State Board of Education President Michael Kirst

California State Board of Education President Michael Kirst

California has decided not to try over again for a waiver from some key provisions of No Child Left Behind, at to the lowest degree not for the next school year.  Instead, state education officials told the U.South. Department of Education that California would instead focus its efforts next year on implementing the Common Cadre State Standards, federal and state officials said Mon.

Federal pedagogy officials likewise said that they will continue to consider the waiver application from a grouping of nine of the country'south largest school districts known as the California Function to Reform Education, or CORE.

The update on California was contained in a news release announcing that the federal government had canonical waiver requests from iii more than states: Alaska, Hawaii and West Virginia. Eight states have pending requests and five states, including California, have non applied in the latest round. California did request a waiver concluding June, but U.Due south. Education Secretary Arne Duncan rejected it for non containing a teacher evaluation component. The federal police force doesn't call for the teacher evaluation, just Duncan is requiring it in exchange for flexibility.

"While California'due south efforts to improve its education system keep to motion forward, including implementation of the Mutual Core Country Standards and the modernization of our assessment and accountability systems, the standards for obtaining a federal waiver remain difficult to meet for a country committed to local flexibility and decision-making," state Superintendent Tom Torlakson and Lath of Instruction president Michael Kirst said in a joint statement.

CORE submitted its application at the end of Feb after meeting with Duncan and his staff. Core Executive Director Rick Miller said the system is at present responding to questions about its application from the U.Southward. Section of Education and plans to submit the revised application by the end of this calendar week or early side by side calendar week at the latest. The Cadre districts include Los Angeles Unified, Oakland, San Francisco and Long Beach and represent a combined i million students.

In an interview earlier this month, Duncan toldEdSource Today there are a range of waiver options and models and "we're open to looking at anything," as long every bit information technology improves student learning.

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