March 4, 2020

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) is requesting federal approval of an amendment to the State’s Plan for implementation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015. The revisions in this amendment are technical in nature resulting from changes in state policy governing various accountability indicators and the availability of data not available during the original development of the plan.

The revisions impact the following four topics in order of appearance within the document: 1) the English Language Learner Progress (ELP) indicator; 2) the attendance indicator; 3) the identification of Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) schools; and 4) technical assistance to CSI schools. The WVDE has drafted a set of simple revisions to the Plan located on the following pages:

  • Page 9 – changes the response to “yes” for including the results of students previously identified as English learners (EL) in the EL subgroup on the state assessment for purposes of state accountability.
  • Pages 16-17 – revise the long-term goal for ELP based on four years of ELP assessment data; only one year of data was available when the long-term goal was developed.
  • Pages 22-24 – revise the indicator for progress in achieving ELP based on analysis of four years of ELP assessment data.
  • Pages 25-26 – revise the manner in which the Attendance indicator will be calculated to represent the percentage of chronically absent students in lieu of the percentage of faithfully present students.
  • Pages 30-31 – revise the performance-level cuts for ELP and Attendance based on revisions listed above.
  • Page 36 – adds language to the third category of CSI school identification to clarify how the state will assure that the minimum of 5% of Title I schools will be identified during each identification cycle.
  • Page 43 – adds language to clarify activities that will be completed by CSI schools.
  • Page 93 – revises the Measures of Interim Progress for Achieving ELP based on the revision of the ELP long-term goal on pages 16-17.

“These revisions to West Virginia’s State ESSA Plan help to clarify measures in areas of English Learner Progress, attendance and CSI schools so that proper reporting can be done,” said West Virginia Superintendent of Schools W. Clayton Burch. “We are seeking the public’s input on these proposed revisions and encourage individuals to review the changes and comment online.”

The WVDE is seeking public comment on the revisions through April 1, 2020. To view the revisions and make public comment, please visit: https://wvde.state.wv.us/policies/essa-plan-revision-2020-04.html.