privilege of serving on a longterm Goal Committee that established the goals as part of essa and we were certain to align those goals to make certain what the state developed was also reflected in the state plan when the agency submitted those. Great. Thank you. Dr. Wright, weve heard criticisms which continue throughout the process for what became essa. States cant be trusted to hold schools accountable and intervene in lowperforming schools. And certainly mr. Garrett touched on this in his comment. You talked about School Improvement being an important element in the plan that mississippi is developing. Obviously, this is something that states and districts must do and should do. But, essa largely puts the actual strategies back in your hands. Could 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 six of our plan ensuring or district and schools are rated c or higher. I feel very strongly Everybody Needs to be held accountable. That starts with me, our team and owe our parents to ensure we are 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 even got a totally different process were using about having them coming in and justify even their spending to ensure they have evidencebased interventions they are spending their money on not just interventions that do not have any evidence of working. And so that is going to be something were doing on an ongoing basis. I feel very strongly the children of our state deserve nothing less than the best and we have to ensure as a state we monitor that very closely because our children not only do our children depend on it but or parents do and trust us to make sure that happens. Thank you. Another question dr. Wright. Dr. Pletnic has talked about how she applauds the planning approach in arizona even though she doesnt agree with everything in the plan. And youve talked about the stakeholders youve engaged with and how your state plan reflects the view of these stakeholders and by the way its an impressive process that you talked about. Im sure that not every stakeholder, though, agrees with everything thats in the draft plan so far. So, how have you engaged with critics to at least ensure everyone 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 anybody in front of you advocating are 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 and three different years and that kind of drove my teachers and superintendents a little crazy. So, i said were going to hold tight on an accountability 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 coming in saying we would love a Climate Survey embedded into our accountability system i said if you can just press pause were putting a task force together at the end of the third year to take a look at our entire system and say are there any unintended consequences or things we can add . Weve acknowledged what they want but try to provide a reason why we either can or cannot include that in our plan. Great. 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 by participating in whats going on, as everybody has indicated, we have an important subject here. I would now like to recognize Ranking Member scott for his closing remark. Thank you, madam chair. We have 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 funding. Our priorities. Weve heard the necessity having many of the programs within essa actually funded because if were asking them to get the job done, weve identified Technical Assistance to teachers, afterSchool Programs, other things that can be very helpful and 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, the last, of course, essa. It has two major requirements, one is a requirement that lolts assess and ascertain whether or not there are achievement gaps and where they find them having a meaningful strategy to eliminate those. Dr. Wright has indicated what a meaning strategy might look like. I think it is significant it wasnt just one program in reaction. Its a longterm strategy that starts with Early Childhood education and following the students and ascertain whether or not the strategy is working and making sure you are actually addressing the achievement gap. Theres flex sdinibility how to assess and strategy to eliminate the achievement gap but no flexibility on the requirement the assessment be done and that the accountability doing something about it is credible. And if a state fails to adequately explain how they are going to assess for achievement gaps or fails to outline a credible strategy to address those achievement gaps its the 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 organizations and stakeholders about their engagements in essa approval so far. Letters from the advocacy institute, council of parent attorneys and advocates, ncaap Legal Defense and Education Fund and national down 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 a 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 state. I think that many times people tend to think that 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, um, 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. Superintendents. 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. But i think too many times what we say to the American People is that we can have equality in outcome. And 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 make and it didnt happen. So, i believe in equal Educational Opportunities, but i dont think were gonna 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 to those of you who are administrators, bless you for what you do, particularly bless 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 mr. Dissange brought this up because its true again 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 education, whether st its a formal process is really important. But, i think were moving in the right direction with essa and im, again, particularly glad to hear our two ad 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. Cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you and coming up wednesday morning well continue our conversation on the federal budget. Republican congressman tom reed from new york will join us to talk about that and efforts to boost manufacturing. Also ohio congressman tim ryan on the future of the democratic party. Also William Baldwin from the wall street journal, the future of nafta, the trump administrations attempt to redraft it. Live at 7 00 eastern, wednesday morning. Join the discussion. The House Budget Committee meets this week to mark up the House Republican budget blueprint for fiscal year 2018. Thats live wednesday starting at 10 00 a. M. Eastern here on cspan3. You can also watch online at cspan. Org or listen on the free cspan radio app. A recently