Idaho Consolidated State Plan 2024-2025 Amendment Public Comment

The Idaho State Board of Education and the Idaho Department of Education are requesting feedback on proposed amendments to the Consolidated State Plan of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as amended by the Every Student Succeed Act (ESSA) for the 2024-25 school year. The revised, proposed amendment includes updates to the Long-term Goals and Measurements of Interim Progress and the Adjusted Growth Model for Creation of Students' ISAT Growth Targets.

Link to the ESEA Consolidated Plan and Summary of Changes: https://www.sde.idaho.gov/topics/consolidated-plan/

Interested persons and entities are invited to submit comments on or before May 13, 2024.

Thank you, in advance, for your involvement and thoughtful feedback.

Feedback from a wide variety of stakeholders indicated a desire to create new long-term goals and measurements of interim progress that achieve a better balance between being ambitious and achievable. The changes to goals include:

• New goals and measurements of interim progress that use 2023 data as the baseline and extend to 2030.
  
  
• Use a new Base + Gap Closure model for the creation of the achievement (ISAT ELA and ISAT Math) and graduation rate goals. This model:
   
  • Ensures that all students groups have a base expectation (7 percentage points over 7 years for ISAT ELA and Math; 6 percentage points for graduation rates); and
  • Supplements the base with an additional expectation of 10% gap closure for any student subgroups that have baseline performance lower than the All Students group.
    
    
• New goals for English Learners’ Progress Towards English Proficiency based on historical data and stakeholder feedback. These goals take into account stakeholder feedback that the rate of improvement in the percentage of English Learners meeting their targets will slow over time.

• Change the timing of the student targets – instead of the goal being set based on projected performance in 3 years from the baseline, the proposed model uses annual targets.
  
  
• Divides the non-proficient and proficient ISAT levels (1, 2, 3) into sub-categories (i.e. 1a, 1b, 1c) and sets different targets for students based on their baseline performance.
  
  
  • Students Who Have Not Scored Proficient (Levels 1 and 2): targets are set based on the expectation that students will improve by 1 sub-category (i.e. from 1a to 1b).
    
    
  • Students Who Have Scored Proficient (Level 3): targets are set based on the expectation that students will maintain their performance within their sub-category (i.e. 3a to 3a) or improve.
    
    
  • Students Who Have Scored Advanced (Level 4): no sub-categories are created or used; targets are set based on the expectation that students may move up or down within the full Level 4 category but must stay at or above the Level 4 cut to meet their growth target.