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Pittsfield Super Tracking Impacts of Federal Education Act
By Andy McKeever, iBerkshires Staff
03:41AM / Thursday, December 01, 2016
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Superintendent Jason McCandless discusses the conversations regarding ESSA during his report to the School Committee on Wednesday night.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Superintendent Jason McCandless said he is watching closely what the federal replacement to No Child Left Behind will ultimately mean for the district.
 
Last year, the federal government adopted the Every Student Succeeds Act that was signed into law on Dec. 10. The program replaces No Child Left Behind but it does retain some of those provisions.
 
When it comes to the local level, the largest changes would be regarding the ranking system.
 
"We continue in Massachusetts to work through was ESSA actually means for us," McCandless said told the School Committee Wednesday night.
 
The act does continue to keep standardized testing, requiring every state to have a student assessment. Massachusetts is already in the middle of making changes to that statewide exam. 
 
For years, the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System was the test. A few years ago, the state piloted the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers exam — Pittsfield being one of the districts to join the pilot. And next year the state will roll out what has been dubbed "MCAS 2.0." 
 
The state does call for a 95 percent participation rate in those exams, and some schools had been docked in their rankings because they had failed to reach that threshold. 
 
"There were schools in Berkshire County that were dropped a level — generally from Level 1 to Level 2 — because they did not reach that 95 percent testing participation rate," McCandless said, calling it a "serious move" to harm a district because of decisions parents have to opt the children out of the exam.
 
But, McCandless says the participation rate in Pittsfield schools is 99-100 percent, so that isn't so much of a concern. The exam will continue as the state has been moving and those exams are what dictate school rankings. 
 
ESSA continues the requirement that the states rank schools. But, it does give flexibility to states and encouragement to craft ambitious and flexible ways to make that assessment. The focus will remain on closing achievement gaps, McCandless said.
 
"The gap in scores that exist behind very high scoring students and students who are struggling," McCandless said.
 
The various concepts being kicked around by education officials in the state are "fascinating," McCandless said. ESSA provides lists of focuses for the state to design their programs. One welcomed idea, McCandless said, is that graduation rates begin to differentiate four-year graduates and five-year graduates.
 
"For some students, high school is a four-year thing. For others, it is simply not," McCandless said.
 
Other concepts include using student achievement for the following years after graduation as a reflection in school rankings, an idea McCandless isn't too enthused about.
 
"That to me is a real challenge to be accountable for students who have moved on," he said.
 
He said school climate surveys could be included, and the state is looking at ways to assess school's ability to provide a broad range of curriculum — classes and opportunities outside of the four major subject areas. There are concepts looking at chronic absenteeism.
 
Two bright spots for Pittsfield is that ensuring English Language Learners make progress toward proficiency and providing advanced coursework such as AP classes could also become part of the assessments - two areas of strength for the city. 
 
"This is really fascinating work," McCandless said.
 
But, the picture isn't really clear right now and earlier this month a new president was elected, and with that new education leaders. The entire program could be changed, or even replaced, soon and the impacts of ESSA are still unclear.
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