ESSA

Have you heard about the Every Student Succeeds Act? It’s a new law that gives our community the power to make sure our schools are supporting all of our students. Learn more about this law and how you can play a role in it.

An acronym worth knowing:

Federal education law, ESSA, offers opportunity for improvement

There is one certainty about the world of education. It is extremely fond of acronyms – shorthand labels for almost everything that has anything to do with what happens in and around the nation’s classrooms.

It can be easy to get bogged down by the jargon, sometimes to the point of frustration. But one recent addition to the lexicon is worth noting – and remembering. It is ESSA, short for the Every Student Succeeds Act, the main federal K-12 education law that aims to equalize opportunity for all students.

Kentucky is in the midst of creating a plan on how the state will comply with the new law, which shifts much of the responsibility for identifying measures of success for students and teachers back to states and local school districts.

This is a prime opportunity to build on Kentucky’s progress that has resulted in an upward climb on academic rankings from the nation’s cellar to the middle tier of states.

Kentucky’s strong academic standards provide a solid foundation on which to continue building a system that closes the achievement gaps that persist between groups of students. Doing that is critical to providing each and every student with a high-quality education that will provide the bridges to opportunity that all need and deserve.

ESSA, implemented the right way in Kentucky, can help ensure that these bridges are wide enough, accessible enough and strong enough to enable students to gain the skills and knowledge they need to succeed beyond high school. Share your support, opinions, or suggestions about ESSA by emailing SlamdunkKY here.

Slamdunk Kentucky will continue to be engaged with state education and policy leaders on the creation of the state’s plan and encourages community and business leaders to follow the developments and make your voices heard about the importance of educational excellence for all Kentuckians. More information is available online at: http://education.ky.gov/comm/Pages/Every-Student-Succeeds-Act-(ESSA).aspx

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