by Kendra Germany
Staff writer
Oklahoma received a waiver on Feb. 9, becoming one of the first states in the nation to gain flexibility from federal restriction under No Child Left Behind.
President Barack Obama and the U.S Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that 10 states have achieved waivers from No Child Left Behind.
The 10 states are Oklahoma, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey and Tennessee.
According to the Oklahoma Department of Education’s website http://www.ok.gov/sde, No Child Left Behind requires all students to be proficient in math and reading by 2014. The website also says that failure to meet adequate yearly progress results in a district or school being placed in district/school in need of improvement status.
At the press conference announcing the waiver, Duncan said that flexibility is being offered to states in exchange for comprehensive plans to raise standards; to create fair, flexible and focused accountability systems; and to improve systems for teacher and principal evaluation and support.
“This flexibility will not give states a pass on accountability,” said Duncan. “It will demand real reform.”
According to a press release sent out by the Oklahoma Department of Education, State Superintendant Janet Barresi believes the waiver is a game changer for Oklahoma schools.
“This is great news, as it means schools will be able to more easily account for growth and progress within subgroups, rather than be penalized under the one size fits all criteria of NCLB,” said Barresi in a recent article she released. “It means we can fully embrace our C3 Plan of making sure each child in our state is college, career and citizen ready. We can now press forward with the implementations of the significant reforms our legislature and Gov. Mary Fallin helped pass last year.”
Sen. Josh Brecheen said he feels like the waiver will benefit Oklahoma schools.
“Our students and teachers will benefit from the flexibility the NCLB waiver will provide and that is a good thing,” said Brecheen.
“Returning decision making to local school boards and state officials will ensure greater input by teachers and administrators,” said Brecheen. “The closer government is to the people the better for those that are governed. Decisions made for classrooms thousands of miles away in Washington, D.C. on a one-size fits all basis are lacking and this waiver returns power and influence to Oklahomans.”
According to Vivian Gaurnera, director of teacher education at SE, any changes to the school system will impact both current and future teachers.
“For example Oklahoma currently has PK-12 academic standards (PASS Standards) which will be replaced by national standards called Common Core State Standards,” said Gaurnera.
According to the Common Core website http://www.corestandards.org, 43 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands have adopted the common core standards.
A recent research report conducted by College Board says, “Before this initiative, every state had its own set of academic standards with different expectations.”
According to the College Board research report, common standards will help states work together and give students equal access to an excellent education.
“At the university classroom level, teacher candidates would be introduced to the new standards and utilize those standards in the development of lesson plans and classroom activities,” said Gaurnera. “The future teachers and school administrators will be informed about the process and understand the impact of the evaluation components on their future employment.”
According to Gaurnera, this new evaluation system is an additional Oklahoma initiative, which will be piloted during the 2012-2013 school year in Oklahoma.
Oklahoma schools will take a pilot test during the next school year that will determine how the new testing system will work.
According to the Common Core website, the mission of the new standard is to have students learn math and reading skills that will have them career and college ready by the time they graduate high school.
The Oklahoma Department of Education is still working on the details of the changes to the system.