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Yesterday President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that 10 states have been awarded waivers that provide flexibility from some of the main provisions of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), including the 2014 deadline for 100% of students to reach proficiency in reading and math and the requirement that 20% of Title I funds be set aside for public school choice and supplemental educational services.

To receive a wavier, states had to agree to implement college and career-ready standards and to reform teacher and principal development, evaluation and support systems. They had to set new performance targets for improving student achievement and develop accountability systems that recognize and reward high-performing schools, provide “rigorous and comprehensive” interventions in the lowest-performing schools, and improve educational outcomes for underperforming subgroups of students.

The ten states awarded waivers – Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Tennessee – submitted plans for meeting these conditions that federal officials approved (though three states were granted waivers conditional on certain modifications to those plans). One state that applied (New Mexico) was not awarded a waiver, though federal officials have pledged to work with the state to improve the application. An additional 28 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have indicated their intent to apply for waivers later this month. States that do not receive waivers will be expected to comply with NCLB in its existing form. (Learn more over on Education Week.)

NCLB has long been acknowledged to set the right goals for schools but mandate the wrong strategies to achieve them. The latest iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the law has been up for reauthorization since 2007, but Congress has not yet acted. According to President Obama, we as a nation cannot wait any longer. As he put it, the waivers give “10 states the green light to continue making reforms that are best for them. Because if we're serious about helping our children reach their potential, the best ideas aren't going to come from Washington alone. Our job is to harness those ideas, and to hold states and schools accountable for making them work." 

So how have those in the education community reacted to the waiver announcement? Jim Kohlmoos, executive director of the National Association of State Boards of Education, says that “[i]t is heartening to see the Administration recognizes [the hard work of states and state boards of education] by starting to relieve states of the burden imposed on them by a law that set out worthy but perhaps unrealistic goals.” He goes on to point out that these waivers are not enough – that “what we need is a comprehensive new iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.” (Read more…)

Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, is also encouraged by efforts to provide relief from the burdens that states and schools face from NCLB. But he points out that “this is only a stopgap measure." He too emphasizes the importance of ESEA reauthorization, calling for such a bill to “[reflect] the important federal role of ensuring equity while working with states and local school districts to support the public education system” and “ensure that all students have access to quality early education, well-rounded instruction, a safe and supportive learning environment, and access to qualified, caring, and committed teachers.”  (Read more…)

Anne Bryant, executive director of the National School Boards Association, also supports the waiving of problematic and burdensome regulatory requirements of NCLB, but she too notes that “[t]he waiver process should not be viewed as an acceptable substitute for ESEA reauthorization, as all U.S. school districts must be free of unnecessary or counterproductive federal mandates that hinder our goals of increasing student achievement.”

She points out that “the NCLB waiver program will give ten states additional flexibility but also imposes new conditions and program criteria on states and school districts requiring them to engage in activities that do not necessarily improve student achievement” and urges Congress to act soon to “fully replace the current accountability system that neither accurately nor fairly reflects the performance of students, schools, or school districts.” (Read more...)

This post will be updated as LFA member organizations issue responses to the waiver announcement.