June 12, 2017
JACKSON, Miss. – The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) announced today a series of public meeting dates to unveil the state’s draft plan for elevating teaching and learning while focusing on school and district accountability. Public comments from a statewide listening tour informed the development of initiatives outlined in the Mississippi Succeedsplan, which is designed to comply with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the federal law that replaces No Child Left Behind (NCLB).
“We thank all the parents, educators and concerned citizens who attended meetings last fall to provide feedback on the information they need to determine if their students and their schools are successful. Their thoughts and concerns influenced the comprehensive state plan we plan to submit to the U.S. Department of Education in September,” said Dr. Carey Wright, state superintendent of education.
MDE staff will present the draft state plan to the Mississippi State Board of Education during its regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Friday at 9 a.m., and following Board vote approval, a 30-day public comment period will begin.
ESSA is the latest version of the nation’s main K-12 law that has a longstanding commitment to equal opportunity for all students. The law aims to scale back the hands-on federal role in elementary and secondary education found in the NCLB legislation.
The areas that will be addressed in the meetings include:
- State measures of student success;
- Resources to help parents/communities understand how to help students;
- Methods to track the academic success of all students by subgroup, such as race, students with disabilities, English learners and economic status;
- Efforts to increase teacher and leader quality; and
- Improvement strategies for underperforming schools.
For the past year, MDE staff have been meeting with a wide range of stakeholders to get input on Mississippi’s plan. More than 500 people submitted online questions and comments, and more than 700 people attended 15 stakeholder engagement meetings in eight regions around the state. As a result, the MDE received more than 7,300 points of feedback from parents, students, teachers, school administrators, university and college staff, advocacy groups, business leaders, school board members and public officials.
Mississippi’s plan for ESSA reflects many of the state’s educational priorities stated in the Mississippi State Board of Education’s 5-Year Strategic Plan. The Board’s strategic plan focuses on student growth and proficiency, high-quality classroom instruction and school leadership, every student graduating ready for college and career, high-quality early learning opportunities, effective use of data, and supporting low-performing schools and districts.
The following meeting locations and dates have been set. All stakeholders are invited to attend and complete a survey following a review of the draft plan. Each meeting will begin at 6 p.m.
June 26
Hattiesburg
Woodall Advanced Technology Center
906 Sullivan Dr.
June 27
Jackson
MDE Auditorium – 2nd floor, Central High School Building
359 N. West St.
June 29
Oxford
Oxford Conference Center
102 Ed Perry Boulevard
An executive summary of the draft plan can be found here. For more information about ESSA, visit http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/SSE/essa .
Media Contact:
Patrice Guilfoyle, APR
Director of Communications
601-359-3706
Jean Cook, APR
Communications Specialist
601-359-3519