Culture for graduation. Students at the University of Washington will be required to take a course in diversity in order to meet the school’s graduation requirements. The course can be in social, political, or economic diversity, and the requirement will take effect this fall. (Oregon Live)

Attending school electronically. Lexi Kinder was diagnosed with a heart disease that prevented herContinue Reading »

North Dakota withdrew its request for an ESEA waiver on Monday after months of working with the federal Department of Education on its plan.* According to North Dakota Superintendent of Public Instruction Kirsten Baesler, the disagreement boiled down to how the state should set performance targets for its schools, commonly called Annual Measurable Objectives (AMOs). North Dakota wanted to set lContinue Reading »

A new study of states’ ESEA waiver plans reveals that some states are side-stepping graduation rate requirements by reporting the data, but not including it in their accountability systems.

As a result, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education, many of the ESEA waivers granted by the Department of Education contradict the 2008 graduation rate regulationContinue Reading »

 “Literally taking food out of the mouths of kids.” Several California school districts have spent nearly $170 million intended for free or reduced-price lunches on other school expenses, like sprinkler systems and trash removal. The misuse of funds, according to the legislative oversight report, has meant that eligible students have been denied the reduced-price lunch program. (San Francisco CContinue Reading »

Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of the Obama administration’s first 10 approvals of comprehensive NCLB waivers.* The Senate HELP Committee marked the anniversary with a hearing today on early lessons from the waivers, but one thing that deserves more attention is the process behind the waiver initiative. Congress should learn from that process—where the federal government outlines criteContinue Reading »

“I would love to have the students grade the teachers at the end of the year as opposed to just the other way around so that teachers get feedback,” Mitt Romney told an audience at the NBC News “Education Nation” Summit in New York a few weeks ago. To a lot of education policy insiders, that seemed to be reference to the increasing use of student surveys as an additional measure for evaluating Continue Reading »

Tennessee’s ESEA waiver request offers a strikingly honest confession: “The state fully recognizes that, in the past, PD in Tennessee, whether offered by the state, LEAs, or outside organizations, has often been of poor quality.” The request goes on to describe some ways the state plans to do better with professional development on the Common Core State Standards over the next few years, for exContinue Reading »

The fallout from last week’s news that Washington and Wisconsin can join 24 other states with flexibility from NCLB has centered on the New York Times’ front-page coverage and whether ESEA waivers represent A) sensible relief to states from an impossible task or B) an all-out retreat from school accountability, particularly for disadvantaged and underserved students.

State education offiContinue Reading »

UPDATED JULY 6

Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced five more waiver winning states – Arkansas, Missouri, South Dakota, Utah, and Virginia - bringing the total number of states operating their own school accountability systems in lieu of NCLB to twenty four.

With nearly half of states on the waiver train, it’s a good time to pause and take stock ofContinue Reading »

We’re not all winners anymore. Last week, Iowa became the first state to be turned down by the U.S. Department of Education for an ESEA waiver. While the news is a blow for Iowans – and policymakers like Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, who supported the request – it really isn’t a surprise or a bold political statement from the Obama administration (Iowa is a swing stateContinue Reading »