Identifying the Nation's Lowest Performing Schools: Shifts Following the Passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

For over two decades, federal law has required states to identify their low-performing schools to target school improvement resources to where they are needed most. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015 sought to address perceived problems with prior school accountability policies, including too many schools being labeled as low performing. ESSA introduced new flexibilities and requirements for how states evaluate school performance and identify schools most in need of intensive support, now designated as Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) schools. This study examined if ESSA played out as policymakers expected or if there were any other consequences for the number, types, and composition of schools that states identified by comparing those identified just before (2016–17) and just after (2018–19) ESSA's implementation.