The Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI) is traveling the state, gathering feedback, in order to submit a new plan to the Governor, ensuring our state meets the federal standards for the Every Student Succeeds Act. 

Below are some details from OPI:
ESSA is: 
• The Every Student Succeeds Act signed into law in 2015 replaces No Child Left Behind and reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
• The purpose of Montana ESSA Plan is to show how Montana is working to ensure federal standards are met on various federally funded programs while allowing flexibility and ensuring community input. We want to use ESSA as a vehicle to accomplish our priorities, goals and vision for education in Montana.
 
Montana State Plan Previously:
• Submitted Dec. 28th after a handful of meetings including stakeholders across the state as well as the ongoing work of over 70 OPI employees.
• We are honoring the work that was done and plan to “Update and Build Upon”.
• We have received feedback from Education Northwest, the Center for Assessment and CCSSO. We have also done a thorough analysis amongst our staff and there are areas of the previous plan we will build upon.
– Long-term goals will be extended and better defined. 
- Growth and improvement will be the goal for all schools.
- Another look at a detailed plan for schools that are in improvement status along with an exit plan for them.
- A deeper dive into college and career readiness will take place.
- Areas of the plan are no longer required; therefore, we may not add or be as detailed in these sections so that local districts are allowed more flexibility.
 
New Requirements and Template:
• ESSA allows for more local control and flexibility for schools; the new template has less documentation required.
• Congress voted to rescind accountability and teacher preparation regulations. We are required to submit less documentation and have more local control.
• There are 3 new requirements as of March 13th:  1) Long-term goals for English language proficiency 2) Awarding sub grants to local educational agencies (LEAs) under the new Student Support and Academic Enrichment program in Title IV, Part A It will be a formula allocation to the states and then formula out to districts. 3) Development of a plan for ways in which homeless youth will receive assistance from counselors to prepare for college.
 
Currently we are working on:

• The new school expenditure reporting requirements
  • In the coming week we will be asking LEA’s as well as MASBO to begin collaborating with our finance experts on this topic.  We are currently working with a financial transparency collaborative made up of 25 states.
• Long term goals for academic achievement and graduation
  • OPI staff are working on equations and growth models that make sense for schools as well as researching what is being done in neighboring states with similar demographics. We will soon have various ideas to present to our partners in education.
  • We are hoping to use the SBAC data to help project more accurate long term goals when it comes in this summer.
• Accountability Indicators are being researched further.
• College and Career Readiness
  • We are examining various models and indicators for college and career readiness.   We have discussed mathematic pathways for this as well, STEM paths or others depending on the needs of the student.  Collaboration between school superintendents, higher Ed., OPI, CTE and others will continue.
• Revising the Continuous School Improvement Plan (CSIP)
  • for consolidation of school reporting and to promote meaningful improvement planning through collaboration of school teams.