1) The newly passed Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) takes up 1,016 pages, whereas the original Elementary & Secondary Art of 1965 was just 32 pages long.

2) When asked how optimistic ASCD readers are that ESSA will help failing schools and help close the achievement gap, 38% said they’re not very optimistic, 24% are not at all optimistic, and 20% are only somewhat optimistic.

3) The U.S. Department of Education, formed back in 1980, now has 4,400 employees and a $68 billion budget!

4) Only about 50% of schools that received money in the third round of Obama’s School Improvement Grant program improved; the other 50% expereienced unchanged achievement results or actually worse oucomes. SIG started out with a $3 billion budget from his American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009, aka the Stimulus.

5) When asked how best to encourage great principals to stay in their jobs longer, 34% of ASCD readers said, “provide more time for teacher observations and feedback; 27% said “provide professional networks to engage with like practitioners; and 27% said providing “ongoing transformative development.”