Education Secretary May Agree to Waivers on ‘No Child’ Law Requirements

There may be support coming from the federal government for New Hampshire districts like Oyster River Cooperative that, despite strong schools, have failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) [fosters.com] levels for two consecutive years and have been identified as "in need of improvement" by the No Child Left Behind Act [wikipedia.org]. The following is an excerpt from today's issue of The New York Times where Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is pushing for reform and action from Congress regarding the No Child Left Behind Act.

Education Secretary May Agree to Waivers on ‘No Child’ Law Requirements

Unless Congress acts by this fall to overhaul No Child Left Behind, the main federal law on public education, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan signaled that he would use his executive authority to free states from the law’s centerpiece requirement that all students be proficient in reading and math by 2014.

The Obama administration has been facing a mounting clamor from state school officials to waive substantial parts of the law, which President Bush signed in 2002, especially its requirement that states bring 100 percent of students to proficiency in reading and math by 2014 or else face sanctions. In March, Mr. Duncan predicted that the law would classify 80,000 of the nation’s 100,000 public schools as failing this fall unless it was amended.

But his efforts to address the problem have gained little traction on Capitol Hill, where several attempts since 2007 to rewrite the sprawling school accountability law have failed.

Read More ... [nytimes.com]

If you would like to support Mr. Duncan's efforts to urge Congress to reform the No Child Left Behind Act, the National Education Association [nea.org] has provided an easy way to do so here [capwiz.com]. Just click the "Go!" button in the "Take Action Now!" box to compose and send an email to the Secretary of Education or produce a printed letter.