The Delaware Department of Education is working on an implementation plan for the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act that gives districts more wiggle room in improving their schools.

Instead of forcing districts with schools in the bottom 5 percent of academic performance to replace their staffs or extend their school days, a blueprint released earlier this month allows districts to determine their own reform plans.

“It provides more flexibility and more responsibility,” Donna Johnson, director of the Delaware State Board of Education, said of the plan. “It didn’t limit them to a very narrow set of options in terms of the path they took to pursue turnaround.”

But Atnre Alleyne, founding executive director of DelawareCAN, the state’s branch of the reform-oriented advocacy group 50CAN, worries that the new plan will weaken school accountability.

“My initial thoughts were, Is this transformational? Or is this status quo?” Alleyne said of the draft plan. “This looks like rinse and repeat.”

Much of the accountability portion of Delaware’s implementation plan meets ESSA’s minimum requirements. The state Education Department will determine whether a school is low-performing, is struggling or belongs in a yet-to-be-named “other” category for schools that are performing better.