Update on No Child Left Behind Waivers:

26 States and Counting

By Linda Dobson

Ah, yes, nothing says “it’s a law” like waivers for more than half of those who fall under it. Similar to “the health care law applies to everyone, except those who receive waivers because of the increased expense,” 26 states have now received waivers from the No Child Left Behind Act.

The 26 States By-passing No Child Left Behind

According to an article in Huffington Post, the 26 states by-passing No Child Left Behind are Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

Watch for the list to continue to grow as other states can apply for a waiver in yet another application round by Sept. 6.

See also No Child Left Behind: A Lost Decade for Educational Progress

While the No Child Left Behind waivers serve as a “don’t need to have all children up to par by 2014 pass” for states, as with any “gift” from government, there are strings attached. Critics claim it does nothing to limit the high-stress, high stakes standardized testing currently destroying the education landscape; in fact, the waiver increases testing in these states. Additionally, the No Child Left Behind waiver is an end-run around input from parents and educators as it additionally requires these states to subscribe to a federally desired Core Curriculum, a euphemism for National Curriculum that will only serve to standardize “education” even more than it already is now.

Congress Working On No Child Left Behind Update

The reason given for No Child Left Behind waivers is that the Congress has not updated the bill which has been up for renewal since 2007. Yeah, that’s a long time, certainly long enough for everyone involved to realize that the whole thing should be scrapped and chalked up in the “what were we thinking” column.

Unfortunately for the children of America, that’s not going to happen. In fact, just this week, a House committee passed a pair of Republican-backed bills to update No Child Left Behind education law. However, in typical Washington fashion, “No Democrats on the House Education and the Workforce Committee supported the plan, and it’s unlikely to pass the full Congress without bipartisan support.” And so it drags on.

No Child Left Behind Failure

In January, 2012, on the 10th anniversary of No Child Left Behind, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest) issued a report; among its major findings:

–  NCLB failed to significantly increase average academic performance or to significantly narrow
achievement gaps, as measured by NAEP. U.S. students made greater gains before NCLB became law
than after it was implemented.
–  NCLB severely damaged educational quality and equity by narrowing the curriculum in many
schools and focusing attention on the limited skills standardized tests measure. These negative effects
fell most heavily on classrooms serving low-income and minority children.
–  So-called “reforms” to NCLB fail to address many of the law’s fundamental problems and, in
some cases, may intensify them. Flawed proposals include Obama Administration waivers and the
Senate Education Committee’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization bill
“NCLB undermined many promising reform efforts because of its reliance on one-size-fits-all
testing, labeling and sanctioning schools,” explained FairTest’s Lisa Guisbond, the new report’s lead
author.

Parents need to understand whose interests are being served by No Child Left Behind. Hint, it’s not your children’s. The law would be more honestly titled Every Child Left Behind.

As Lisa Guisbond states, “A decade’s worth of solid evidence documents the failure of No Child Left Behind and similar high-stakes testing schemes. Successful programs in the U.S. and other nations demonstrate better ways to improve
schools. Yet, policymakers still cling to the discredited No Child Left Behind model.”

Ask yourself “why.”

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