SEAs are leveraging ESSA requirements and increased flexibility to specify SEA and LEA roles and push evidence-based, locally contextualized improvement strategies.¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · qualitative r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2019 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Many SEAs use ESSA requirements to define an increased district role, and the majority of interviewed personnel described leveraging ESSA flexibility to design improvement plans meeting their districts' specific needs. → Dunn 2019

Evidence¶

Dunn 2019¶

Dunn, L., & Ambroso, E. (2019). Balancing act: State and district roles in school improvement under ESSA. San Francisco, CA: WestEd. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED602966

q2 · i? · qualitative · r2

Interview finding from the 10-SEA study. Louisiana's example includes requiring identified schools to choose high-quality curricula and a professional development vendor, publishing guidance on LEA options, and competitively allocating its 7% school-improvement set-aside.

"Many SEAs are using ESSA requirements to help define an increased role for districts in improvement efforts."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Most state ESSA plans emphasized the district's role in school improvement over the state agency's role, a shift from No Child Left Behind. — related
• An analysis of 23 state ESSA plans identified four main categories of SEA and LEA roles in school improvement: LEA Independence, SEA Oversight, SEA Resource, and SEA–LEA Collaboration. — related
• SEAs take on multiple, malleable roles in their work with LEAs, shifting based on identified needs, capacity, and context. — related
• SEA staff describe their role as providing both support and accountability to LEAs, and describe struggling to balance the two. — related
• SEAs differentiate support to districts based on the number of CSI/TSI-identified schools, district capacity, and district willingness to engage. — related
• The SEA-as-resource-provider role was the most commonly emphasized approach, named in 10 of 23 state ESSA plans. — related
• SEA administrators report shifting from compliance monitoring and grants management toward meaningful support and capacity-building for identified schools — related
• Utah's state education agency successfully piloted and tested its ESSA resource allocation review process with LEAs and schools in spring 2023. — related