On Friday, the Washington Post reported that President Obama released the details of the waiver program for the states who are trying to avoid the penalties that come with schools not making impossible goals with their AYP (adequate yearly progress) as required by the No Child Left Behind law.
The problem is, it still looks a lot like the No Child Left Behind law. The program continues to require high levels of standardized testing and creates school accountability measures that are dependent on those scores. Monty Neil of Fair Test, writes about the issues of testing here.
It also creates more unfunded mandates for school systems as this may also be a way to have states adopt the cornerstone pieces of Race to the Top program, such as creating standardized tests for courses that don't have already have them and revamping teacher evaluation systems. These new systems could require that as much as 50% of a teacher's evaluation be linked to "student growth" with the details being left to the states to determine. This could certainly be financial burden for those states who were not successful in winning funds during the Race to the Top grant process last year.
Maryland's State Board of Education president has already stated that Maryland will apply for a waiver, as will Virginia. The District is investigating the possibility of applying as well.
Questions still surround the new plan. The most pressing one is whether or not the Department of Education has the authority to enact this plan. Congress will eventually take up re-authorization of NCLB and who knows what impact that will have on the waiver process and how states will continue to try to reform education. One could expect that this will make education a pressing issue during the 2012 presidential election.
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