School Needs Assessment
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 is the primary federal education legislation and has
undergone several reauthorizations, the latest of which is the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). ESSA now
requires states to develop a statewide accountability system, with long-term and interim progress goals, for
all students and specific disaggregated groups. The system is based on multiple indicators, which must:
- Be the same for all public schools;
- include valid, reliable, and comparable measures that are disaggregated by subgroup; and
- measure each of the following: academic achievement; graduation rates for high schools and
academic progress for elementary and middle schools; progress in attaining English language
proficiency; and at least one state-selected indicator of school quality or student success (which may
vary for schools in different grade spans).