Meet Your New ‘Neighbor’: ESSA, Seriously!

Being a great neighbor is a privilege. But what do you do when your new neighbor is a portion of the Every Student Succeeds Act{ESSA}?! Hang on, anti CCSS Warriors, the information  you are about to read may cause shock!

The Language:
We all know the ESSA is over 1,000 pages and its ink was barely dry when it was voted on and passed into law. Very few took time to read it when it first came out. I wager many others STILL haven’t read through it today! However, we MUST keep digging, we MUST know what the language says. To date, several truths have been uncovered and shared. Warriors, we CANNOT stop now! This huge education bill has more embedded which loosely pertains to education, but largely changes our communities as we know them!

So where in the ESSA do we find anything that deals with our neighborhoods? Section 4624, titled “Promise Neighborhoods” specifically. Yet, I found on page 602 (Section 4623) language using the above phrase as well. Further down on page 602, you can see Section 4621 is referenced as a set of parameters for these Neighborhoods. Page 603, gives us language where funding is discussed. Page 606 and pages following explain the Secretary (as in the U.S. Dept of Education Secretary) will have to approve grants for these neighbors, how pipeline services must be used; how families will be measured, and more!

Over on page 612 you can learn about types of schools and what they must provide to the neighborhood will include. Follow this through to page 615. There you will see the following language. “(2) INDICATORS.—The performance indicators  established by the Secretary under paragraph (1) shall be indicators of improved academic and developmental outcomes for children, including indicators of school readiness, high school graduation, postsecondary education and career readiness, and other
academic and developmental outcomes…” The next section is 2465 and this is where the full service community school is laid out in detail.

Before we move on, though, let me urge you to read the above pages. There you can find out how the data mining on our students plays into their neighborhoods and SO much more! You can see how the U.S. Secretary of Education will be able to control more than ever before!
Access to the ESSA: ESSA FINAL CONFRPT_112915

 

A Promise:

Let me state I am NOT picking on any one group. I am pointing out how a program which has, in the past, been helpful, has been used as a way to usher in MORE control in our communities. If you haven’t heard of the Promise Neighborhood program, please refer to the following resources.

1) PolicyLink’s excerpt, “PolicyLink also pushed for and is grateful for the inclusion of the Promise Neighborhoods program in this legislation. Housed under Title IV, the legislation authorizes Promise Neighborhoods, a program inspired by the Harlem Children’s Zone, which wraps children in high-quality, coordinated health, social, community, and educational supports from cradle to college and career.”
See the rest of the article: https://www.policylink.org/blog/promise-neighborhoods-authorized-in-ESSA

2) The White House’s ESSA Report excerpt, “Creating Promise Neighborhoods: Since 2010, the Administration’s Promise Neighborhoods program has sought to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty by investing $270 million in more than 50 of our nation’s most distressed communities, representing over 700 schools. These efforts are helping to build a pipeline from early learning to high school and beyond for our highest-need students by creating comprehensive, wrap-around educational support services and strong, vibrant school environments. Moreover, 1,000 national, state, and community organizations have signed-on to support and partner with Promise Neighborhoods to ensure these initiatives are effective and long-lasting.”
See the rest of the report: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/12/10/white-house-report-every-student-succeeds-act

3) Meet the PolicyLink’s Promise Neighborhood Network Institute:
http://www.promiseneighborhoodsinstitute.org/about-our-movement/pni-network
Here you can find out all kinds of information. Such as the solutions to our cradle to career problems. (see:  http://www.promiseneighborhoodsinstitute.org/cradle-to-career-solutions) However, what I wish to draw your attention to is the screen shot below:

Want to see a visual of a successful Promise Neighborhood’s cradle to career cycle? See below:

Once you have accessed the ‘tools of success’, go back to the ESSA and compare the language so you can see how the tools of success will be used in the future.

4) The PN(Promise Neighborhood) Research Consortium has it own manual on Neighborhood Data Mining and Collection, get it here: PNRC Data Collection Manual – V11
See the rest of the tools the Consortium has and uses in your neighborhoods,
http://promiseneighborhoods.org/neighborhood.html

Interesting note concerning PNs, back in 2015 there was a national gathering in VA for a conference. In attendance was not only the U.S. Dept. of Education, but StriveTogether (a group I have written about before several times concerning their total community alignment of cradle to career pathway. StriveTogether also has a national map of totally aligned communities. ST works hand in hand with the CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers) My related articles:
https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/02/19/tech-thursday-cradlecareer-conference/
https://www.commoncorediva.com/2014/10/24/fom-friday-knowledgeworks-or-knowledge-quirks/

 
As far as the ‘full service community schools’, Anita Hoge has detailed much about what those schools will look like and how they will transform your neighborhood schools into a one stop shop of education related (and most of the time not education related) services.
However, if you want to read the ESSA for yourselves to see the details of what a full service school will offer, see pages 597 through 618. One of the best graphics you can get for these learning centers can be see below. This is Anita’s work, not mine. (The White House has a special program for these full service community schools. It is called the ’21st Century Community Learning Centers’) To access Anita’s research, visit the following blog from Maine where links are embedded for you to follow. See: https://unmasker4maine.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/anita-hoge-womb-to-tomb-community-based-schools-school-based-clinics/

If you would like more information:
1) From the U.S. Dept. of Ed on the 21st CLCCs (21st Century Community Learning Centers): http://www2.ed.gov/programs/21stcclc/index.html

2) From the White House on 21st CLCCs:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/omb/expectmore/summary/10001028.2003.html

3) From the Charlotte Iserbyt website, the ‘ABCs of Dumbing Down’, this article tying Promise Neighborhoods, 21st CLCCs to the ESSA:
http://abcsofdumbdown.blogspot.com/2015/12/hud-communist-neighborhood-for-you.html

Remember anti CCSS Warriors, now that you know, share and point out this is all done in the name of ‘college and career readiness’, the new term for Common Core State Standards and its Initiative!