Cohen: Tennessee to Receive Waiver on No Child Left Behind Law
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN-9) today announced that the U.S. Department of Education has provided a waiver to Tennessee and nine other states from the approaching mandates under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law’s targets for proficiency standards for reading and math. The decision came as a result of Tennessee agreeing to raise standards, improve accountability, and undertake essential reforms to improve teacher effectiveness on its own.
“The No Child Left Behind Law is broken,” said Congressman Cohen. “Our teachers and principals know how best to educate our children and improve their proficiency in reading and math. This new waiver will enable our teachers and education officials to make reforms that are best for our children so they can compete better in a 21st Century global economy.”
In order for a state to receive this flexibility, it must (1) demonstrate that it has college and career-ready expectations for all students; (2) develop and have a high-quality plan to implement a system of differentiated recognition, accountability, and support for all districts; (3) commit to develop, adopt, pilot, and implement teacher and principal evaluation and support systems that meet certain specified requirements; and (4) assure that it will evaluate and, based on that evaluation, revise its administrative requirements to reduce duplication and unnecessary burden on districts and schools.
The administration is continuing to work closely with New Mexico, the eleventh state that requested flexibility in the first round. Twenty-eight other states along with D.C. and Puerto Rico have indicated their intent to seek waivers. The administration’s decision to provide waivers followed extensive efforts to work with Congress to rewrite NCLB. In March 2010, the administration submitted a “blueprint for reform” to Congress and has met extensively with Republican and Democratic legislators.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that current law drives down standards, weakens accountability, causes narrowing of the curriculum and labels too many schools as failing. Moreover, the law mandates unworkable remedies at the federal level instead of allowing local educators to make spending decisions. States receiving waivers no longer have to meet 2014 targets set by NCLB but they must set new performance targets for improving student achievement and closing achievement gaps. They also must have accountability systems that recognize and reward high-performing schools and those that are making significant gains, while targeting rigorous and comprehensive interventions for the lowest-performing schools.
Under the state-developed plans, all schools will develop and implement plans for improving educational outcomes for underperforming subgroups of students. State plans will require continued transparency around achievement gaps, but will provide schools and districts greater flexibility in how they spend Title I federal dollars.