Graduation rates and NCLB

A growing chorus of education policy advocates is urging the U.S. Department of Education to strengthen graduation-rate accountability in states that have earned waivers under the No Child Left Behind Act.
In separate letters last month to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, a group of 36 civil rights, business, and education policy groups, along with U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., say they are concerned that many states' approved flexibility plans violate the spirit—if not the letter—of 2008 regulations that require all states to calculate the graduation rate in the same way and make those rates an important factor in high school accountability. (Michele McNeil at Education Week)

ND applies for NCLB waiver

North Dakota has applied for a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind Act. State

Superintendent of Public Instruction Wayne Sanstead approved the waiver application in time for the Sept. 6 deadline, saying it is “clearly the right thing to do.”

“The waiver’s merits exceed any shortcomings ... I think this puts us in a forward, positive movement,” Sanstead said Monday. (Mara Van Ells as the Bismarck Tribune)

More NCLB waiver applcations

Six states—Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon, and South Carolina—and the District of Columbia are the latest to be approved for waivers from many mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act, the U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday.

That brings the total of approved applications to 33, including almost all of the 27 applications submitted in the second round of the waiver process, which had a February deadline. Eleven states got waivers in the first go-round, announced in February. (Alyson Klein at Education Week)

Closing the achievement gap

No Child Left Behind dictated that race and class differences in academic achievement be eliminated by 2014. Surely the U.S. Congress should have known that such a goal was not achievable. Even if the schools were to do a spectacular job of improving education for minorities and the poor, eliminating the gaps would be possible only if substantial progress were made in changing home, neighborhood, and peer factors. Children's academic abilities may be tied as closely to these factors as to anything that goes on in school. (from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development blog)

Thoughts? Questions?

NCLB a failure?

Why is Congress so unwilling to recognize the research and public opinion, and overhaul the most basic fact of NCLB: Its reliance on standardized tests to judge and control schools, and if President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have their way, teachers as well? (Monty Neill at the Washington Post)