Washington state’s current waiver from the accountability requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act will not be renewed for the 2014-15 school year according to a letter emailed today from U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. The state has been operating under a conditional waiver for the past two school years.
“I’m disappointed — but not surprised,” State Superintendent Randy Dorn said. “There is widespread acknowledgment that NCLB isn’t working. Congress has failed to change the law at the federal level, so states are forced to come up with workarounds.”
“Washington state has been doing great work under our waiver agreement,” Dorn said. “We have developed our own system that more accurately reflects the progress being made by schools across the state. But to get our waiver renewed for next year, the Department of Education was clear: The Legislature needed to amend state law to require teacher and principal evaluations to include student growth on state tests, when appropriate. I agree: Student progress should be one of multiple elements in a teacher’s evaluation. Unfortunately the teacher’s union felt it was more important to protect their members than agree to that change and pressured the Legislature not to act.”
In the 2014-15 school year, Washington state will once again report Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). AYP is an annual measure of student achievement on state tests in reading and math. The goal is for all students to reach proficiency in both subjects by 2014. Results from the spring 2014 tests will be released in late summer.
Districts that do not meet AYP are required to “set aside” 20 percent of their Title I funds they may receive from the federal government. This money must be reserved either for private vendors to provide tutoring or to bus students who want to transfer to a school that did not fail to meet AYP. Money that goes unused for these purposes is returned to the district, but not until the school year is well underway and too late to be included in that year’s operating budget.
If the state had not received a waiver in the 2013-14 school year, Tacoma Public Schools would have been required to “set aside” $1.8 million of their Title I funds. Instead, they were able to use that money to:
- Add preschool to five elementary schools.
- Add instructional coaches to all Title I schools in the district.
The district hopes they can continue these programs next year, but finding the money to pay for them will not be easy.
For more information:
- Decision letter from Arne Duncan
- Elementary and Secondary Education Act (reauthorized in 2002 as NCLB)
- RCW 28A.425.100 (teacher evaluation law)
The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) is the primary agency charged with overseeing K–12 education in Washington state. Led by State School Superintendent Randy Dorn, OSPI works with the state’s 295 school districts and nine educational service districts to administer basic education programs and implement education reform on behalf of more than one million public school students.
OSPI provides equal access to all programs and services without discrimination based on sex, race, creed, religion, color, national origin, age, honorably discharged veteran or military status, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a person with a disability. Questions and complaints of alleged discrimination should be directed to the Equity and Civil Rights Director at (360) 725-6162 or P.O. Box 47200, Olympia, WA 98504-7200.
