The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) has made available its revised updates to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) State Plan, encouraging public input through February 12, 2026. According to the official announcement by the NCDPI, these revisions aim to realign the plan's language with current procedures that have been approved by the State Board of Education (SBE), while also claiming to maintain the structural integrity of the overall ESSA framework.
The proposed changes appear geared towards refining the technicalities and procedural elements of the existing ESSA framework. This includes the alignment of plan language to "current implementation and accountability processes." Despite the department's statement that the redline revisions are not substantive, they propose to notably update entrance and exit criteria for English Language Learners (ELs) and introduce new tools and transparency mechanisms for stakeholders, as per the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
Under the spotlight of the revisions is the Title III, Part A, Subpart 1, which encompasses English Language Acquisition and Language Enhancement. New language will require all Public School Units (PSUs) to "submit annual assurances that all students who may be English Learners (ELs) are assessed for such status within 30 days of enrollment." The NCDPI has added that the inclusion of the Multiple Measure Tool (MMT) serves to create an "equitable and consistent option" for students on the cusp of proficiency to demonstrate readiness for exiting EL status, attempting to both comply with federal regulations and provide a research-based approach.
The revisions extend to issues of school accountability, with changes to the Progress in Achieving English Language Proficiency indicator. Specifically, students might now be able to exit EL status by either "scoring between a 4.2 and a 4.4 on the WIDA ACCESS assessment and then meeting proficiency on the Multiple Measure Tool" or "scoring a 2.0 composite score on the WIDA Alternate ACCESS assessment." In these efforts, NCDPI conveys its aim to maintain compliance with ESSA §1111(b)(2)(G) while also refining the methods used for measuring English language progress.
Stakeholders and interested parties are encouraged to submit written comments before the February 12 deadline, with the expectation that these inputs will play a critical role in the final approval process for the proposed amendments. For more detail on the amendments and instructions on how to submit feedback, individuals can visit the official NCDPI press release.
