With NCLB waiver all but dead, state officials look to soften federal sanctions
In a largely overlooked action last month, the California State Board of Education formally designated another 56 local educational agencies as failing as defined by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The move came even as California’s long-shot waiver request seeking relief from federal performance mandates sat unresolved before U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan – now nearly six months since the application was made.
If hope has long since faded that the largely non-compliant waiver request would be accepted, state officials are instead moving quietly to do what they can to soften the impacts NCLB sanctions will have on a growing number of communities.
For one, officials said last week, they are looking to deemphasize federal performance benchmarks as part of the evaluation parents, students, teachers and taxpayers should use in analyzing schools and districts. Instead, there will be more and greater emphasis put on the state’s accountability tool, the Academic Performance Index – which employs the more widely embraced growth model for expressing changes in performance.
Secondly, the state board will – when possible – look to assign the least restrictive intervention program they can and still meet federal law. This comes as an increasing number of the state’s higher performing districts are falling victim
