District Equity Plan Requirement, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Title I
March 24, 2017
TO THE ADMINISTRATOR ADDRESSED
Subject: District Equity Plan Requirement, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Title I
Overview
Federal Title I, Part A Sec. 1112(b)(2) under ESSA requires all local educational agencies that receive Title I funds to develop a plan for “how the local educational agency will identify and address, as required under State plans as described in section 1111(g)(1)(B), any disparities that result in low-income students and minority students being taught at higher rates than other students by ineffective, inexperienced, or out-of-field teachers.”
This section of ESSA requires all districts that receive Title I funds to create and submit plans describing how the district will improve gaps as they relate to low-income students and students of color being taught at higher rates than other students by inexperienced, out-of-field, and ineffective teachers.
The 2017-2018 school year will be the first year LEA Equity Plans will be required under ESSA.
Support
The Texas Education Agency has developed a Texas Equity Plan Toolkit to support districts in the process of developing a district equity plan. The Texas Equity Plan Toolkit includes the equity plan template that all districts receiving Title I funds will be required to submit.
In addition, the toolkit provides step-by-step directions for completion of each section of the equity plan template, as well as additional resources to support districts throughout the process.
The Texas Equity Plan Toolkit can be accessed at the website dedicated to the equity work in Texas, texasequitytoolkit.org.
All education service centers (ESCs) have been trained on the Texas Equity Plan Toolkit and are ready to support districts at all stages of equity plan development. Each ESC has designated an equity plan contact. The contact list is attached for further reference.
Submissions
All Texas districts receiving Title I funds will be required to submit an equity plan by November 1, 2017. The timing of the submission was chosen so that equity plans could be developed in conjunction with a district’s annual improvement planning process.
Additionally, in accordance with Title I, Part A requirements, adjustments have been made to the PR1100 in eGrants, the survey that previously collected information regarding highly qualified teachers. As the highly qualified teacher requirement has been removed from federal law, and as the state is required to report on state-level equity gaps for out-of-field and inexperienced teachers, the new form, now known as PR1500, will require each campus within a district that receives Title I funds to report on out-of-field teachers and teacher years of experience. A mock-up of the PR1500 has been included for further reference.
Like the PR1100, the PR1500 Equity Data Survey will be based on each campus’s data on a particular snapshot date. For the 2017-2018 school year, the snapshot date will be October 2, 2017, and the PR1500 reports will be due by Nov. 15, 2017.
For questions or additional information, please contact your local ESC equity lead.
Sincerely,
Tim Regal
Director, Instructional Leadership
Texas Education Agency