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Friday, April 5, 2019
Day 82
This Week’s Recap
In Senate Appropriations this week, we saw a few old ideas revived as strike-everything amendments. Among them was HB 2032, which is now Rep. Townsend’s bill prohibiting district employees from using school time to influence a student’s political or religious beliefs. The other is HB 2139, which was amended to require all districts become unified school districts by 2024. Click here to listen to Chris Kotterman on KJZZ talk about ASBA’s stance on this bill.
Update on Menu of Assessments
As you may be aware, in 2018 the Arizona Department of Education submitted a request to the United States Department of Education to allow the ACT and SAT to replace the AzMERIT for high school students in accordance with the menu of assessments statute passed by the Legislature. Today, ADE released a letter from USDOE stating these tests don’t comply with ESSA and implementing the Menu of Assessments would be a violation of federal law. Schools that have already selected to use an alternate test for this school year are still allowed to do so, but the legislature and the State Board will have to make some changes for next year in order to be in compliance. USDOE also intends to place Arizona’s Title I funding on “high-risk status” until the state adopts an assessment system that complies with ESSA. You can read the letters at the links below.
Click here to read the letter from the US Dept of Ed to Superintendent Hoffman.
Click here to read the letter from Superintendent Hoffman to school districts.
Friday Advocacy Updates
Click here to watch our most recent Advocacy Update on Facebook Live. The session is beginning to wind down, and we have a lot to update you on!