Dive Brief:
- The Department of Education has released a letter to the nation's education chiefs explaining a new guidance for securing No Child Left Behind waivers.
- Under the new plan, certain states that are successfully implementing some standards will have the opportunity to obtain four-year waivers.
- NCLB has been up for re-authorization since 2007 and if Congress does decide to amend the law, which appears likely, the Department of Education says it will give guidance on that transition.
Dive Insight:
NCLB waivers stop states from being tied to the stringent accountability expectations of Bush-era Adequate Yearly Progress. In turn states must adhere to the education reforms pushed by the Obama administration. Currently there are 43 states with NCLB waivers. Areas without waivers such as Washington state and Omaha are put in a tough position. Held to very stringent AYP goals, schools with steady test scores in those areas still run the risk of being deemed "inadequate" or "struggling".
Feelings on the new guideline are mixed. According to U.S. News & World Report, certain education advocacy groups, like Education Trust, are pleased to see the re-emphasis on accountability. Others such as teacher unions are less excited.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, issued a statement saying, "The waiver guidance issued today says: No Child Left Behind failed, but you can get out of it if you have college- and career-ready standards, high-stakes testing on those standards, and teacher evaluations that rely heavily on testing. At best, it permits, and at worst, it rewards, states that habitually over-test – like Florida, whose kids now lose an average of 70 days of instruction due to testing. It lacks a concrete strategy to address the out-of-classroom factors that account for two-thirds of what affects student achievement. And sadly, even when focusing on teachers as a silver bullet, it lacks the answer to how we recruit, retain and support teachers at hard-to-staff schools."
