• Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

    According to the United States Department of Education, ESSA includes provisions that will help to ensure success for students and schools. Below are just a few, as listed on the department's website. The law:

    • Advances equity by upholding critical protections for America's disadvantaged and high-need students.
    • Requires—for the first time—that all students in America be taught to high academic standards that will prepare them to succeed in college and careers.
    • Ensures that vital information is provided to educators, families, students, and communities through annual statewide assessments that measure students' progress toward those high standards.
    • Helps to support and grow local innovations—including evidence-based and place-based interventions developed by local leaders and educators
    • Sustains and expands historic investments in increasing access to high-quality preschool.
    • Maintains an expectation that there will be accountability and action to effect positive change in our lowest-performing schools, where groups of students are not making progress, and where graduation rates are low over extended periods of time.

    The ESSA legislation informs Pennsylvania's new methodology for measuring success in its schools and districts across the Commonwealth. It reflects a transition in education policy away from a strict focus on compliance and toward the establishment of rigorous expectations for students and collaboration and assistance for all schools to help them meet this standard. (PDE Every Student Succeeds Act Pennsylvania Consolidated Plan - January 12, 2018) 

    The Future RFuture Ready PA Index Logo eady PA Index

    In the 2018-2019 school year, Pennsylvania's Department of Education transitioned from the School Performance Profile (SPP) to the Future Ready PA Index as Pennsylvania’s one-stop location for comprehensive information about school success. The site uses a dashboard model to highlight how schools are performing and making progress on multiple indicators.

    The Central Bucks School District (CBSD) supports this transition in thinking. CBSD is dedicated to educating the whole student, and appreciates the department of education’s recognition that students, and the schools that serve them, are more than standardized test scores.

    The Future Ready PA Index dashboard features a collection of indicators that illustrate academic proficiency, on-track progress, and college and career readiness – helping to demonstrate how schools are doing in preparing students for postsecondary success.

    The dashboard is easy to navigate - searchable by district, school, career and technical center, or location; and it includes basic information and demographic data for each school. Visit the dashboard at www.futurereadypa.org.