The Columbus Dispatch...
‘No Child’ waiver pondered
State might seek exemption to 2014 national scholastic standards
By Jennifer Smith Richards

Tuesday August 9, 2011 

The U.S. Department of Education will allow some states to bypass the key requirement of No Child Left Behind, something Ohio might take advantage of. 

The state has not yet decided whether to seek a waiver from the requirement that all students be proficient in math and reading by 2014, said Patrick Gallaway, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education. 

But it is looking into the possibility, state school Superintendent Stan Heffner wrote in an email. “We are actively studying what waiver options may be available and how they could enhance Ohio’s efforts for transitioning to more-rigorous standards for learning.” 

A handful of states already have sought waivers, and some have announced that they can’t meet the law’s demands. 

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said yesterday that, because Congress has not rewritten No Child Left Behind, he will exempt states from the proficiency requirement. 

The “100 percent proficiency” goal is the linchpin of the federal school-accountability law, which was adopted a decade ago under President George W. Bush. State education officials have long been vocal about the all-students target, which they view as unrealistic and unreachable. 

The fact that the school year is about to start made the matter urgent, Duncan said yesterday. 

“We can’t afford to wait. Everywhere I go, teachers, parents, principals, school-board members and state superintendents are asking for the flexibility to do the right thing,” he said. 

The waivers would be available to all 50 states, said Melody Barnes, who is President Barack Obama’s domestic-policy adviser. 

“We are asking that every state apply,” she said, but “States are going to have to embrace the kind of reform that we believe is necessary.”Duncan said specifics will come in three or four weeks. He said states that have high standards, are judging teacher and principal effectiveness and monitoring student growth, and have committed to overhauling the lowest-performing schools are likely to be exempted from the 2014 proficiency deadline. 

“We want to put forward a very simple trade-off. Where there’s a high bar, we want to get out of their way and let them hit that higher bar,” he said. 

Under No Child, states were required to set annual targets that would propel students to 100 percent proficiency, but how to get there was left mostly to state officials. The test passing-rate targets are called “adequate yearly progress” measures. In Ohio, failing to meet them can reduce a school or district’s overall report-card grade. 

Some states — including Ohio — adopted back-loaded targets, sometimes referred to as the “hockey stick” trajectory, with the hope that the law would be abandoned by now. But that has created a panic as the deadline approaches and the passing-rate targets begin to quickly rise. 

Ohio has advanced its passing-rate goals only once in the past five years. So this school year, the targets are jumping dramatically. 

If schools don’t meet the federal standard and don’t get a waiver, they can be forced to offer tutoring and to allow students to transfer to better schools. Those that miss the passing-rate goal year after year can be forced to overhaul. 

This is where Ohio stands: More than half of the state’s school districts and nearly four in 10 schools missed goals in the 2009-10 school year. Because the targets will rise this year, more schools are expected to fall behind. 

Duncan called Congress “dysfunctional” but said the waiver plan should encourage lawmakers to move more quickly. 

“They should have acted,” he said. “What we’re doing in no way stops them from moving forward. We can’t sit here in Washington and turn a deaf ear to what’s going on around the country.” 

Read it at the Columbus Dispatch