The Obama administration unveiled plans Monday to give school districts a break from the stringent testing mandates in the No Child Left Behind Law, as long as they pursue other reform efforts.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that President
Barack Obama has authorized him to grant the waivers because Congress has
failed to act on a long-overdue rewrite of the widely criticized law.
"We can't have a law of the land that has so
many perverse incentives," Duncan said. "We can't afford to
wait."
Critics call the law's benchmarks unrealistic and
say they brand schools as failures even if they are making progress. At the
White House, Duncan told reporters that schools are "begging" for
relief but that lawmakers haven't acted even though Obama sent Congress an
overhaul proposal 16 months ago.
The goal of the No Child Left Behind law is to have
every student proficient in math and reading by 2014. States have been required
to bring more students up to the math and reading standards each year, based on
tests that usually take place each spring. The step-by-step ramping up of the
9-year-old law has caused stress in states and most school districts, because
more and more schools are labeled as failures as too few of their students meet
testing goals.
Through the waivers, schools will get some relief
from looming deadlines to meet testing goals as long as they agree to embrace
other kinds of education reforms such as raising standards, helping teachers
and principals improve, and focusing on fixing the lowest performing schools.
Details on the waivers will be provided to districts next month.
Duncan and Melody Barnes, director of the Domestic
Policy Council at the White House, said the administration will encourage every
state to apply and will work with them to meet the requirements.
Duncan said that the plan for temporary relief from
some aspects of the federal law would not undermine what Congress is still
discussing in terms of revising federal education laws. The long-awaited
overhaul of the law began earlier this year in the House, but a comprehensive
reform appears far from the finish line.
"What we do in terms of flexibility can be a
bridge or transition," Duncan said. "We all want to fix the law. This
might help us get closer to that."
The chairman of the House Committee on Education
and the Workforce, Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., says he is worried about Duncan's
waiver plan.
"I remain concerned that temporary measures
instituted by the department, such as conditional waivers, could undermine the
committee's efforts to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act," Kline said in a statement, referring to the formal name of the No
Child Left Behind law.
Montana Schools Superintendent Denise Juneau said
she welcomed the waiver proposal, as long as it offers relief from the 2014
deadline. She said her state isn't afraid of high standards and education
reform but needs enough time to reach those standards and the ability to
institute change in a way that works for Montana.
"They can set the bar wherever they want. They
just have to let us have the flexibility to get there," Juneau said.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Michael Conroy, File)
