Five days into his new job, Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams announced Thursday that he intends to ask the U.S. Education Department for a waiver from several provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act.
After getting comments from school administrators and the public, Williams plans to make the request to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who has general authority to waive federal requirements, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency said.Gov. Rick Perry has refused to apply for another kind of conditional waiver offered by the Obama administration that state officials said would impose unwanted federal accountability measures on the state's schools.At least 33 states have sought that type of waiver, which must be requested by the governor's office.Perry's position has not changed, a spokesman said Thursday."Texas has consistently said we would consider all the options and do what is in the best interest of Texas students and our districts," Josh M. Havens said in a statement. "Texas is not applying for Secretary Duncan's conditional waiver, which would force Texas into the Obama administration's one-size-fits-all federal education system that bypasses Congress."The waiver that Williams is seeking can be requested by TEA, the state's education authority.In a letter sent to school districts Thursday, Williams wrote that the federal standards have created "an obsolete system that does not adequately reflect the accomplishments of the state's schools. This, combined with [schools] being required to meet and function within two different assessment and accountability systems, takes valuable resources and time away from the intent and focus of improving student achievement and school accountability."Texas' system -- including college and career readiness standards and the new State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness standardized tests -- already surpasses federal requirements, Williams wrote.The state wants to incorporate federal and state accountability standards into a single system to be used in place of the Adequate Yearly Progress calculations that grew out of No Child Left Behind, TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said.No Child Left Behind, championed by President George W. Bush, took effect in 2002. The act has been up for renewal since 2007, but Congress hasn't authorized revisions.Its standards grow more rigorous each year, and Obama administration education officials suggested that waivers would give states more leeway to improve how they prepare and evaluate students.The federal standards take into account standardized test scores, graduation and attendance rates, and the percentage of students who take the tests.The goal is to have 100 percent of students at each school reach reading and math test standards by 2014. Results released in August show that some 48 percent of Texas campuses failed to meet this year's standard of an 87 percent passing rate for reading and an 83 percent passing rate for math.TEA will collect comments about the waiver application from administrators until Sept. 27. The state also plans to take comments from the public within two weeks, Culbertson said.Educators and others began to weigh in Thursday."'No Child Left Behind' has not been without its challenges," Fort Worth school Superintendent Walter Dansby said in a statement. "But one thing it has accomplished is to require acceptance of an ever-rising standard. If we are to achieve, we must aim for perfection. Even if we fall short of perfection, if we are diligent, we will be better off than we were."The Fort Worth district as a whole, and 84 individual schools, did not meet the federal standard, but scores were stable or improved for reading and math.The Texas Association of School Administrators released a statement in favor of Williams' action."Having conflicting state and federal accountability systems is confusing and duplicative," the statement said.Jessamy Brown, 817-390-7326Twitter: @jessamybrownHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
