MDE Announces Meeting Dates to Gather Public Input for State Education Plan

August 23, 2016

JACKSON, Miss. – The Mississippi Department of Education announced Tuesday a schedule of public meeting dates for the Mississippi Succeeds Listening Tour designed to gather public feedback for Mississippi’s plan to comply with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the federal law that replaces No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

“In the coming weeks, we will be connecting with stakeholders statewide to gather their feedback on the types of changes they would like to see that would better inform them on whether students and their schools are successful. We want to hear from a variety of stakeholders, including educators, parents, students, businesses and community organizations. We will use this feedback as we prepare a comprehensive state plan to submit to the U.S. Department of Education,” said Dr. Carey Wright, state superintendent of education.

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.

All states must examine the law and ensure they meet the requirements of the law. The areas that will be addressed in the statewide meetings include:

• accountability and school quality;
• measures of student success;
• school and district report cards, including specific metrics such as subgroup (race, English learners, economic status, etc.) results at the school and district level;
• teacher and leader quality; and
• school improvement strategies.

Mississippi’s plan for ESSA will reflect 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. Each date will have two meetings, one beginning at 3:30 p.m. and the other at 6 p.m. 
 

For more information and to register for the regional meetings, please visit www.mdek12.org/essa. 

Media Contact: 
Patrice Guilfoyle, APR
Director of Communications
601-359-3706 

Jean Cook, APR
Communications Specialist
601-359-3519