Our Voices are Urgently Needed NOW!
We need 10-15 minutes of your time to send a message to the State. There is a very important survey that can have a tremendous effect on the education of English Learners.
If we don’t respond, others will decide what should be included in the new design of the Local Control Accountability Plan Template for the next 3 years. The survey will take about 10 minutes, and we have some suggestions for your responses but you are welcome to respond how you best see the work moving forward.
Local Control Accountability Plan Template Redesign for 2020-2022 LCAPs:
This year, districts will be writing and submitting a new three-year LCAP using a redesigned LCAP template. This is our opportunity to urge the California Department of Education (CDE) and the State Board of Education (SBE) to include language that will require districts to comprehensively address English Learners. This survey must be completed by November 1, 2019.
The CDE has developed a survey to solicit feedback from stakeholders regarding both the draft Local Control and Accountability Plan Template (LCAP) and draft LCAP Template instructions. The survey may be accessed here: https://www.lcapredesign.org/
Based on feedback from the State Board of Education (SBE) at its September 2019 meeting, and in an effort to ensure the template and instructions support local educational agencies (LEAs) in the development of the LCAP beyond the minimum requirements, it has been decided that the CDE will present the finalized draft LCAP Template (including instructions) to the SBE at its January 2020 meeting for adoption.
Important points to address in the survey: Read the form and the directions and add short comments on the right-hand side of the survey under “Feedback about this section”.
· Stakeholder Engagement: We suggest you choose Option A. The form and directions include language to indicate how input was received and where any of the suggestions from the important stakeholders are included in the LCAP. This validates the input from parents, students and community members and affirms that their input was heard and some suggestions were accepted.
· Goal and Activities: In the directions under Measuring and Reporting Results for both options (which will be available to the districts to choose) there is language that says, “LEAs may identify metrics for specific subgroup”. In order to live up the equity principle of LCFF and to have districts commit to closing any achievement and performance gaps, the language should require that metrics are specific for subgroups and are differentiated from what is expected of all students so as to set an expectation of closing gaps. It is also important for the districts to include metrics specific for current English Learners and RFEPs.
Don’t let others decide what is needed for the LCAP Template for the next three years.
We need to be heard and you can make it happen.