The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to hold schools accountable for the progress of multilingual learners (MLLs) and English Language Learners (ELLs). States must create systems that differentiate schools based on the performance of all students and student groups and select an assessment to measure English language development, set a state goal and a timeline for progress. Each state has flexibility in setting benchmarks and ramifications.
In addition, ESSA also requires states to develop a plan for a statewide accountability, base that accountability on challenging academic standards, and hold schools accountable for the progress of ELLs within the regular curriculum and graduation rates. You can review how this compares state by state at the English Learner Accountability Hub.
In Virginia, the new Performance and Support Framework cuts the window of time for learning English by multilingual students from eleven semesters down to just three, mandating English language exams long before fluency is mastered. Experts indicate it can take 3-5 years to achieve conversational fluency and up to seven years to reach full academic fluency. As a result, Virginia schools failing to meet statewide standards, especially those with multilingual diversity, will likely be labeled as failing in this new framework.
This is a cynical attempt to gut public education, setting up 60% of Virginia’s public schools to potentially be taken over by the state by September 2025, allowing for redistribution of public monies to fund a voucher system that includes private school options, weakening public education in the commonwealth. And it's not an isolated effort.
How does this compare with what’s happening in your state? And how do we continue to advocate for public education for each child in each district so that schools are not further politicized, marginalized and privatized?
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