PDE Receives Tentative Approval of Amended ESSA Statewide Implementation Plan (July 27, 2019)

The U.S. Department of Education (USDE) has tentatively approved Pennsylvania’s revisions to its plan for statewide implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Revisions include aggregating racial and ethnic group student data by public schools in which no particular racial or ethnic student group meets the minimum n-size of 20 in any single year; additional specificity regarding Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) designations that must occur annually beginning with the fall of 2019; and examining academic achievement and academic growth in determining annual meaningful differentiation.