Secretary Betsy DeVos has proposed a pilot program that awards school districts flexibility in the use of federal funds and relief from the rules that would otherwise prevent school districts from implementing a student-centered finding system.

In the past few weeks, Congress finalized the FY18 budget and proposed FY19 budget, including proposals that continue to pursue wide-ranging cuts in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

Last week state education officials launched the fall 2017 California School Dashboard, a Web site that provides valuable information on multiple measures regarding student and school performance in an easy-to-understand report card format.

On August 11, the CDE released a document in tracked changes format that shows the revisions made to the May 2017 draft of the ESSA State Plan that shows exactly how the State Plan has changed based on stakeholder input and direction from the SBE.

ACSA’s Accountability and Continuous Improvement Task Force, chaired by Ralph Porras, met on August 2 in Sacramento to continue discussions with the State Board of Education, California Department of Education and California Collaborative for Educational Excellence staff on various topics.

The CDE is seeking input from the public, including school administrators, on its draft of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) State Plan from May 22 to June 30, and all interested members of the public are encouraged to submit input.

ACSA staff developed a two-minute illustrated video describing the key components and purpose of the California School Dashboard. The video was first released at the State Board of Education meeting on March 8, and received positive recognition from both the Board members and ACSA’s administrators who have seen the video in the last week.

With the state closing in on the launch of the first phase of the new accountability and continuous improvement system, ACSA has taken a leadership role in pushing for cooperation with stakeholders, in addition to providing valuable resources to district and site leaders, parents, and members of the community.

On Friday, March 10, Governor Brown’s office announced appointments to the State Board of Education.