New federal law for schools the topic of Pineville forum

State Superintendent of Education John White was in Pineville on Wednesday, continuing a state tour to discuss the Every Student Succeeds Act with school, business and community leaders.

His audience at Pineville High School included superintendents, BESE and school board members and other administration from as many as six Central Louisiana school districts, including Avoyelles, Grant, LaSalle, Rapides, Vernon and Winn.

Accordingly, discussion about the new federal law centered around how it will affect the state's rural districts as well as funding for low-performing schools and accountability.

White said ESSA policies will take effect at the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year. States have discretion to put the law into action in a way that fits their unique needs. That is why the state department wants feedback before drafting a plan to be approved by BESE, the governor and ultimately the U.S. Department of Education.

White repeatedly called ESSA a law of "equity." It does not require specific tests or standards, though states are required to give some rating to individual students and schools each year.

Speaking to equality gaps here in the state, White noted that by federal standards 70 percent of students are classified as coming from low-income homes. That same population makes up only 35 percent of the state's "gifted" students.

"Something is wrong there," he said.

Rapides Parish School Board Member Sandra Franklin said she hopes those statistics are a consideration in plans to achieve equality through ESSA.

"Resources are always the issue" for students at low-performing schools, Franklin said. " ... It's not because they can't learn. They're not having the same access."

ESSA will require the state to spend  7 percent of Title I funding on chronically low-performing schools. White said that means the amount of money Rapides schools already receive for turnaround programs could nearly double.

Professional development and support for teachers will be another funding priority of ESSA, White said.

Some like Debbie Meaux, president of the Louisiana Association of Educators, see ESSA as an opportunity to improve the letter grade system that determines school performance.

"What needs to happen is when I see an A on a school or a B or a C or an F is that I know why that school has that score," Meaux said. "I think that ESSA is embracing the fact that it's not all academics."

Winn Parish Steve Bartlett said he hoped scores would take into account the unique challenges of rural districts.

"Everything from the certification of our teachers ... the physical distance between schools, the size of schools, the funding, the finances and so on and so forth, the rural districts have unique challenges," Bartlett said. "As we develop the metrics to measure these success ... I just ask that you seriously consider the equity there."

White said there is a need to balance measurements of academic growth and progress versus status alone in performance scores.

"The hard part of this is how do we strike that balance," he said.