With the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, education policymakers were challenged to reinvent their school accountability systems. To comply with ESSA, state education agencies were required to submit plans to the U.S. Department of Education, describing how their new accountability systems would address the provisions of the federal law. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia submitted draft accountability plans in the spring of 2017, and another 34 states and Puerto Rico submitted their plans in the fall of 2017.

Policy experts at AIR closely reviewed the state plans submitted this fall and summarized the key elements in concise profiles. In doing so, we sought to develop comparable categories and terminology across states, but not all state approaches fall neatly into these categories. To clarify, we have included footnotes explaining our interpretation of state plans, and we invite feedback on our interpretation.

Please note that the state plans are subject to revision throughout the U.S. Department of Education’s review process and AIR will post revisions as they become available. 

Summary of State Accountability Profiles: Fall 2017 (PDF)

Individual profiles for the 35 fall submissions (additional state profiles coming soon):