Indiana Waiting On Three-Year NCLB Waiver Extension
Its time once again for Hoosier education officials to play the waiting game.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. (Photo Credit: U.S. Department of Education)
Indiana has requested a flexibility waiver from the federal government for No Child Left Behind, the national law issuing across-the-board requirements states have to follow in order to receive federal funding.
A waiver would exempt the state from some provisions of the law – for example, maintaining 100 percent student proficiency in math and language arts. In order to qualify, states must meet a specific set of requirements, including plans for measuring school performance and evaluating teachers.
Indiana’s Department of Education submitted its application for a three-year renewal this spring. The U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday it will renew waivers for seven states and Washington, D.C. – but the Hoosier state was not on the list just yet.
Reports say state officials should hear back by late summer or early fall.
Late last summer, the feds granted Indiana a one-year waiver extension – but not without some drama. Debate over the application added fuel to the fiery relationship between state superintendent Glenda Ritz and her department, members of the State Board of Education and the now-defunct Center for Education and Career Innovation.
Minus all of the commotion, Chelsea Schneider of the Evansville Courier & Press reports the application process was similar this time around:
Since the state had a longer window to prepare the application, education officials were able to provide more data and add more detail in support of its waiver request, Altman said.
In the waiver application, the state has to show that turnaround strategies are in place for academically struggling schools, as well as the implementation of educator evaluations.
Indiana is currently among 42 states with a waiver from the federal law.
Should the feds deny the state another waiver, the state would no longer have the same flexibility in how to spend federal funds, including Title I money for at-risk students.
NCLB is the latest version of the nation’s cornerstone education law, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, (ESEA), an extensive federal statute that has funded primary and secondary education since 1965.
ESEA is itself up for renewal this session in Congress. A bipartisan pair of senators have drafted a new version they’re calling the Student Success Act, which emphasizes items that are attractive to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle – including state-crafted accountability systems and maintenance of the current federal testing schedule.
Former President George W. Bush signed NCLB into law in 2002.