How Districts Are Responding to Every Student Succeeds Act Flexibility for School Improvement Actions and Support

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Three
  In Roundtable Session: Improving Low-Performing Schools Through Accountability Policy Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (Table 2)

Abstract

The flexibility that ESSA granted states in developing criteria for identifying CSI schools also extended to state and local actions to spur improvement in CSI schools. Unlike its predecessor, the No Child Left Behind Act, which mandated specific accountability consequences (e.g., the provision of school choice and supplemental education services) and required identified schools to choose from a menu of improvement strategies, ESSA largely leaves decisions about school improvement approaches to states, districts, and schools. It charges districts with developing and supporting the implementation of an improvement plan for each CSI school, specifying only that the improvement plan be aligned with school needs, include evidence-based practices, and engage relevant stakeholders. By empowering districts and schools with greater decision-making authority, ESSA aims to promote improvement efforts that are better tailored to local needs and contexts; however, it assumes that districts—with support from their state—have the capacity to effectively leverage this authority to realize improvement. This paper will examine how the district’s role in facilitating improvement among CSI schools is playing out in the context of ESSA’s heightened flexibility for locally-determined improvement approaches. We will highlight the approaches district leaders have taken in identifying strategies, supporting schools in conducting needs assessments and determining their goals, progress monitoring and providing on going supports for implementation, and coordinating resource allocations, including those resources provided by state agencies and regional technical offices.

Methods: In each of the three states, the study team conducted semi-structured interviews with district administrators responsible for CSI implementation in a purposively chosen sample of districts that varied in size, urbanicity, and demographics. Collectively, we interviewed approximately 40 district officials across nearly 20 districts. Interview topics included districts’ experiences with state procedures for identifying CSI schools, CSI school improvement planning and monitoring practices, supports for CSI schools, assistance from state or regional support providers, and resources allocated for CSI school supports. Analysts coded verbatim transcripts of the interviews in NVivo and then synthesized the coded data using structured data capture spreadsheets that facilitated cross-district analysis.

Results: Results will examine the extent to which CSI designation matters as a lever for school improvement, including the implications it has held for resource allocation, increased attention to evidence-based strategies for improvement, and differentiation of supports to identified schools. Results will also highlight how changes in states’ CSI identification and exit criteria—such as the types of measures used and the procedures used to assess school performance across the measures—have influenced district approaches to improvement. Finally, this paper will describe whether and how districts are organizing supportive structures and systems to enable CSI school leaders to better understand needs contributing to their CSI status, identify and prioritize strategies to address those needs, and monitor their progress in improving.

Significance: This paper will provide one of the first detailed looks at districts’ role in promoting school improvement under ESSA accountability systems, shedding light on how key shifts in federal and state accountability policy are translating into actions at the local level.

Authors

• Kylie Klein, American Institutes for Research
  Presenting Author

• Andrea Boyle, American Institutes for Research
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kerstin A. Carlson Le Floch, American Institutes for Research
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anna Healy, American Institutes for Research
  Non-Presenting Author