Washington, D.C. — A new report released today by the Center for American Progress and Knowledge Alliance provides a framework for how state education agencies can maximize collaborative efforts to implement evidence-based school improvement practices following the implementation of the Every Students Succeeds Act, or ESSA.
The passage of ESSA has meant a shift away from federal mandates toward greater state and local authority, as well as a greater emphasis on evidence-based school improvement practices. The report from CAP and Knowledge Alliance is aimed at providing clarity around the definition of “evidence-based” that ESSA uses—a change from the use of “scientifically based research” as required by the previous K-12 education law, the No Child Left Behind Act. The brief also provides a framework for how state education agencies can maximize collaborative efforts to implement evidence-based school improvement practices.
“The passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act opened the doors for state and local policymakers to meet the promise of evidence-based school improvement,” said Scott Sargrad, Managing Director of K-12 Education Policy at CAP and co-author of the report. “State and local policymakers and educators can use this report as a guide for making effective decisions when it comes to selecting and implementing evidence-based approaches.”
“We hope that this report provides suggestions that help states and districts work together and with federally supported initiatives such as Regional Educational Laboratories and Comprehensive Centers to meet the promise of evidence-based education,” said Steve Fleischman, co-author of the report and CEO of Education Northwest, as well as the current chairperson of Knowledge Alliance.
The report also provides recommendations for state and local policymakers that focus on encouraging state education agencies to work with national and local governmental and community agencies to act as a single, cohesive system that promotes clarity and coordination to achieve the promise of evidence-based school improvement.
The CAP and Knowledge Alliance report released today is part of a new series from CAP—intended to serve as a resource for state and local education policymakers—on the implementation of ESSA. The first report in the series provided a 50-state analysis of school accountability systems and outlined a starting point for states to develop strong systems, while future products will examine, among other topics, specific school accountability indicators and policies to support school turnaround.
Read “Better Evidence, Better Choices, Better Schools: State Supports for Evidence-Based School Improvement and the Every Student Succeeds Act” by Steve Fleischman, Caitlin Scott, and Scott Sargrad.
For more information or to speak with an expert, contact Allison Preiss at [email protected] or 202.478.6331.