1. Friday, 9/25/15 RI Department of Education Stephen Osborn, Chief of Accelerating School Performance Jillian Belanger, Coordinator of ELL Education

2. Overview Today’s webinar is intended to provide an overview of the waiver RIDE is applying for that would allow LEAs to maintain current status regarding English Learners during PARCC transition if the reason for their missing AMAO 3 is due to achievement in reading/language arts or mathematics as determined by the 2014-15 assessments.

3. Agenda Introductions Letter from the US Department of Education RIDE’s waiver request Rationale for request Process for feedback Next steps

4. Introductions Live from the Office of Student, Community and Academic Supports, it’s: Stephen Osborn, Chief of Accelerating School Performance Jillian Belanger, Coordinator of ELL Education

5. Letter from the US DOE A full-text copy of the letter released by the US Department of Education earlier this month informing states of the option to apply for this waiver is available in the resources section of this webinar, and on our website at: http://ride.ri.gov/StudentsFamilies/EnglishLanguageLearn ers.aspx http://ride.ri.gov/StudentsFamilies/EnglishLanguageLearn ers.aspx A high-level excerpt from this letter that briefly describes the waiver: States may permit LEAs receiving Title III subgrants to continue the same sanctions in 2015–2016 that they used in the 2014–2015 school year for LEAs that do not meet the AMO component of AMAO 3 for the 2014−2015 school year due to the transition to new assessments.

6. Letter from the US DOE Specifically, the wavier would allow the following: 1. If an LEA misses AMAO 1, AMAO 2, participation rate, graduation rate, or the other academic indicator in elementary and middle schools in 2014–2015, that LEA is considered to have not met AMAOs for that year; 2. If an LEA meets AMAO 1, AMAO 2, participation rate, graduation rate, and the other academic indicator in elementary and middle schools in 2014−2015, but misses the AMO component of AMAO 3, it maintains its status and continues the sanctions from the 2014–2015 school year in 2015−2016. This would mean that if an LEA missed an AMAO in 2013–2014 for the first time, maintains status based on AMAOs in 2014−2015, and misses an AMAO again in 2015–2016, it would have missed AMAOs for two consecutive years. 3. If an LEA meets AMAO 1, AMAO 2, participation rate, graduation rate, and the other academic indicator in elementary and middle schools, and meets the AMO component of AMAO 3 for 2014–2015, it is considered to have met AMAOs for 2014–2015 and could exit status if it was carrying out an improvement plan or implementing sanctions that are more rigorous.

7. RIDE’s Waiver Request A full-text copy of RIDE’s waiver request is available in the resources section of this webinar, and on our website at: http://ride.ri.gov/StudentsFamilies/EnglishLanguageLearn ers.aspx http://ride.ri.gov/StudentsFamilies/EnglishLanguageLearn ers.aspx A high-level excerpt from this letter that briefly describes the waiver: Rhode Island requests this waiver to permit affected LEAs receiving Title III subgrants to continue the same Title III interventions in 2015–2016 that they implemented in 2014– 2015 for LEAs that do not meet the annual measurable objectives (AMOs) component of AMAO 3 for the 2014−2015 school year due to the transition to new assessments.

8. Rationale for Waiver Request Applying for this waiver makes Title III consistent with the Title I waiver under ESEA, which also allows states to not use baseline assessment (PARCC) data to determine the status of schools during the transition year. If the waiver is granted, AMAO 3 will still be calculated using PARCC data and we will publicly report the information, but sanctions on schools will not be affected by the PARCC data for the 2014-15 school year. We will just carry forward the status of the schools from the previous year for one year and will not add new schools to the list of those under sanction.

9. Process for Feedback & Next Steps Please share your feedback on RIDE’s waiver request by writing to Jillian Belanger at: Jillian.Belanger@ride.ri.gov Jillian.Belanger@ride.ri.gov If you have questions about the process for providing feedback, please use the “Questions” feature of the Webinar. Thank you!