Equity Plans and Effectiveness

The US Department of Education announced its  Excellent Educators for All Initiative today. This is a new version of the old equity plans that states have had on file for a long time, but those plans related to distribution of highly qualified teachers. The USDE wants states to file new plans by April 2015.  Before writing the plans state educator agencies are to gather data: "To prepare a strong plan, each SEA will analyze what its stakeholders and data have to say about the root causes of inequities and will craft its own solutions."

What does this have to do with evaluation? 

The old plans looked at distribution of highly qualified educators. The new plans will likely look at distribution of both highly qualified and highly effective educators - the ones with the highest evaluation ratings, including student growth as a significant factor. So the issue will be how will states encourage districts to encourage the highest rated teachers to go to the schools with the biggest equity issues? 

The Great Teachers and Leaders Center has been preparing for this announcement - it has an entire "Learning Hub" called Moving Towards Equity that is available for states to use for free. They also offer states free technical assistance. 

The USDE letter also mentions a support network, but Edweek's Politics K-12 reports that this is only getting $4.2 million to be used nationwide - less than would be given to three schools under the School Improvement Grant program. 

Despite the free technical assistance, this is likely to be one more un- or under-funded mandate layered on states, that trickles to districts and impacts teachers, especially the highest rated ones. 

And don't forget that the USDE was asking for equity-effectiveness plan updates in the original ESEA waiver extension guidance - but backed off of that when states pushed back.