The Obama administration on Friday granted Virginia and four other states relief from the most burdensome provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
The news means that schools in a total of two dozen states — including Maryland, which received a waiver in May — will no longer face sanctions if they fail to ensure that all students are proficient in math and reading by 2014.
“We would have loved to have got this done by rewriting NCLB, fixing what is wrong with the law while preserving what is right,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. But with no consensus in sight on Capitol Hill, he said, “we simply felt children couldn’t wait any longer.”
Duncan announced last fall that he would grant waivers from portions of the Bush-era education law, which an increasing number of critics say is unreasonable, unworkable and overly punitive. In exchange, states were required to outline alternative accountability plans and agree to certain policies.
Besides Virginia, federal officials on Friday granted waivers to Utah, Arkansas, Missouri and South Dakota. Similar requests from 12 additional states and the District are still under review and may be granted in coming weeks, Duncan said. Last week, federal officials turned down Iowa’s request.
Patricia I. Wright, Virginia’s state superintendent, said the waiver from No Child Left Behind provisions was “a long time coming and very much appreciated.”
Significant changes were demanded from Virginia in order to achieve that waiver.
Virginia initially proposed a set of static student-achievement targets. During negotiations, state officials agreed to goals that will rise annually, eventually cutting the math and reading failure rates in half over the next six years. In addition, Virginia toughened its expectations for high school graduation rates.
The state also agreed to require that school systems base at least 40 percent of teachers’ and principals’ evaluations on students’ academic performance.
Wright cautioned that while the changes liberate schools from the expectation that 100 percent of students will pass standardized tests, the new system won’t be simpler. Schools’ annual report cards have a new generation of educational jargon that will take some time to get used to.
“Adequate yearly progress” will be replaced with “annual measurable objectives,” for example. The performance of traditional student subgroups will still be reported, but so will the achievement of three new “proficiency gap groups,” including one that combines students with disabilities, English language learners and those who are economically disadvantaged.
I am not sure that Virginia hasn’t jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. In the first place, the goals of NCLB were stupid. By 2014, NCLB called for 100% of the students to pass math and reading state tests. The stupidity of this goal can be understood by anyone. At what point does the school lose control over the objective? Politicians really should stay out of educational issues. They don’t understand. It sounds real good on paper and sucks in reality.
Basing 40% of teachers’ and principals’ evaluations on student test scores is equally stupid. Any teacher can be set up. Guidance can be told to give a teacher a bad class…a class loaded up with special ed, ESL, kids with lots of absences and kids who just don’t care. Instantly that teacher can become a loser. Want rid of a principal? Stick them over in a school with from one of the “older” neighborhoods. I could probably point out a few from my house. Set up some unrealistic goads and you can be rid of that person mid-year. It just isn’t an objective measure of one’s teaching ability or leadership.
I would love to see NCLB repealed or whatever it is that is done with horrible acts like this. It has just about destroyed the American education system. It has sucked the joy of learning right out of the classroom.
AMEN.