Education secretary granting more waivers to requirements of No Child Left Behind Act

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and President Obama have called for an overhaul of the No Child Left Behind Act, which poses compliance problems for many rural schools, and in the meantime Duncan has been granting more waivers to the law than his predecessors. In 2009 during Duncan’s first year in office he granted 315 waivers, Michele McNeil of Education Week reports. "That marks a nine-fold increase in the number issued under his predecessor, Margaret Spellings, the year before," but many if not most are "linked to the education aid Congress provided as part of the economic-stimulus package."

Data from 2010 is not available, but "waivers continue—including some that strike at the heart of the requirement that students, schools, and districts be measured against the same state tests," McNeil writes. A Kansas school this month received a first-of-its-kind waiver to use its own standards and tests for its oldest students. In March, Utah received a waiver to let 12 districts use computer-adaptive tests for accountability purposes, a request Spellings denied in 2008, McNeil reports.

Secretary Rod Paige granted just eight waivers in 2002-04. In 2005 Spellings granted the first substantial waivers, which involved the requirement that schools and districts provide public school choice and tutoring to students who attend schools in need of improvement. Gene Wilhoit, the executive director of the Washington-based Council of Chief State School Officers, sees the waivers as needed flexibility. "What we have ... is a system that was well intended but had a calculus that is leading to a result that is causing the law to lose its credibility," he said. "There will be pressure on the secretary to do something to change the conditions. He may be forced to address this." (Read more)