Every Student Succeeds Act Certification

Veteran VoiceThread educators have been expanding their classrooms and providing students a place for them to practice their interpersonal and collaborative skills for over 15 years, and now we have formal validation of that winning strategy. After undertaking a review process with independent experts at the LearnPlatform, VoiceThread has been certified to meet Levels III & IV standards that are defined by the U.S. Department of Education Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). This is an important and impactful validation for us; however, ESSA validation is only part of the story.

VoiceThread’s co-founder and CEO, Steve Muth, explains “ESSA Level IV & Level III certification not only affirms that there is a research basis underlyingthe unique affordances that VoiceThreading offers, but it also validates the overall direction of our mission — humanizing the learning experience for both students and educators. We have known for a long time that high quality human-to-human interaction is not an elective component of a successful learning journey; it is a core requirement.

What is ESSA? Why does it matter?

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is a United States law passed in 2015 that empowers state and local educators to identify the needs of their own students and to select tools and strategies tailored to meet those needs. Tools with ESSA certification have undergone rigorous evaluation to prove that they are effective in improving student outcomes across the board.

What are the ESSA tiers of evidence?

ESSA’s tiers of evidence help learning institutions ensure the interventions deployed are backed by robust research. There are four tiers in total. The Level IV indicates that the intervention has a “well-defined logic model based on rigorous research,” and that further study is in the works to verify the approach’s efficacy. Level III attests that promising evidence of efficacy exists and is well documented in research findings. The Learn Platform reviewed our logic model and reviewed existing research to evaluate if there was sufficient evidence to support that logic model in the lived experiences of students.

What’s next

The VoiceThread executive and product teams will continue to work with the LearnPlatform to document, refine, and iterate on our logic model. The logic model is only the beginning of our efforts to understand and document specifically how VoiceThread has a positive impact on student learning. Partnering with learning researchers at K-20 institutions around the world, we plan to find out which affordances are most impactful, how, why, when, and for whom.

If you’re interested in the structure and details of research click here to get a copy of the Level IV report that was developed in partnership with LearnPlatform.