The federal government released rules today designed to help states improve schools and narrow achievement gaps. The ‘Every Student Succeeds Act’ provides states a broad framework to support troubled public schools and struggling students.
The first draft of Montana’s plan to comply with the new federal law was released earlier this month.
Montana School Superintendent, Denise Juneau:
"There is a little more flexibility in there on how we measure school success," Juneau says. "We’re still required under the federal education law to measure things like graduation rate, academic achievements, we still have to give an annual assessment."
But states can also use other indicators to measure school success. Montana’s proposing to take ‘school climate’ into account:
"Thing about how do kids feel about school, is engagement and school functions and activities important to student learning," says Juneau.
The public comment period for Montana’s draft plan ends December 16.
Juneau says those comments will be reviewed and the state will submit a formal plan to the federal government by the end of December.