U.S. Education Secretary Requests NCLB Updates From Ritz, Pence

Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke with state superintendent Glenda Ritz and Governor Mike Pence last week, requesting the state keeps his office updated on its efforts to comply with the U.S. Department of Education’s requirement’s to have a waiver from No Child Left Behind benchmarks.

Center For American Progress (flickr)

Arne Duncan will work with Governor Pence and Glenda Ritz to continue Indiana's No Child Left Behind waiver.

In a May 1 letter to Ritz, the U.S. Department of Education informed her the state is at risk of losing its No Child Left Behind waiver because of failure to monitor low-performing schools and implement college and career ready standards.

Indiana has until June 30 to prove they are meeting those criteria.

The AP reports on an email it obtained from Ritz to State Board of Education members about the conversations with Duncan:

Ritz’s email said she spoke with Duncan on Tuesday about the monitoring report and was heartened to learn that the education secretary “wants to continue to work closely” with Indiana to get the waiver extended for a year. She said Duncan conveyed that Pence shared the commitment to extend the waiver and recommended regular conference calls between his staff and the monitoring team before the June 30 deadline to address the findings.

The Indiana Department of Education is updating the State Board of Education at a special meeting tomorrow. The State Board of Education requested the meeting to learn what the Indiana Department of Education is doing to extend the waiver.