State of Montana Newsroom
Montana Schools Receive Accountability Waiver from the Federal Government
HELENA – Superintendent Elsie Arntzen received notification from the federal Department of Education (DOE) that Montana’s accountability addendum was approved for the 2021-2022 school year. Montana received waivers from the accountability requirements of the Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA) for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years and the assessment requirements for the 2019-2020 school year. Since the fall of 2019, the Office of Public Instruction (OPI) has not implemented all aspects of the statewide accountability system nor identified schools for support and improvement which is why the accountability addendum was sought.
“I appreciate the federal government recognizing Montana’s local control,” said Superintendent Elsie Arntzen. “Montana will always be accountable, these waivers reflect flexibilities from the federal overreach. Our Montana schools have faced unprecedented learning challenges and this waiver puts our Montana students first.”
In this addendum, Montana requested one-time adjustments due to COVID:
- Shifting timeline for long term goals and measurements of interim progress forward by two years;
- Using non-consecutive 3 years of data (2019, 2021, and 2022) for annual Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) identification for School Year 2022-2023.
- Not counting 2019-2020 or 2020-2021 in the four-year limit to exit Comprehensive and Support Improvement (CSI) status, allowing schools additional time to exit before additional requirements are imposed;
- Allowing schools identified CSI in Fall 2022 to exit after one year.
For more information, please contact Dr. Julie Murgel at julie.murgel@mt.govor
###