On December 10, 2015, President Obama signed the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). The ESSA builds upon the critical work States and local educational agencies (LEAs) have implemented over the last few years. The reauthorized law prioritizes excellence and equity for our students and supports great educators.

The new law builds on key areas of progress in recent years, made possible by the efforts of educators, communities, parents, and students across the country.

ESSA includes provisions that will help to ensure success for students and schools. Below are just a few. The law:

• Advances equity by upholding critical protections for America's disadvantaged and high-need students.
• Requires—for the first time—that all students in America be taught to high academic standards that will prepare them to succeed in college and careers.
• Ensures that vital information is provided to educators, families, students, and communities through annual statewide assessments that measure students' progress toward those high standards.
• Helps to support and grow local innovations—including evidence-based and place-based interventions developed by local leaders
• Sustains and expands this administration's historic investments in increasing access to high-quality preschool
• Maintains an expectation that there will be accountability and action to effect positive change in our lowest-performing schools, where groups of students are not making progress, and where graduation rates are low over extended periods of time.

This supplemental funding Dickinson ISD receives is typically used for additional instructional staff, research-based instructional materials, extended learning opportunities, and professional development enhancing parental involvement, providing extended learning time and for other activities designed to enable every student to succeed at the highest levels of performance. Dickinson ISD uses its Title I funds on all campuses which allow the supplemental resources to upgrade the entire educational program on these campuses.