The Educated Guess
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John and Kathy co-wrote this post from Sacramento.
For the second time in as many months, the acting Assistant Secretary of Education came to California to call on the State Board of Education to apply for a waiver from most of the requirements and penalties of the No Child Left Behind law. All but ten states have either formally applied for a waiver or indicated they would in the next round. California is the only one of the ten that Michael Yudin has visited.
Politics K-12
So what do folks inside the Beltway think of Rep. John Kline, R-Minn.’s draft bills the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (aka No Child Left Behind)? That depends on whom you talk to.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, for one, isn’t happy with either the substance or the process. He said the administration is going to stick with its plan to give states waivers from pieces of the NCLB law in exchange for embracing certain reform priorities.
via Advocates, Policymakers Give Mixed Early Reviews to ESEA Draft.
On Special Education
UPDATED
What concerns the National Center for Learning Disabilities and other groups about the applications 11 states filed with the Education Department seeking waivers from the No Child Left Behind law?
What they don’t say.
In a letter to federal Education Secretary Arne Duncan this week, NCLD Executive Director James Wendorf writes that the department’s flexibility amounts to a trade off, with students with disabilities on the losing end of the swap.
via No Child Left Behind Waivers Leave Behind Students With Disabilities.
Politics K-12
Remember when U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan issued the warning that 82 percent of schools would fail to make the grade this year under the No Child Left Behind Act, and hoped that would spur Congress to rewrite the law?
Well, the researchers (or politicians!) behind Duncan’s prediction clearly are “in need of improvement,” based on one group’s analysis.
The real number, according to today’s latest report from the Center on Education Policy: 48 percent.
via Duncan’s 82% NCLB Failure Prediction Way Off Base, New Data Show.