Federal Brinksmanship: Secretary Duncan Pulls Washington's Waiver
2 min read
On April 24th, Washington State became the first state in the country lo lose its No Child Left Behind (or NCLB) waiver. The state lost the waiver because the Washington State legislature refused to tie teacher evaluations to student scores on standardized tests.
The letter, and the attached conditions, make for an interesting read. The implications also point to additional showdowns in the near future. The adequate yearly progress goals of NCLB, broadly criticized as unrealistic, will result in many schools that have been considered successful to become failures overnight. Randy Dorn, Washington State superintendent, describes the situation as follows:
"You have to write the letter to everyone that you're a failing school," he says. "You're supposed to have 100 percent of students at proficient grade level. If you have one kid that's not proficient, you've got to send out the letter."
He guesses 90 percent of Washington state schools will have to send out that letter this summer.
So, in the next few months, an enormous majority of parents will receive a letter stating that their kids' school is failing not because of anything that happened within the school, but because of the attitude of the Federal Government about standardized tests.
The terms of Washington State losing its waiver is a huge boon for the opt out movement. With 90% of schools being called failures out of the gate, schools have no motivation to comply with standardized testing requirements. The fact that a school gets defined as failing due to political posturing helps reinforce the view that school ratings are both arbitrary and politically motivated. Schools have nothing to lose by refusing to test - and weeks of instructional time and flexibility to gain.
And, of course, it should surprise no one that the schools with the least money will be affected first. Or, to put it another way, because of how federal education policy is being implemented, the schools with the fewest resources will feel the hit first. If unions - and schools with more resources - step up and take steps to minimize the impacts of the lost waiver, they will have an opportunity to show how they put kids - and equity - first. If they fail to do this, then unions will have demonstrated that they are in it for the politics first.
