Author: Patsy Crawford | Posted: 3. February 2012 01:10
In November 2011, eleven states applied for waivers of various provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in response to a NCLB flexibility program offered by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) in September. A January 31, 2012 article by the Associated Press reports that in December ED advised nearly all waiver applicants that their respective applications failed to adequately ensure that schools would be held accountable for the performance of all students. Under NCLB, schools are held accountable for the academic performance of all groups of students, including ethnic minorities, students with disabilities, English language learners, and students from low-income families. Some waiver applicants proposed that the schools’ accountability would be measured based on the performance of only two student groups: (1) all students and (2) a “disadvantaged” students group which would include all of the subgroups referenced above. In a January 17th letter to ED Secretary Arne Duncan, two Congressional representatives urged the Secretary to require strong accountability measures in the waiver process, stating “We fear that putting students with disabilities, English language learners and minority students into one ‘super subgroup’ will mask the individual needs of these distinct student subgroups.” According to the article, state and federal officials are in discussion about how to address the concern and some states have already agreed to make appropriate changes to their NCLB waiver proposals.
