CORE districts hoping for July NCLB waiver approval
By Kimberly Beltran
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
A group of California districts seeking relief from federal mandates under the No Child Left Behind Act have proposed implementing its new system for school improvement this fall, assuming its updated application is approved by July, officials said Tuesday.
Included in the California Office to Reform Education’s – or CORE’s – proposal is a new school accountability formula that would, in essence, replace existing state and federal performance scores.
In addition, local educational agencies joining CORE’s waiver program would choose one of two options for measuring principal and teacher effectiveness – a move aimed at satisfying key requirements of the Obama administration.
“Under our model, the consequence of struggle is technical assistance by peer educators who are committed to success for every child,” Michael Hanson, superintendent of Fresno Unified – one of the nine CORE districts participating in waiver request – said in a conference call Tuesday. “This is a rather dramatic paradigm shift away from the compliance-based accountability system to one driven by the collective and individual responsibility to adhere to these new set of principles.”
Since offering the flexibility program last year, the U.S. Department of Education has approved 37 state waivers. The 10 remaining applications have either been denied or are still under review.
California’s initial application was rejected, and state officials recently announced an effort to reapply this year had