In a November 15, 2011 press release, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced that 11 states have requested waivers from key provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) (aka the Elementary and Secondary Education Act). The requests were submitted seven weeks after President Obama offered states more flexibility under NCLB in exchange for the states’ commitments to implement education reforms consistent with his March 2010 Blueprint for Reform. Waiver requests were submitted by Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Tennessee. If the requests are approved, each state will
set performance targets to graduate students from high school ready for college and career rather than meet the NCLB proficiency requirements;
- design locally-tailored interventions for faltering schools instead of using only interventions prescribed by NCLB;
- measure school progress using multiple measures rather than test scores alone; and
- have more flexibility in spending Title I funds.
The 11 states represent the first round of waiver requests; a total of 39 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have expressed the intent to seek waivers. ED plans to post the first-round of requests online by November 18th and the peer review of the requests will begin immediately after Thanksgiving. Notifications of the review results are expected by mid-January 2012. States participating in the second round of waivers must submit requests by mid-February with requests for the third round due in the spring.
President Obama moved forward with the waiver program after Congress failed to meet his challenge to rewrite NCLB by the beginning of the 2011-12 school year. On October 20th, a Senate bill was passed out of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; however, the bill reportedly faces strong resistance with regard to matters such as accountability, the level of federal involvement, and teacher evaluations. A November 11th Education Week article online stated that “The prospects for a bipartisan, comprehensive rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act moving through Congress this session remain cloudy …” In the meantime, the Administration’s NCLB waiver program continues.
