Iowa Seeks No Child Left Behind Waiver

When President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 into law, teachers around the country immediately began to feel the pressure.

The act requires a number of things, one of them ensuring that teachers be “highly qualified”.  To be “highly qualified” a teacher must “hold full licensure and have any requirements waited on an emergency or provisional basis”, have at least a bachelor’s degree, and be competent in the subject matter being taught (either holding a degree in the subject taught or passing a state exam).

While this is a decent attempt to improve student competency, it is unrealistic after analyzing data that shows student enrollment is increasing while classroom size is decreasing, because this increases the demand for teachers, making it harder to fulfill these requirements.

Additionally, the way in which the government documents student progress is through standardized testing, and public schools receive federal funding only if meeting the minimum scores.  The goal was to bring each public school to proficiency within five years, but this is not happening because it is not an attainable goal.

However, in an effort to meet proficiency, teachers are putting aside valuable learning time to help them memorize information they know will be on these national tests.  This is not only cheating the system, but it’s preventing students from learning in a stress-free environment, not to mention causing them to miss out on learning anything that’s not within the government’s requirements (and there’s a lot, but that’s an entirely different blog post).

So, Iowa is formally seeking a NCLB waiver, citing the act as “too rigid and relying too heavily on standardized test scores to rate schools”.  If granted, Title 1 schools will be no longer, and teachers will be free to teach in ways they feel best for their students while still abiding by national and state educational standards. 

President Obama has already granted 11 states waivers, so let’s hope Iowa is number 12.

As an editor, I question the methods in which the first 11 states achieved the waiver, as it was only mentioned, not detailed, in the story.  Additionally, who is seeking the waiver?  What potential changes may this have on what Governor Branstad wants to do about holding non-reading third graders back?  These are all questions that can be researched and reported on, further strengthening the story and answering questions that parents of students may have.