Transparency Watch: Secret (For Now) NCLB Waiver Judges
In less than three weeks, states will begin turning in their applications for waivers under No Child Left Behind, and then it will be up to a cadre of peer reviewers to help Education Secretary Arne Duncan decide who gets a waiver, and who doesn't.
Just who these judges are will remain secret, the department says, until the peer review process is pretty much over. That's how the department operated in the Race to the Top competition, too, when it was worried about undue influence states might put on the judges, whose names were kept secret until the winners were announced.
For the waiver process, department spokeswoman Liz Utrup told me yesterday: "In order to keep the peer review process as fair and consistent as possible, reviewers names will be kept private until on-site peer review is