More states freed from No Child Left Behind law

DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP

Asso­ci­ated Press

SEATTLE — The Obama admin­is­tra­tion said Fri­day that two more states, Wash­ing­ton and Wis­con­sin, will be exempted from many require­ments of the fed­eral “No Child Left Behind” edu­ca­tion law.

The deci­sion brings to 26 the num­ber of states granted waivers as Con­gress remains at a stale­mate regard­ing an over­haul to for­mer Pres­i­dent George W. Bush’s sig­na­ture accom­plish­ment. With more than half of the states now free from many of the law’s require­ments, there are ques­tions about the future of No Child Left Behind.

The 10-year-old fed­eral No Child Left Behind law requires all stu­dents to achieve pro­fi­cient math and read­ing scores by 2014, a goal that many edu­ca­tors say is impossible.

The Edu­ca­tion Depart­ment began grant­ing the waivers in Feb­ru­ary in exchange for promises from states to improve how they pre­pare and eval­u­ate stu­dents. The exec­u­tive action by Obama is part of an ongo­ing effort to act on his own when Con­gress is rebuff­ing him.

The admin­is­tra­tion says the waivers are a tem­po­rary mea­sure while Edu­ca­tion Sec­re­tary Arne Dun­can con­tin­ues to work with Con­gress to rewrite the law, which is for­mally known as the Ele­men­tary and Sec­ondary Edu­ca­tion Act.

“A strong, bipar­ti­san reau­tho­riza­tion of the Ele­men­tary and Sec­ondary Edu­ca­tion Act remains the best path for­ward in edu­ca­tion reform, but as 26 states have now demon­strated, our kids can’t wait any longer for Con­gress to act,” Dun­can said in a state­ment released Friday.

The 10-year-old fed­eral No Child Left Behind law requires all stu­dents to achieve pro­fi­cient math and read­ing scores by 2014, a goal that many edu­ca­tors say is impossible.

Mem­bers of both par­ties agree the No Child Left Behind law is bro­ken but have been unable to agree on how to fix it. While it has been praised for focus­ing on the per­for­mance of minori­ties, low-income stu­dents, Eng­lish lan­guage learn­ers and spe­cial edu­ca­tion stu­dents, it has also led to a num­ber of schools being labeled as “failing.”

Crit­ics also say the law has had the unin­tended effect of encour­ag­ing instruc­tors to teach to the test and has led schools to nar­row their curricula.

Wash­ing­ton state schools chief Randy Dorn said the waiver will lift the require­ment that all stu­dents pass both the state read­ing and math tests by 2014. It will also give Wash­ing­ton school dis­tricts more flex­i­bil­ity about how they spend some fed­eral dollars.

In return, Wash­ing­ton will need to show improve­ment in test scores for sub­groups of stu­dents who have his­tor­i­cally had lower scores than aver­age, such as those who qual­ify for free– or reduced-price meals.

In late May, Wis­con­sin offi­cials said they were mod­i­fy­ing some details of their waiver appli­ca­tion and expected approval soon.

The fed­eral Edu­ca­tion Depart­ment ear­lier wrote to offi­cials in that state, say­ing Wis­con­sin had a num­ber of com­mend­able pro­pos­als, but they were too short on detail.

Other waiver appli­ca­tions are still pend­ing in 10 states and the Dis­trict of Colum­bia. Six waivers were approved last month in Arkansas, Iowa, Mis­souri, South Dakota, Utah and Virginia.

In order to get a waiver, each state had to promise to show in other ways that its stu­dents and schools are improv­ing, and they were required to more closely link teacher eval­u­a­tions to stu­dent test scores, among other requirements.

Washington’s waiver appli­ca­tion empha­sized its embrace of new national edu­ca­tion stan­dards, the state’s new teacher and prin­ci­pal eval­u­a­tions, and its efforts to take a broader look at stu­dent achieve­ment beyond read­ing and math by also test­ing for writ­ing and science.

The waiver agree­ment requires that by 2018, Wash­ing­ton cut in half achieve­ment gaps between var­i­ous eth­nic and eco­nomic groups, when com­pared with 100 per­cent pas­sage rates. For exam­ple, if one group had 74 per­cent pass­ing read­ing in 2011, that group would need to have 87 per­cent pass­ing by 2018.

The agree­ment adds another require­ment for Title I schools, which are high-poverty pub­lic schools that get extra money from the fed­eral gov­ern­ment to help stu­dents who are behind aca­d­e­m­i­cally or at risk of falling behind.

It requires the state edu­ca­tion office to annu­ally iden­tify pri­or­ity schools, which are the 5 per­cent lowest-achieving of Title I schools; focus schools, which are the low­est 10 per­cent of Title I schools; and reward schools, the high­est per­form­ing Title I schools or those mak­ing the most progress in a given year.

Posted by AP News on Jul 6 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.