Washington wins US ‘No Child Left Behind’ waiver

The U.S. Department of Education announced Friday that
Washington state has won its bid to be excused from some
requirements of the federal “No Child Left Behind” law,
including the need for every child to pass statewide
reading and math tests by 2014.

Washington joins 25 other states that have earned waivers
from the federal education law.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn said the
waiver will give Washington a chance to grow beyond test
scores as the only way to judge the success of students
and their schools.

“We have some great schools that are making some great
improvements. But because five or six students don’t get
the grade level, they’re considered a failing school. And
we think that that’s unfair,” Dorn told 97.3 KIRO FM.

It also will give school districts more flexibility about
how they spend some federal dollars.

In return, Washington will need to show improvement in
test scores for subgroups of students who have
historically had lower scores than average, such as those
who qualify for free- or reduced-price meals.

Washington’s waiver application emphasized its embrace of
new national education standards, the state’s new teacher
and principal evaluations, and its efforts to take a
broader look at student achievement beyond reading and
math by also testing for writing and science.

Dorn said the federal government wants states to put a
number on level of achievement, but he argued the a
balance needs to be bargained at the local level with
teachers, superintendents, and principals.

“We’re finding out that just improving test scores is not
the overall education that everybody is aiming for in
America,” he said.

The waivers are considered a temporary measure while
Education Secretary Arne Duncan continues to work with
Congress to rewrite the No Child Left Behind law, which is
formally known as the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act.

The waiver agreement requires that by 2018, Washington cut
in half achievement gaps between various ethnic and
economic groups, when compared with 100 percent passage
rates. For example, if one group had 74 percent passing
reading in 2011, that group would need to have 87 percent
passing by 2018.

The agreement adds another requirement for Title I
schools, which are high-poverty public schools that get
extra money from the federal government to help students
who are behind academically or at risk of falling behind.

It requires the state education office to annually
identify priority schools, which are the 5 percent lowest
achieving of Title I schools; focus schools, which are the
lowest 10 percent of Title I schools; and reward schools,
the highest performing Title I schools or those making the
most progress in a given year.

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Contact Donna Blankinship through Twitter at
https://twitter.com/dgblankinship.

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