2023-24 ESSA Data Collection

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) aims to improve student academic achievement and ensure equitable access to effective educators. ESSA requires Title I schools to report the ratio of disadvantaged students—economically disadvantaged or racial and ethnic minorities—taught by inexperienced teachers, teachers teaching outside their endorsed area, or teachers considered ineffective. Due to the sensitive nature of this data, it will be collected separately from staff reporting.

Key Collection Dates: This report is being created to satisfy the federal requirement for the current 2023-24 school year.
June 24th: An email will be sent to all Nebraska superintendents with an Excel template created by the NDE to upload Teacher IDs of any ineffective teachers identified by the district.
August 5th: All submissions must be completed by this date.

Key Information:

• Definition of Ineffective Teachers: As of 2023, Nebraska defines “ineffective” teachers as those identified in the lowest tier of a district’s local evaluation system.
• Reporting: The purpose of the report is to report the ratio of ineffective teachers to Title I students. The NDE will create a statewide baseline report that will be shared with all districts to  support informed decisions to improve educational effectiveness.
• New Data Opportunity: This process is more than a compliance measure; it is an opportunity to align educator evaluations with values and standards that promote growth and effectiveness.
• Consolidated Data: The “ineffective teacher” report will be embedded into the Educator Effectiveness Data collected from each district. This report includes teachers who are out-of-field and inexperienced. These data points are already collected from each district’s Staff Reporting data in the fall of each school year.

FAQs

Who is responsible for uploading this data?

The data upload will be accessible exclusively by the superintendent of schools. Since ineffective teacher data is considered personnel information, superintendents will be prompted to validate any upload before submission to ensure the accuracy of all information.

How is the “lowest tier” of a district’s local evaluation system defined, and what specific criteria are used to identify teachers in this tier?

The lowest tier is defined by each district’s local evaluation tool and should align with the district’s current evaluation system. At a minimum, the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) recommends that the “lowest” tier include any teacher who is on a formal improvement plan.

What specific data points will be collected and reported for each identified ineffective teacher?

• Teacher ID: Districts will submit only the Teacher ID. The NDE will then use this ID to link the identified teacher to Title I students within the teacher’s assigned school.
• Federal Report: The NDE will report only the ratio of ineffective teachers to the number of Title I students they teach.
• State and Individual District Report: The NDE will generate a statewide baseline report on ineffective teachers and make this report available to all districts. The data collection will be presented as a statewide aggregate.
  • The Superintendent will add a new “ESSA Ineffective Teachers” collection to their portal account and upload an Excel file within.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter and for your continued commitment to improving educational outcomes in Nebraska.