NCLB Waivers Are No Hall Pass

Eleven states will seek flexibility from various No Child Left Behind Act requirements in the U.S. Department of Education's first round of waiver considerations. In exchange for loosening the George W. Bush-era NCLB mandates, the states—Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Tennessee—have to implement Obama-preferred reform policies. Among them: adopt college and career-readiness standards (i.e., the Common Core State Standards), establish differentiated accountability systems, and institute teacher evaluation systems.

Also this week, the 21 experts who will review the state "waiver" applications have been publicly identified. The peer review panel is a mix of state and local officials, policy experts, and researchers. Interestingly, and unusually, the Education Trust has two representatives (Katie Haycock and Daria Hall) serving on the panel. If you include previous Ed Trust-er Ross Weiner (now head of the Aspen Institute), more than 10 percent of the peer review panel is stocked with Ed Trust reps and alums.

Given their sizable representation on the waiver review panel, it is worth noting the Ed Trust's position on the Obama administration's waiver proposal: 

For years, states have been demanding the kind of flexibility offered today. They've said that the terms of NCLB were unrealistic. They've highlighted the fact that their schools weren't given credit for student growth. And they've pointed out that the law's required interventions in schools that missed their goals created a damaging "one size fits all" approach to school improvement. In short, they've told us that they know how to do it better. In fact, far too many state leaders spent a lot of time and energy over the past decade bashing the law instead of getting all of their students to read and do math at grade level. 

Now, the Obama administration has handed states a responsible framework in which they can exercise the flexibility they said they wanted. It's time for them to stand and deliver—on behalf of all students, but particularly those who are farthest behind. 

Clearly, the state applications will be carefully scrutinized for maintaining stringent accountability requirements and efforts to close achievement gaps.