Page 2 The Skanner August 2, 2017
®
Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now
Bernie Foster
Founder/Publisher
Opinion
The ESSA Focuses on Accountability and Performance
S
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Executive Editor
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2017
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ixteen states and the Dis-
trict of Columbia submit-
ted their proposals for
implementation of the
Every Student Succeeds Act
(ESSA) on April 4, 2017. The
remaining states are required
to submit their proposals on
September 18, 2017. A review
of the first proposals submit-
ted, which included Arizona,
Connecticut, Colorado, Del-
aware, District of Columbia,
Illinois, Louisiana, Maine,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Ne-
vada, New Jersey, New Mex-
ico, North Dakota, Oregon,
Tennessee, and Vermont,
showed some improvements,
as well as areas of concern,
related to how education offi-
cials plan to address account-
ability and school perfor-
mance at the state and local
levels.
Multiple state plans empha-
sized their intentions to pro-
vide well-rounded curricu-
lums; ensuring students have
increased access to high-qual-
ity science and social studies
in addition to reading and
mathematics. In fact, more
than half of submitted state
plans include assessments
for science and social studies
in addition to the required
English Language Arts, read-
ing and mathematics. Some
states went as far as includ-
ing fine arts, music, physical
education, and library media
specialists. Therefore, state
Dr.
Elizabeth
Primas
Progam
Manager,
NNPA
plans stress the importance of
a curriculum that focuses on
more than reading and arith-
metic.
In addition to providing a
well-rounded
curriculum,
states included in their ac-
countability systems plans
“
cut and Tennessee propose
to combine subgroups for ac-
countability measures. This
process will mask exactly
which students are strug-
gling, and assumes that cor-
rective measures for each
subgroup would be the same.
ESSA requires states to re-
port data for each subgroup;
presuming that detailed data
reporting will highlight ar-
eas of inequity. Combined
subgroup reporting does not
meet the intent of ESSA and
could result in stagnant aca-
demic progress. Arizona and
State plans stress the importance
of a curriculum that focuses on
more than reading and arithmetic
to strengthen their existing
strategies while introduc-
ing new approaches, as they
move forward. New Jersey
proposes to double count the
academic performance of
student subgroups in school
evaluations to ensure that the
needs of struggling students’
do not go overlooked. Neva-
da’s plan proposes moving to-
wards the creation of Individ-
ual Learning Plans (ILPs) for
each student. This ambitious
goal will measure student
engagement,
achievement
and growth, while providing
a more holistic view of school
success.
However, Oregon, Connecti-
Maine submitted plans that
are underdeveloped and fail
to provide details as to how
they will address ESSA’s re-
quirement to incorporate stu-
dent subgroup data in their
accountability system. Many
states do not detail how their
proposed strategies will be
implemented or provide data
to prove rationality for such
strategies. Other proposals
do not include proficiency
targets, or methods for mea-
suring whether students are
reaching the state’s grade-lev-
el standards.
Overall, every submitted
state plan can expand on their
current proposals to develop
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accountability systems that
ensure that “all” students
make progress. States that
have not submitted their
proposals for ESSA should
take time to review the state
plans that have already been
submitted and use them as a
guide to improve upon their
own proposed accountability
systems. States that plan to
submit proposals on Septem-
ber 18 should also take note
that states that have been
most successful at developing
comprehensive plans, with an
increased focus on the prog-
ress of all student subgroups,
have effectively and consis-
tently engaged parents and
other education stakeholders.
Oregon:
Strengths
Oregon proposes to reduce
their subgroup size from 40
to 20 students, capturing the
performance of more stu-
dents. Oregon also propos-
es to use at least three years
of data from previous years
to inform improvements in
their accountability system,
lowering the required sub-
group size to seven for this
purpose.
Weaknesses
While Oregon’s description
of the indicators in its ac-
countability system is clear, it
is not apparent how the indi-
cators, weights, and subgroup
performance are combined to
identify schools.
High-Prescription Drug Prices Hurt the Black Community
N
early a decade ago, Clin-
ton Crawley, a Baltimore
resident and one of my
constituents, was diag-
nosed with diabetes. Clinton
has done everything his doc-
tors asked — he eats well, ex-
ercises and he takes his med-
ication. Although Clinton has
employer-sponsored health
insurance, the cost of his med-
ication — more than $1,000
each year — places a signifi-
cant burden on his finances.
Mr. Crawley is not alone.
Over the past decade, 90 per-
cent of brand name drugs
have more than doubled in
price. In 2014, U.S. prescrip-
tion drug prices jumped 13
percent. That year, Ameri-
cans spent $1,112 per person
on medication while Cana-
dians spent $772 and Danes
spent $325, and nearly 1 in
5 Americans have reported
not being able to afford the
medication they were pre-
scribed. Simply put, the phar-
maceutical industry’s greed is
hurting the American people.
The issue of high prescrip-
tion drug prices has a severe
impact on the African Ameri-
can community. As the saying
goes, “when America catches
a cold, Black America gets
the flu.” African Americans
suffer from chronic diseas-
es at higher rates than other
groups. African Americans
are 40 percent more like-
ly than Caucasians to have
Rep. Elijah E.
Cummings
Congressman
(D-Md.)
high blood pressure, and the
rate of diagnosed diabetes
is 77 percent higher in our
community. In 2014, African
Americans were nearly three
times more likely to die from
asthma-related causes than
Caucasians. African Ameri-
cans at every education level
are also paid less than their
white counterparts. These
factors place African Amer-
“
right when he said that these
companies are “getting away
with murder.”
That is why Congress-
man Peter Welch (D-Vt.)
and I put our differences
with President Trump aside
and met with him to discuss
how we can work together to
lower prescription drug pric-
es. During that meeting, Rep.
Welch and I presented Presi-
dent Trump with “The Medi-
care Drug Price Negotiation
Act,” a bill that would lower
prescription drug prices by
allowing Medicare—the larg-
est purchaser of prescription
drugs in America — to nego-
tiate for lower prescription
drug prices. We asked for the
President Trump is poised to is-
sue an executive order that would
grant many wishes directly from
the pharmaceutical industry
icans in a double bind — we
are more likely to suffer from
an expensive chronic disease
and we earn less money with
which to pay for our health
care, including skyrocketing
prescription drug prices.
Mr. Crawley’s experience,
and those of millions of
Americans nationwide, is
unacceptable at a time when
the 10 highest paid pharma-
ceutical industry CEOs took
home $327 million in a single
year. President Trump was
president’s support and feed-
back on our bill. Four months
later, despite the president’s
enthusiasm during our meet-
ing, we are still waiting to
hear from him.
Instead of working with
me and Rep. Welch, there are
now reports that President
Trump is poised to issue an
executive order that would
grant many wishes directly
from the pharmaceutical in-
dustry’s wish list. This execu-
tive order would be a betrayal
of the president’s promise to
the American people.
There is something wrong
with this picture, and the
American
people
know
it. A majority of Democrats,
Republicans and indepen-
dents want Congress and
President Trump to make
lowering the cost of prescrip-
tion drugs a “top priority,”
and 92 percent of all Ameri-
cans want Medicare to negoti-
ate for lower drug prices.
While I am disappointed by
the president’s silence, I am
undeterred. I am still fighting
hard in Congress to address
this issue. Rep. Welch and
I recently joined Reps. Jan
Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Rosa
DeLauro (D-Conn.) to intro-
duce the “Improving Access
to Affordable Prescription
Drugs Act” — a comprehen-
sive approach to lowering
prescription drug costs. Our
bill would improve trans-
parency in drug pricing and
manufacturing; allow Medi-
care to negotiate for lower
prices in Part D and require
negotiation for certain high-
cost drugs; allow the impor-
tation of safe, affordable pre-
scription drugs; help generic
drugs reach the market more
easily; and cap the out-of-
pocket costs for prescription
drugs in private insurance
plans.
Read the rest of this commentary at
TheSkanner.com
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