ABOUT

About Promise to Practice

States have a responsibility and opportunity to create systems that meaningfully address underperforming schools in order to provide all students with a strong, equitable education.  Check State Plans: Promise to Practice is an independent peer review analysis that looks across 17 states to see how states are providing resources and supports to their districts to target schools that are most in need. The analysis seeks to highlight best practices being used in these states, and to identify specific ways for each state to improve upon its efforts to date.

 

Culminating with a list of recommendations, “Check State Plans: From Promise to Practice,” is follow-up to the “Check State Plans” reviews released last year. This project is the result of a partnership between HCM Strategists and the Collaborative for Student Success.

 

See the results of Check State Plans: Promise to Practice

 

Learn more about Check State Plans peer review of education accountability plans states submitted to the U.S. Department of Education in 2017

 

The Process:

 

The process of evaluating state progress on school improvement efforts across the nation began earlier this year. HCM conducted a multi month audit of state education agency websites looking for core documents related to school improvement efforts underway by every state. Specifically, HCM was looking for details on how states are approaching the allocation of the 1003a funding in ESSA and the types of resources and supports states are developing for their districts with a particular focus on the state’s overall approach to equity.  Surveys and follow-up interviews conducted by Education First with state education officials further informed the progress to date of each state.

 

A panel of expert peer reviewers were convened and provided a portfolio of state materials to review, using a rubric designed by HCM Strategists, consisting of multiple indicators that have been highlighted by experts and organizations focused in this area of work. The peer reviewers evaluated each state on the basis of their own expertise, and then met to discuss their thoughts on each state. The result of that process is both individual state reports and a national report of recommendations that grew out of the peer’s observations.

 

 

 

What states were analyzed?

Seventeen states were chosen to be reviewed in this initial round because they had the most publicly-available information at the start of the peer review process. These states include:

  • Arizona
  • Colorado
  • Connecticut
  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • Idaho
  • Illinois
  • Indiana
  • Louisiana
  • Massachusetts
  • Minnesota
  • Nevada
  • New Mexico
  • New York
  • North Dakota
  • Tennessee
  • Texas

 

How were states reviewed?

Peer reviewers reviewed several state specific documents including a state’s formal school improvement plan application, rubric, state guidance and supporting materials and an independent survey, conducted by Education First, that was commissioned to support this work. Plans were reviewed and received feedback across 8 different categories which included a state’s: vision, funding, rigorous review process, continuous improvement and monitoring, capacity building and autonomy, engagement, and sustainability and were either rated as: exemplary, strong, adequate, needs improvement or weak across those categories.


Click here to visit The74.com and see all of the publicly available content that was reviewed by the peer reviewers

 

Click here to see Education First’s survey results.

 

Who are the expert peer reviewers?

Independent peer reviewers who participated in one or both rounds of the ESSA plan review process of Check State Plans, and new individuals with specific expertise in school improvement research and/or practice at the state/district and school level, Promise to Practice experts were comprised of approximately 25 peer reviewers include former state chiefs, educators, members of the civil rights and disability communities, and education experts from around the country.

Click here to see the list of peers

 

 

What came out of the peer review? 

Promise to Practice highlights best practices being used in these states and identifies areas for improvement.  Besides the full report which can be read here, 17 distinct state reports identify each state’s strengths and offers suggestions of alternative strategies to implement best practices widely believed to improve outcomes. Click here to find your state’s review.

 

Visit the “Check State Plans: From Promise to Practice” here.

 

 

About HCM Strategists

HCM Strategists, LLC (HCM) is a public policy and advocacy firm committed to working toward equitable and meaningful change in both education and health care. The K-12 Practice is dedicated to improving student achievement for all students, but especially those low income and minority students who are being underserved by the public education system.

About the Collaborative for Student Success

The Collaborative for Student Success is a non-profit organization working to improve public education through a commitment to high standards for all students. The Collaborative believes that state, district and local efforts to implement rigorous, comparable education standards and meaningful assessments are an important and necessary step to ensure all students are prepared to succeed in life after high school—whether that be college or a career.

 

Read the report

Find your state

Read the Recommendations

Meet the Peers

About the Check State Plans Project

Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states have been given a unique and important opportunity to shape and customize a plan that advances educational opportunities in bold and innovative ways for all students.

 

The Check State Plans project is based on the belief that states need to embrace the flexibility ESSA offers them, and that their plans should implement strong state-level accountability systems that are rooted in the following principles:

 

Set the bar high for what students need to know and understand:
With a focus on college- and career-ready state standards, preferably comparable across states to protect all students, particularly military-connected and mobile students; annual statewide assessments aligned to a state’s college- and career-ready standards that have been validated by outside experts; and a rigorous, NAEP-like benchmark for proficiency on the state assessments.

 

Focus on closing the achievement gap in math and English:
Including clearly articulated statewide goals for improving reading and math assessment results, particularly for low-income students and students of color; an effective plan to close achievement gaps; and policies that promote a comprehensive equity agenda rooted in publicly-reported school and district performance results that are disaggregated by race, income and learning needs.

 

Ensure that parents and communities have access to meaningful data:
By laying out steps to make the state’s overall performance of its K-12 system highly transparent to the public, in addition to a plan to make an accurate picture of individual school performance accessible to parents. This should include straightforward school ratings with summative scores or dashboards of indicators that can combine to inform summative ratings.

 

Have a real plan for helping those schools that have been historically failing:
Rooted in a tool to inform state action on effective interventions, meaningful supports and/or appropriate consequences for schools and districts that are not meeting their goals.

 

 

About the Collaborative for Student Success

 

The Collaborative for Student Success is a non-profit organization working to improve public education through a commitment to high standards for all students. The Collaborative believes that state, district and local efforts to implement rigorous, comparable education standards and meaningful assessments are an important and necessary step to ensure all students are prepared to succeed in life after high school—whether that be college or a career.

 

About Bellwether Education Partners

 

Bellwether Education Partners is a national, nonpartisan nonprofit with more than 50 professionals dedicated to helping education organizations become more effective in their work and achieve dramatic results, especially for the most underserved students.

MEET THE PEER REVIEWERS