Impact of NCLB waiver on poor schools challenged
President Obama and Arne Duncan talk about NCLB waivers last Feb. 9. (YURI GRIPAS/Reuters)
Below is a letter sent today to Education Secretary Arne Duncan from a coalition of organizations, researchers, activists and government officials who are questioning the racial and economic impacts of the No Child Left Behind waiver granted to New Jersey.
The letter says that the “accountability” system put in place by the state’s Education Department as a result of the waiver rewards schools that serve majority white students while is more punitive toward school districts serving low-income students of color.
Duncan’s department began handing out waivers that would exempt states from the most onerous mandates of No Child Left Behind if those states agreed to reforms that the Obama administration supported. Critics said the waivers required accountability systems that