Dive Brief:
- Despite consistency in student test scores over the past three years, Washington state is seeing an uptick in schools labeled "failing."
- Without a No Child Left Behind waiver, the state's schools are being held to the Bush-era policy's Adequate Yearly Progress requirements, which saw over 1,900 of the state's 2,200 schools labeled as failing this year.
- The frustration for the state comes from the fact that, aside from losing its waiver, nothing else has changed. The scores are the same, but without the waiver, they appear to be worse.
Dive Insight:
"By losing our waiver, we've had to do some things I think are ridiculous, stupid, ineffective and a waste of resources," Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn told the Associated Press. In addition to having to meet requirements that most call unrealistic, the state also lost control of how it spends its federal education funds.
Arne Duncan has told the state it can have the waiver back once it changes its teacher evaluation system to include assessments — however, a bigger question should be directed at Duncan: When will the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (which NCLB is under) be reauthorized so waivers are no longer necessary? It could appear to some as though Duncan enjoys holding the waivers over the heads of states, as it definitely helps enforce certain expectations.