Indiana Education Officials On Board With Obama's NCLB Waiver Plan (They Just Kinda Wish Congress Had Signed Off On It)

Officials at the Indiana Department of Education welcomed the Obama administration’s plan to offer states waivers from key portions of the No Child Left Behind law.

That’s really no surprise: Indiana was one of the first states to announce it would request a voucher, and Indiana state superintendent Tony Bennett has said he’s all for them, so long as they don’t allow states to loosen standards.

‘No Child’ held states to the standard of making sure all students were proficient in math and reading by 2014. That goal is now widely seen as impractical. Now, Indiana will be able to use its home-grown system to judge academic performance — a system that measures students’ improvement year-over-year that also underlies the state’s rating system.

“We believe Indiana’s growth model is the best student growth measure in the nation, and we believe we can develop an accountability system that uses clear labels, incorporates student growth, and still maintains rigorous standards,” Indiana Department of Education spokesperson Alex Damron said Friday.

Damron said state education officials would have preferred the change to NCLB to have come from Congressional action, not an executive action by President Obama. But in the absence of Congressional action, Damron said the waivers allow Indiana to do what’s best for students.