Kentucky Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt is asking educators and other education shareholders to send feedback to the U.S. Department of Education (USED) on proposed regulations for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Kentucky’s new accountability system must conform to the regulations, which provide the implementation details for the law, or the state must apply for waivers for those portions of the system that do not conform.
Pruitt has testified twice before congressional committees about problems he sees with the regulations if they are implemented by USED in their present form.
“The regulations would severely limit the ability of states to be flexible and innovative as Congress envisioned when it passed ESSA. We would go backwards to the compliance mentality that was imposed by No Child Left Behind,” he said.
Shareholders also are asked to submit feedback to USED, with the goal of getting at least 1,000 Kentuckians to submit comments. The number of people USED hears from can help make a difference in getting changes made.
You may use some of the issues Pruitt raised in his congressional testimony or review the regulations and compose your own opinions.
Here are resources for assisting you in providing comments:
The deadline is Aug. 1.
I support Every Student Succeeds Act as written and I am concerned that the ESSA draft regulations will return to NCLB. We need more local control of assessment and accountability index scores more applicable to our state. We need to make sure that one accountability system is completed before switching to a new one. It is important that teacher evaluations are NOT solely based on standardized test scores. I like that collective bargaining has been expanded.