Helping Every Student Succeed? State Education Agency Roles and Responsibilities for Improving Underperforming Schools and Districts

Abstract

Purpose: This study investigated how state education agencies (SEAs) articulated their roles and responsibilities with respect to improving underperforming schools and districts after the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015. Research Approach: Using a conceptual framework rooted in incrementalism—a theory suggesting that policy makers often make decisions reflecting the status quo—we conducted a rigorous conventional content analysis on the plans that states created in response to ESSA. Findings: Our findings suggest that many SEAs practiced incrementalism with few changes in the categories of improvement supports that SEAs offered to their underperforming schools and districts and the methods by which SEAs offered those improvement supports. Similar to prior years, most SEAs focused improvement supports on improvement planning processes and appeared to provide those supports using mostly passive methods like online resource hubs and document templates. Implications: We discuss how SEAs—even if they lack capacity—occupy powerful positions to amplify the voices and needs of underperforming schools and districts. This study substantiates a scarce literature on SEAs and provides updated insight into how SEAs have espoused to respond to federal demands to improve underperforming schools and districts.