Today’s episode is about school grades and ESSA.  Katie and I sat down with Barton Jr. High Principal, Mrs. Sherry Hill, and Deborah Coffman, Assistant commissioner and public school accountability. We first discussed school grades- when and how they started, how grades for each school is figured and more.  We then switched our conversation over to ESSA, the Every Student Successes Act. We talked about how it's different from its predecessor, No child left behind, and what ESSA means for our district, schools, and our classroom teachers. I feel this information is so important for anyone involved in education. We then are going to switch over to a little segment we like to call, “Stories from my classroom”.  For this segment we asked teachers across our district to share funny or heartfelt stories that have happened in their classrooms. Our goal for this segment is to hear stories from classrooms across our entire state.  If you have a story to share, or one of our stories here inspire you, reach out to us through our website eldoradopublicschools.org/promise-podcast. We’d LOVE to hear from you!! We hope to eventually have enough stories to create an entire episode!  I hope these stories make you laugh, brighten your day, or warm your heart!