Crossville Chronicle (Crossville, TN)
July 4, 2011
Headline: School system seeks NCLB relief

By Heather Mullinix

CROSSVILLE - The Cumberland County Board of Education approved a resolution last week seeking regulatory relief from the United States Department of Education regarding the requirements of the No Child Left Behind law.

Dan Schlafer, 9th District representative, said, "Obviously, there's been a great deal of discussion about the inequities and unrealistic expectations of that law. It appears highly unlikely that Congress will make any attempt to make adjustments to the law before this session ends and a new school year begins."

The resolution notes the legislation is more than three years overdue for reauthorization and many in the education field believe the law as it currently stands is flawed and in need of improvement. Current accountability requirements could result in up to three-fourths of the nation's schools being labeled as failing schools in the coming school year.

The resolution reads, "Such a drastic misrepresentation of the accomplishments of America's public schools does more harm than good and undermines the hard work of millions of educators and students across the nation every day."

The resolution was drafted by the National School Boards Association. The United States Department of Education has the authority to relieve school districts from the current statutes until Congress takes action. It requests regulatory relief, not waivers, which often include additional requirements or conditions.

It also seeks suspension of additional sanctions under current Adequate Yearly Progress requirements for the 2011-'12 school years, meaning schools currently facing sanctions would stay where they are and no new schools would be labeled as "in need of improvement" or subject to new sanctions from the Department of Education.

According to the Education Week publication, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is prepared to offer relief to states in exchange for "commitments to key reforms."

NCLB calls for all students to be proficient in reading and math by the end of the 2013-'14 school year. School systems that fail to meet that requirement would be subject to more and more sanctions. These include identifying publicly schools placed in improvement status and offering school choice up to alternative governance of a school that continues to fail to meet adequate yearly progress.

Richard Janeway, 2nd District representative, moved to approve the resolution, supported by Gordon Davis, 5th District representative. It was unanimously approved.

Charles Tollett, 1st District representative, said, "No Child Left Behind is institutionalized madness as far as education is concerned. So, any relief we could get from that would be helpful."