The Waiver Wire: Proceed with Caution
Flickr photo by skyloader
The Center for American Progress released the first analysis of the initial 11 ESEA waiver applications that moves beyond the contents of each waiver proposal to the merits of a state’s application. As noted here, and here, and here the report calls out Massachusetts and Tennessee for submitting particularly well-crafted proposals and identifies four states where significant clarification is needed. These identifications are based on two aspects of the 100+ page applications – the state’s evaluation and accountability plans. Some of the more qualitative portions of the waivers, like how the state plans to transition to college- and career-ready standards and to implement effective school turnarounds, do not factor into the CAP ratings as “stand outs”, “middle of the