Virginia Officials Ask For No Child Left Behind Waiver

Virginia joined a host of other states in asking for waivers from provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind law—a law some educators describe as unfair and burdensome to America’s schools.

 The Virginia State Board of Education voted Thursday to ask U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for a waiver that would allow state and federal requirements to be merged into one accountability system. If Virginia gets the waiver this year as the board requested, then the law’s standards wouldn’t be used in 2012-2013 accountability rating calculations.

 As things currently stand, schools receive two ratings: a federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) rating based on No Child Left Behind standards and a second state Standards of Learning (SOL) accreditation rating.

If approved, Virginia schools would continue to receive annual state accreditation ratings based on overall achievement in English, mathematics, science and history under the state’s SOL accreditation standards.

The state plans on using a so-called, “dashboard”  that would track the progress toward closing proficiency gaps, according to the Virginia Department of Education.

The dashboard would focus on three “gap” groups. These groups are:       

1.Students with disabilities, English-language learners and economically disadvantaged students.

2. African-American students, not of Hispanic origin who aren’t already included in gap group one.

3. Hispanic students, of one or more races who aren’t already included in the other gap groups.

 Federal officials have heard outcries from educators about the decade-old No Child Left Behind law that requires students to achieve grade level proficiency in reading and math by 2014—a benchmark some educators have compared to an impossible goal of getting the U.S. to a 100 percent employment rate.

 Virginia Department of Education officials said the federal law has caused successful and improving schools to be misidentified as failing.

 “The model the board is proposing would relieve Virginia schools from the overly prescriptive and unworkable dictates of the federal law while maintaining a tough and transparent accountability program,” Virginia Board of Education President David M. Foster said in a press release issued Thursday.

 Ten states—Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee—applied for waivers from the law and have been freed of its requirements, according to a Feb. 9 Huffington Post report.

New Mexico asked for a waiver, but didn’t get it. Education officials from that state are working with federal administrators to get approval, according to the report.

More than 20 other states the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have indicated they will follow suit.

The Virginia waiver application is similar to that of states that have gained approval, Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright said in a release.

Based on this and information from federal officials, she’s hopeful about Virginia's waiver being approved, Wright said.