California has lost its appeal for a waiver from No Child Left Behind, probably losing millions of school dollars for failing to respond directly to some of the federal government’s waiver requirements.

The Bush administration-crafted education legislation, passed in 2002, set ridiculous standards for academic achievement that required virtually every state in the country to apply for a waiver to avoid draconian federal penalties. It was estimated in June that 80% of public schools nationwide—more in California—would miss academic proficiency requirements of the law by the 2013 deadline.

The waiver requirements included the use of standardized testing to measure student achievement, and—the part California educators and lawmakers gagged on—the use of those student achievement scores to evaluate teachers and principals. 

The waiver rejection was not unexpected.

California officials missed two deadlines before filing what everyone knew was a problematic application at the last second. The state offered to use its Academic Performance Index and several other initiatives of its own for measuring school achievement instead of federal standards. That proved to be a non-starter.  

The cost of implementing the waiver requirements of No Child Left Behind in California has been put at $2 billion to $3 billion. And the cost of not implementing will be high, too.

Around 70% of the state’s 6,000+ schools receiving federal Title I money are already considered “out of compliance” with federal standards, and the number is certain to grow without the waiver. Out-of-compliance schools must notify parents annually that they can transfer their kids to another school, set aside 20% of Title I funding for tutoring and facilitating students leaving. There are also hundreds of millions of dollars in other funding penalties.

The federal government has indicated a willingness to consider waiver requests from individual school districts.   

A joint letter from State Superintendent of Education Tom Torlakson and State Board of Education President Michael W. Krist on December 21 stated what they hoped would quickly become the federal education policy, a No Child Left Behind makeover that would “replace its inflexible requirements with provisions that accommodate the differences in state policy approaches, and give districts adequate flexibility to improve student achievement.”

That’s not happening anytime soon.

–Ken Broder

To Learn More:

Feds Deny State a No Child Left Behind Waiver (by John Fensterwald, EdSource)

Calif. Fails to Win “No Child Left Behind” Waiver (by Christina Hoag, Associated Press)

California Fails to Win Waivers from Restrictive No Child Left Behind Education Law (by Sharon Noguchi, San Jose Mercury News)

U.S. Rejects California's Request for a Penalty Exemption (by Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times)

California Wants Own “No Child Left Behind” Rules (San Francisco Chronicle editorial)

No Child Left Behind (Education Week)