Missouri's consolidated state plan under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) may not be the most comprehensive education plan the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) works on, but it is an important one the department hopes will generate a lot of public comment.
The period for public comment on Missouri's ESSA plan opened last week and will remain open through the end of July 15.
"We would love to see thousands of comments. We hope the general public will go there," DESE's communications coordinator Sarah Potter said of the link on DESE's homepage.
Online visitors can click on the red, white and blue picture in the rotating banner toward the top of the page and will be directed to another page - dese.mo.gov/quality-schools/federal-programs/essa-plan - with links to all the individual sections of the plan and additional links to be able to submit comments.
Potter admits there is a lot of education jargon in the documents, which might interest the educator crowd more.
She said the plan is also not as comprehensive as the state's own Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP), which she added is currently under development.
The ESSA plan is important, though, in that it is the mechanism through which the state receives federal funds for programs administered by ESSA. ESSA is the latest President Barack Obama-era reauthorization and iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) - the national education law signed into effect by the President Lyndon Johnson administration in 1965.
Potter explained the state's ESSA plan is not about "looking at the full picture of education," but it exists to meet federal requirements that address inequity in access to a quality education. That means the state is required to show it has a plan on how to close achievement gaps for disadvantaged groups of students, like from rural areas, low-income families and minority groups.
The plan is about being able to answer questions like "How are you going to help these students? How are you going to identify the lowest performing schools, and how are you going to help them?" Potter said.
She said she feels the state's accountability plan is more comprehensive, because the state looks more at school districts, as opposed to individual schools in isolation through the federal government's plan.
"This is not the entirety of our plan. This is what the federal government is asking us to provide," she said.
Once the federal government is satisfied with the state's plan, a DESE news release explained, the federally-funded programs administered by ESSA also provide assistance to students who are migrants, at-risk (including neglected and delinquent), homeless and English learners.
"In addition, the programs provide assistance to 21st century learning centers and professional development for teachers and leaders," the news release said.
21st century learning centers provide academic enrichment opportunities for students during non-school hours.
DESE will submit its ESSA plan to the U.S. Department of Education in September.