Massachusetts Consolidated State Plan Under ESSA – Draft for Public Comment   

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education welcomes your comments on our draft ESSA State Plan. Please submit feedback through this survey, or email essa@doe.mass.edu. The deadline for public comment is March 9, 2017. We expect to submit our plan to the U.S. Department of Education on April 3, 2017.

Massachusetts ESSA Plan: Executive Summary (draft for discussion)   

Massachusetts ESSA Plan: Highlights (draft for discussion)   

Overview

On December 10, 2015, President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) into law, reauthorizing the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) and replacing the most recent reauthorization of ESEA, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). With a few exceptions, ESSA will first take effect at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year. The law includes provisions to help ensure improved outcomes for all students receiving elementary and secondary education, including the following:

• States must establish high academic content standards, and schools must teach all students  those standards to help prepare them for college and careers
• States, districts, and schools must share information with families, students, and communities regarding annual statewide assessments that measure students' progress toward these high standards
• States and districts must establish systems of accountability and support for all schools, and provide particular support to the lowest-performing schools, schools with low-performing subgroups, and schools with low graduation rates