MassINC is excited to announce the formation of the Next Generation Accountability Learning Community (NGALC). Through in depth conversations with policy experts and fellow educators, members of the NGALC will identify opportunities and challenges the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) presents for small-to-midsize urban districts in New England serving large concentrations of high-need students.

Passed in December 2015, ESSA replaces the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. Building on the landmark 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), NCLB set federal standards for closing achievement gaps. ESSA provides states with a more robust framework to evaluate schools and more flexibility to respond to those that struggle to improve.

To carefully consider how these changes are implemented in the context of small-to-midsize districts serving large concentrations of high-need students, the NGALC includes more than two dozen leading New England educators, including teachers, principals, and officials from state agencies. Over the summer, the NGALC will gather for three full-day sessions. During these meetings, members of the learning community will receive briefings from nationally-recognized leaders on topics of interest.

After each meeting, MassINC will disseminate all of the expert presentations, along with policy briefs succinctly summarizing the decision-set that ESSA presents state and local policymakers, from the vantage point of small-to-midsize districts.

NGALC is supported by a generous grant from the Barr Foundation. The team leading the project includes Ryan Reyna, former Director of the Office of Accountability and Data Management at the Delaware Department of Education; Karla Baehr, former superintendent in Lowell and former Deputy Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education in Massachusetts; and Andrew Bundy and Lainy Fersh of Community Matters.

Please visit our NGALC webpage to learn more about this exciting new initiative and sign-up for project updates.