Giving Compass' Take:

• California is one of the last states to get their Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan completed. Steve Snyder explains why California's plan differs from other states. 

• What do ESSA plans mean for education philanthropy? What are the strengths and weaknesses of your state's ESSA plan?

• Learn how the potential of ESSA can be fulfilled. 

After nearly a year of discussion and three rounds of revisions, California’s Board of Education on July 11th approved its final version of its state accountability plan known as ESSA, to comply with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.

  1. A federal thumbs-up is now virtually guaranteed. In a letter to the state, a top Department of Education official wrote that he expected the department to approve the plan if California agreed to the feds’ latest round of changes.
  2. The plan prioritizes tracking of suspensions. Each state had to choose a way of evaluating schools that didn’t revolve around academics.
  3. How California will work to boost struggling schools. The last sticking point for California was how and when to identify the lowest-performing schools and those that are struggling to serve student groups.
  4. Only three states have not won final approval from the feds. The other two are Utah and Florida.
  5. What took so long? Carrie Hahnel, deputy director of research and policy at The Education Trust–West, said that "The state was working on its own accountability system before ESSA, and they’ve essentially taken their plan and tried to wedge it into the ESSA template."

Read the full article about California’s final ESSA plan by Steve Snyder at The 74.