Last month, fewer than 20 states and the District of Columbia submitted ESSA plans with most waiting until the September deadline. Still Weingarten surmised those states that worked toward the April due date were representative of an emerging sense of shared responsibility absent national leadership and that accountability plans would still be informed by stakeholders from across the education community. “There’s at least some degree of consensus amongst people who are responsible for submitting state plans in April and September that they will continue, in spirit and intent, stakeholder engagement,” Weingarten said.

Kane expressed more worry about state leadership and decision-making regarding stakeholder engagement. “I hope that states and districts don’t treat stakeholder engagement purely as a compliance exercise, where they check the box. In the 15 years since the No Child Left Behind Act was signed, local actors have been complying with federal and state regulations. Now that the federal government has stepped back, we need local actors to step forward and champion their ideas. Without leadership, there’s a great danger of slipping backward,” he said.

Interestingly, Bellwether Education Partners and the Collaborative for Student Success have joined together to conduct an independent review of state accountability plans to guard against states who do just the minimum but this effort doesn’t cover every aspect of the accountability plans.

Next to parents, there is no single stakeholder in the education community closer to the needs of students than the approximately three million teachers who work in classrooms every day. ESSA acknowledged and valued their position on the front line by including them among the stakeholders necessary for input on state plans. The guidelines recommended engagement with teachers from geographically diverse areas and grade levels and those who serve students with varying needs and backgrounds.

A clear point of agreement between Weingarten and Kane is the value of teacher voice and the continued need for engagement to improve education. Perhaps, a little surprising, was the fact that both pointed to an enhanced role for unions.

“Unions are more important as a vehicle for empowerment and a collective voice for teachers. Teachers want and need to have a voice. Teachers are our real champions for kids.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers

Kane, who served as a witness for the plaintiff in Vergara v. California, also sees a role for unions, but specifically related to teacher evaluation. “I agree with Randi that unions now have an opportunity to demonstrate leadership. But leadership involves moving forward, not backward. For example, the necessary work of creating fair and informative evaluations for teachers is unfinished. Rather than rip out the imperfect systems that states and districts have begun building, unions should identify ways they could be improved,” he said.

While a core idea of ESSA is that states should have the kind of flexibility that allows innovation to flourish, Weingarten and Kane seemed less certain that would happen without the level of stakeholder engagement suggested in the accountability guidelines.

Weingarten maintained that the voices of teachers and parents and others in the education community are essential to advancing new ideas and practices. “Innovation happens when you listen to the people who are closest to kids and you give them the opportunity to take risks,” she said.

Kane asserted that risk-taking may not be all that palatable to education leaders in this environment. “In years past, teacher compensation and evaluation became very controversial because many places approached them as an accountability exercise and did not engage teachers in the design of those systems,” he said. “My fear is that local leaders will draw the lesson that they should just stay away from potentially contentious issues, and abandon teacher evaluation reforms entirely, rather than seeing this as an opportunity to engage in a new way.”

So, what about finding common ground?

For her part, Weingarten pointed to the many grassroots movements that seemed to give new voice to myriad stakeholders. She said, “I think there is more common ground among parents, educators, local communities, school superintendents and many state chiefs than there is in Washington, D.C. People around the country are doubling down on trying to make ESSA work.”

Kane suggested disparate viewpoints would persist and, without strong leaders, become an obstacle to progress or, worse, create opportunity for regression. “I am more worried about whether states and districts are prepared to lead or whether they are going to try to return to the status quo before Race to the Top and No Child Left Behind. Will states and districts pay as much attention to the achievement gap for disadvantaged youth? Will states and districts take on difficult issues such as ensuring that disadvantaged youth have effective, experienced teachers?”

While questions clearly remain about how states will move forward, Kane and Weingarten offered recommendations on how they should, each considering the intent and promise of ESSA.

Kane offered that states could take advantage of the opportunity with ESSA to allocate certain funds—such as school improvement and teacher and leader incentive funds—competitively. By inviting schools and districts to describe their plans and then requiring those with the most promising ideas to participate in efficacy networks to measure their impacts, states could achieve two goals simultaneously.

“First, competitive grants give local change agents an excuse to step forward and rally support. With the stalemate in Washington, states could jumpstart local innovation. Second, by evaluating the winning ideas, the states could identify more effective ways to target their own dollars in the future. In effect, they could be using federal dollars to identify better ways to spend their own dollars, to reduce chronic absenteeism or to meaningfully evaluate probationary teachers or to provide formative feedback to experienced teachers,” he said.

Weingarten hoped that states would work at broadening accountability measures beyond test scores and underscored the need for teacher input to do so.

She said, “Getting accountability right is the heart of ESSA. The promise of this new law lies in the opportunities it offers to move away from punitive and destructive policies. Educators know that tests are not the be-all end-all of accountability. That’s why one of the most promising parts of ESSA is to allow accountability measures beyond test scores—measures like students’ access to advanced coursework, career and technical education courses and assessment of school climate.”