10 States Receive NCLB Waivers - Core Education, LLC

On February 9, the Department of Education announced that ten states received waivers from some of the stringent requirements of the No Child Left Behind law. Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Tennessee will now have the opportunity to use alternative methods to improving student achievement, and to gauge achievement by means other than standardized test scores. New Mexico has asked for a waiver but was not granted one, and continues to work with the Department of Education to get approval; 28 other states plus DC and Puerto Rico have also signaled they plan to ask for waivers.

While many across the ten states celebrated, Republicans in Congress accused President Obama of executive overreach, and education and civil rights groups questioned if the waivers would allow districts to stop efforts to provide an equitable education for low-income, high-minority schools. Though the waiver process required each state to submit a plan for promoting and measuring student achievement statewide, the concerns of these groups are certainly valid.

The waivers allow states to bypass the 2014 deadline of having students up to par in reading and math. Instead, their plans must show they will be preparing students for college and career, set new targets for improving achievement among all students, reward the best performing schools, and focus help on the ones doing the worst. As the deadline approaches, more schools across the country are failing to meet requirements under NCLB, with almost half not doing so last year according to the Center on Education Policy. This is because some states have harder tests or higher numbers of immigrant and low-income children, but also because each year the state does meet the standard, the standard is raised the following year.

The waivers do not excuse states from the standardized math and reading tests, but does give them the freedom to include other subjects in their measures of student progress. They can also use scores on college entrance exams and other tests in their calculations (such as AP exams). Essentially, says Gene Wilhoit, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, “under the waiver plan states have a contractual relationship with the federal government to deliver on the approved plan…by giving these waivers….they have raised the standards. They have put in place much more focused attention to the lowest performing, they have put in place professional development activities that didn’t exist prior, and they are holding those schools much more accountable.”

However, there have been accusations of President Obama using education as a “political poker chip.” Sen. Mike Enzi, the ranking member of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over education, believes “this action clearly politicizes education policy, which historically has been a bipartisan issue.” Rep. John Kline of Minnesota, chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, released new legislation Thursday that would rewrite NCLB, and includes a provision that prohibits the education secretary from coercing states into adopting specific academic standards in exchange for a waiver.

It can only be speculated how this latest in education policy clashes will turn out. In an election year, it is hard to say what will happen to NCLB or the waivers if the Executive Branch changes hands. However, the action taken by the President and Department of Education will certainly push education into the political spotlight, and perhaps encourage a more concrete discussion of these issues during the election process.

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