Michele McNeil at Edweek has the goods on U.S. Ed. Sec. Arne Duncan’s surprising decision to give eight California school districts a one-year waiver on No Child Left Behind. The eight districts are Fresno, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Sanger and Santa Ana.
California was ineligible for a waiver (unlike 32 other states, including New Jersey) because it has not implemented required elements like linking teacher evaluations to student outcomes. These eight districts got together and formed a consortium called CORE (California Office to Reform Education). CORE applied for a waiver independent of the California State Department of Education and yesterday the waiver was granted by Duncan.
McNeil quotes Deputy Ed. Comm. Andrew Smarick (who now works with Bellwether): “I’m shocked. For the secretary to unilaterally dispense with 30-plus years of state-led accountability is incredible.”
Another partner at Bellwether, Andy Rotherham has a more measured response: “I’m not in the camp of ‘any district waiver is a lousy idea.’ If a district or group of districts came forward with something really innovative and rigorous then why not? District waivers are part of the law (as with other waivers reasonable people, and lawyers, can disagree about how far that authority goes) and have been used before under NCLB with a lot less grumbling on process and authority than you’re hearing now…politics anyone? It’s sure hard to argue that the current approach is working well – especially in light of the last set of waivers so we shouldn’t reflexively fear a new approach.”
From the article:
Granting such a waiver is a risky move for a federal department that is already trying to manage an enormous portfolio of grants and programs—from billions of dollars in Race to the Top and Investing in Innovation grants to a hodgepodge of new accountability systems that are emerging in the 39 states, plus the District of Columbia, that have waivers.
What’s more, this waiver could open the door for other districts that want their own tailor-made waiver. At a minimum, the department might have to deal with the administrative burden of fielding inquiries and even applications from other districts. Right now, however, Duncan said he doesn’t foresee any other districts applying.
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The US Department of Education must get out of the weeds. Yes, I am in the camp that the waiver system is causing chaos and actually eating away at the accountability it supposedly demands.
Everyone is on the "Accountability" bandwagon but when given a close look at the waiver system, there is truly a lack of accountability.
Pressed to get the waiver from the NCLB's overly optimistic & punitive 2013-14 demand of all student proficiency, NJ become overly optimistic itself in setting unrealistic deadlines for their new course of action. Self prescribed deadlines weren't met and the State had to get a waiver to the original waiver for a more realistic timeframe. NJ is not the only state in this boat.
The overall problem is that the President and Secretary of Education are unable to muster enough support from their own base for reauthorization of the ESEA. So now we have a patchwork quilt of federally approved reform ideas and methods.
Unfortunately, this confusion impacts most on our disadvantaged communities - the very communities federal aid targets for improvement.
The bottom line is the President and Congress have got to get their acts together and commit to reauthorization.