The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is the latest reauthorization of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the primary federal bill guiding K-12 education policy. As a democracy requires equity and adequate educational opportunities, this policy memo provides guidance to states for selecting more inclusive school quality and student success indicators for accountability systems. Using indicators of opportunities to learn and school climate to describe the risks and possibilities that states should consider when deciding on indicators, this policy memo recommends approaches for selecting indicators that address the importance of equity and of students’ perceptions of support, safety, and respect in the classroom. 

Click here for a video in which the authors discuss the policy memo