Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/654069
18 ADVOCATE | SPRING 2016 ESProfessional NEA Opportunity to Learn and Every Student Succeeds Act Paraeducator Empowerment The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) ensures that paraeducators' voices are part of decision-making at the federal, state, and local levels—a major improvement over No Child Left Behind's one-size-fits-all approach to educating students. Key Provisions: • Moves decision-making to the people who know the names of the students they educate while maintaining supports that ensure ZIP codes do not determine the quality of education. • Incentivizes supports and interventions that are tailored to local needs while preserving the historic federal role in protecting the most vulnerable: children in poverty, students with disabilities, and English-language learners • Maintains paraeducator qualification requirements in Title I of the current law • Promotes respect for the profession and acknowledges the critical role it plays in education by adopting the NEA-endorsed term "paraeducator" • Calls for committees of practitioners where paraeducators, teachers, parents, and community members can work together to improve their local schools • Requires paraeducator voices in multiple places, including sections on professional development, needs assessment, and the use of some grant funds • Expands the reach of collective bargaining to cover: • Targeted school supports and improvements in Title I • Professional development, pay based on professional growth, the Teacher and School Leader Incentive Program (formerly called TIF), and all other provisions of contracts impacted by Title II • Community schools in Title IV • Requires consultation with organizations representing educators in multiple places, ensuring that paraeducators and their local unions have a say in decision-making 7 Learn about Prop 123 26 More info on ESSA 27 Vote online 28 NEA-RA election candidates 32 AEA Officers and Board election candidates n