Nebraska may seek waiver from US education law

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska education officials may change course and join more than 40 other states that have waivers from the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

The Nebraska Board of Education hasn’t made its decision yet, but department staffers are trying to determine whether the state standards for students and the development of an accountability system could make a waiver from the federal requirements more feasible, the Lincoln Journal Star reported (https://bit.ly/1jHsJ7e ). The law, which was a signature accomplishment of President George W. Bush’s administration, has been roundly criticized as unrealistic in requiring 100 percent proficiency in reading and math by this year.

“We need to evaluate where we are and where we need to be to get a waiver,” board member Molly O’Holleran said Thursday during a board work session in Lincoln. “We don’t want to get a waiver if it perverts what we want to do for students.”

Nebraska officials originally found that the waiver requirements would have been as burdensome as the No Child Left Behind requirements, said the Education Department’s Marilyn Peterson.

But when the No Child Left Behind law is reauthorized, it likely will include many of the waiver provisions, Peterson said.

“Those principles in the waivers aren’t going to go away,” she said.

Nebraska has been focusing on local school district control, so it doesn’t have a state-mandated system that links student achievement to teacher performance, nor has it adopted the national Common Core standards.

Using the Common Core standards isn’t required, but many states meet federal standards to help ensure students are prepared for colleges or careers.

The state has begun to test a teacher evaluation model that links student learning objectives to teacher performance. The objectives are keyed to each student and not necessarily based on achievement tests.

O’Holleran urged the board to decide next month whether to seek the waiver.

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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, https://www.journalstar.com