Responding to the Every Student Succeeds Act With the PLC at Work ™ Process. Richard DuFour

language proficiency. At the high school level, schools must also include graduation rates. But states can include other factors, such as student engagement, faculty engagement, school climate and safety, access to and completion of advanced coursework, postsecondary readiness, or whatever else the state feels is significant to assess the quality of a school. No longer will schools be labeled as failing if they miss an achievement target for a single group of students. States can take a more holistic look to determine whether schools are succeeding or failing.

       States can take a more holistic look to determine whether schools are succeeding or failing.

      Every three years, the states must report on Title I schools among the lowest 5 percent, high schools with graduation rates of less than 67 percent, and Title I schools with one or more low-performing subgroups among the lowest 5 percent. Local districts are responsible for providing the plan and assistance to improve these low-performing schools. If the district is unable to help these schools meet improvement criteria, the state is required to step in and implement more rigorous action.

      NCLB’s mandate that classrooms be staffed with highly qualified teachers has been replaced by a provision that all teachers working in Title I-A programs must meet their state’s certification and licensure requirements, and poor and minority students in schools receiving the funds must not be taught by ineffective teachers at higher rates than other students. The controversial RTTT stipulations that teacher evaluations include evidence of student growth on a standardized achievement test and support merit pay cease to exist, although states may elect to make them part of their teacher evaluation process. Because in many states these provisions required legislative action to apply for RTTT grants, it will take legislative action to reverse the policy.

An Opportunity for Change

      Senator Alexander painted a rosy picture of the impact of the law when he stated, “What I believe is that when we take the handcuffs off, we’ll unleash a whole flood of innovation and ingenuity classroom by classroom, state by state, that will benefit children” (Klein, 2016b).