Trouble in Waiverland ...

Rolling back SPED allowances ... Since President Barack Obama came into office, his administration has upheld and advanced policies that increased the stakes of standardized testing, arguing that student progress trumps other concerns, writes Joy Resmovits for The Huffington Post. A 2003 NCLB regulation allowed states to use "alternate achievement standards" for up to 1 percent of students with the most challenging cognitive disabilities. In 2007, the Education Department (ED) tweaked the law to allow 2 percent of students per state to learn a curriculum based on "modified" objectives to be measured on an aligned test. Since then, a consortium representing special education students, including organizations such as the Easter Seals and the National Center for Learning Disabilities, have pushed to end the allowance. The Obama administration has now posted a proposal to roll it back, with states already administering alternate tests to use them for the last time this school year. The administration can act on its own accord, and is gathering feedback from the public until October 7 before making a final decision. States could still count 1 percent of kids, those with the most severe disabilities, as proficient on alternate assessments, even under the new regulations. The National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, plans to submit public comments in opposition to the proposal.  More

Trouble in Waiverland ... The Campaign for High School Equity (CHSE) has released a report that seriously questions accountability plans under NCLB waivers, specifically whether use of "super subgroups" will result in fewer students of color receiving the supports and interventions they need. The waivers allow 41 states and the District of Columbia to create accountability systems that support only 15 percent of schools within a state, with 85 percent of schools receiving little help. Far fewer schools are being identified as Priority or Focus Schools under waivers: Specifically, 22 states identified fewer Title I schools and/or fewer schools overall, with some states like Missouri and Ohio identifying more than 400 fewer schools. In New Mexico, approximately 317 fewer schools were identified; and in the District of Columbia, 98 fewer. In 11 states with waivers, schools pegged for intervention dropped by more than 100. While some reasonably argue that current law over-identifies low-performing schools, the vast discrepancy in number of schools identified is troubling. CHSE urges the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to ensure that low achievement and graduation rates among African-American students, Asian and Pacific Islander students, English language learners, students with disabilities, Native students, Latino students, and economically disadvantaged students will each trigger clear interventions. ED should also strengthen requirements for states to focus on narrowing achievement gaps by maintaining its policy on reporting student achievement, but strengthening its policy on accountability for student subgroups. More

More Trouble in Waiverland... In light of the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) placing three states on "high-risk status" for problems with NCLB waivers, sweeping flexibility in school accountability is clearly fraught with pitfalls, writes Michele McNeil in Education Week. Tying teacher evaluations to student growth has been one problem, but federal officials are also concerned about other issues: how states like Arizona, Arkansas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin will promote significant improvement in lowest-performing "priority" schools that haven't received School Improvement Grants; how states like Missouri, Tennessee, and Utah are intervening in schools with poor progress from specific student subgroups; and whether Florida, Louisiana, and South Dakota are measuring graduation rates in a meaningful way. Most waivers expire at the end of 2013-14, and ED will issue guidance about the renewal process. To that end, the department is conducting two levels of monitoring. The first level involves 90-minute phone calls with each state, and follow-up reports posted on the department's website. In the next level, federal officials will conduct site visits in each state for in-depth interviews about waiver implementation. States with greater problem areas and larger Title I grants (usually because of student-enrollment size) have priority. Federal officials have piloted on-site monitoring already with Louisiana and Colorado, which got waivers last year. More