The West Virginia Department of Education was charged with developing an Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) state plan to articulate how West Virginia will strengthen and support student achievement. The major components of the ESSA state plan address school accountability and support for improvement, academic standards and assessment, support for excellent educators, and supports for all students. West Virginia’s plan is a comprehensive, individualized system of support that will utilize education partnerships to promote student growth.
West Virginia’s ESSA state plan was approved by the U.S. Department of Education in early 2018, and the Mountain State was one of the first of the second-round submission states to get their ESSA Plan approved.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed into law on December 10, 2015. It reauthorizes the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which was previously reauthorized as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The ESSA requires each state to develop an implementation plan in consultation with school and community stakeholders. This website is designed to give all stakeholders information related to:
- the required ESSA State Plan components
- the ESSA decision points that will be incorporated into the ESSA State Plan
- opportunities to engage in the decision making process as a stakeholder for the ESSA State Plan
ESSA – State Plan Development
The West Virginia Department of Education is charged with the development of an ESSA State Plan with a submission deadline of September 2017. The ESSA State Plan will articulate how West Virginia’s schools will implement the various requirements of the legislation. Major component sections of the Plan will include:
- Academic Standards and Assessment: states must describe challenging academic standards and assessments that are consistent with the regulations in Section 1111(b)(1) of ESSA.
- School Accountability and Support for Improvement: states must describe their school accountability system which must include various indicators of student achievement and outcomes. States must also describe its system of support for improving schools that are underperforming and identified by the accountability system to require differentiated supports for improvement.
- Support for Excellent Educators: states must describe their strategies for recruiting and retaining highly effective educators, providing supports to improve educator effectiveness and assuring that all student have access to highly effective teachers.
- Support for All Students: states must describe how it will ensure that all students receive a fair, equitable and high quality education with a focus on specific subgroup interventions.
Through this website, stakeholders will have the opportunity to provide input to decision making processes around a variety of issues that will be addressed in each of the Plan components listed above.
ESSA – Resources
- The U.S. Department of Education’s ESSA website
- FAQs on the transition to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provided by The U.S. Department of Education
- Resources for ESSA outlined by the Council of Chief State School Officers
- The National Parent Teacher Association has created a parent factsheet to help answer questions and concerns over the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The two-page guide helps parents navigate ESSA’s impact on classroom instruction, standards, accountability and how to get involved in the implementation process, among other topics.
Review West Virginia’s ESSA Plan
Click below to review West Virginia’s ESSA plan, which was submitted to the U.S. Department of Education on September 11, 2017.