Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Education announced it will restructure the requirements for No Child Left Behind waivers, separating a state's progress on teacher evaluation programs from its waiver eligibility.
- Washington state recently lost its waiver due to a lack of a teacher evaluation program — among other things — and Indiana was issued a warning due to its lack of a program.
- The new plan is still being developed but would give states making headway on teacher evaluation programs time to make adjustments before being penalized.
Dive Insight:
The federal government has been criticized in the past for not being consistent in its assessment of states. Since Washington lost its waiver status and Indiana received a warning, the department needed to explicitly make a statement about its evaluation process or risk once again having that inconsistency brought to light. Since those states were called out for — among other things — not yet having teacher evaluation programs in place while other states without such programs had yet to be addressed, the department is trying to clarify what differentiates those states from others. By removing teacher evaluations from the waiver assessment, the federal government will not be forced to revoke waivers for states without plans finalized.