Wednesday, August 24, 2011

White House announces waivers for No Child Left Behind law

Duncan: Get This Law Off of People's Backs

Will Announce Final Waiver Decisions After Labor Day

This from CNN:
About half the schools in Tennessee didn't meet the annual yearly progress requirements of the No Child Left Behind law last year. Tennessee is not alone.

Saying schools are struggling to meet the student progress requirements of the No Child Left Behind law, the White House announced Monday it would be signing waivers that will relieve schools of some of the key provisions of the law.

"The law -- No Child Left Behind -- as it currently stands is four years overdue for being rewritten. It is far too punitive, it is far too prescriptive, lead to a dummying down of standards, lead to a narrowing of the curriculum," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said at a White House press briefing on Monday. "We can't afford to have the law of the land be one that has so many perverse incentives or disincentives to the kind of progress that we want to see."

The law requires that all students meet reading and math adequacy by 2014. If they don't, the schools are subject to reforms. As the standards have increased annually, schools are finding it increasingly difficult to meet them.

"We hope that this is simply a transition or bridge to fixing the law," Duncan said of the waiver plans...

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