New ESSA rules may target over 30% of schools for improvement

As schools nationwide face the determination of Additional Targeted Schools (ATS) for the first time since the implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), some states may see this descriptor applied to 30% to 70% of their schools, although the Center for Assessment estimates that many states will be below the 30% threshold, Education Week reports.The numbers will likely be this high because, while Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) schools represent only the bottom 5% of Title I schools in the state, ATS schools may appear to do well overall but will represent schools that have at least one targeted subgroup, such as special education, racial categories or English learners, which fall in the bottom 5% of performance measures. While some state ESSA plans limit these numbers by requiring that ATS schools also fall into the TSI category, states that don’t stipulate this limitation are likely to have significantly more schools fall in the ATS category.Schools in the ATS category will need to create plans that examine the types of resources that the targeted groups are receiving and craft viable solutions to address the issues within a certain number of years set by each state, but not to exceed four years. Schools that don’t improve within that time frame will be targeted for more intensive comprehensive supports as set by the state.