INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -
Indiana will have three more years of flexibility from requirements of the
federal No Child Left Behind law, the federal government said Thursday.
The waiver frees
the Indiana Department of Education from some federal testing and school
progress rules and lets Indiana keep greater control of how it spends about
$230 million in federal education funding. The state originally received the
waiver in 2012.
U.S. Education
Secretary Arne Duncan approved waiver requests Thursday from seven states
for periods ranging from one year to four years. In all, the Obama
administration has granted waivers for 43 states and the District of
Columbia.
Indiana state
schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz called the decision welcome news and
pointed out that the three-year extension - through the end of the 2017-18
school year - was longer than previous ones Indiana received.
The federal waiver
notification highlighted Indiana’s Division of Outreach for School
Improvement for helping low-performing schools develop plans to get better.
The division helped 103 schools - with more than 61,000 students - show
enough progress so that they advanced from D or F ratings on the state’s A-F
school grading system, Ritz said.
“I will continue to
work with both local schools and the federal government to find increased
ways to direct more resources into classrooms while reducing the amount of
time spent on testing,” Ritz said in a statement.
The 2002 landmark
education law signed by President George W. Bush required annual testing and
put into place consequences for schools that didn’t show progress. It led to
complaints that teachers were forced to teach to the tests, and that some of
the mandates weren’t realistic. Federal lawmakers have been at odds for
years on how to fix the law.
The current waiver
application was prepared without the in-fighting that was seen last year
between a now-disbanded education agency created by Republican Gov. Mike
Pence and the Indiana Department of Education, headed by Ritz. Pence’s top
education aide at the time submitted a 28-page critique of the state’s
waiver, questioning the capabilities of Ritz’s staff to perform work
outlined in the application. Federal officials gave Indiana a one-year
waiver for the 2014-15 school year.
Last month, Ritz
announced a bid for the 2016 Democratic nomination for governor; Pence is
running for re-election.