President Barack Obama is set to announce waivers that will free 10 states from the binding requirements of the No Child Left Behind law. The initiative, enacted during the George W. Bush administration, requires all states receiving federal education funding to test students’ basic skills in many grades.
Ten of the 11 states that applied for waivers will receive them, a White House official told the Associated Press. They are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
New Mexico was the only applicant denied a waiver, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said during a Thursday afternoon White House conference call with reporters.
“We determined that we would provide flexibility to those states who were willing to advance reform, and align their education system with a new goal of preparing all students to graduate ready for college and ready to compete in the global economy,” Domestic Policy Council Director Cecilia Munoz said during the call.
“Flexibility” waivers issues by the Obama administration will allow the 10 successful states to miss 2014 targets for student proficiency if they offer other viable plans instead.
Those plans, Duncan said, will require states to offer college or career-standards preparation courses.
States will also have to develop an “accountability” system, and put teacher evaluation systems in place — based both on individual students’ performance and on teacher effectiveness.
Under the No Child Left Behind law, Duncan explained, school systems were considered successful if they were “not [a] failure.” Instead, he stressed rewarding schools that excel along with those that can close the “achievement gap” between their own level and those of higher-performing schools.
According to Fox News, states with waivers will still be tested annually, but starting this fall schools will not be required to adhere to the same requirements as those states still under No Child Left Behind.
Twenty-six other states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have also indicated a desire to seek “flexibility” waivers.
Duncan said that without waivers, states will be required to uphold the standards of No Child Left Behind because “it’s the law of the land.”
No Child Left Behind was enacted to target schools in low-income areas and raise proficiency in reading and math test scores.
However, this became “very punitive” and “led to a narrowing of [the] curriculum” of the nation’s schools, Duncan claimed.
The next application deadline for states will be at the end of February.