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D.C. Schools Granted NCLB Waiver

By: Patrick Madden // July 19, 2012
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With a waiver, D.C. will avoid the most stringent NCLB requirements.
Travis Ekmark: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sayholatotravis/3796435103/
With a waiver, D.C. will avoid the most stringent NCLB requirements.

The Department of Education is granting D.C. public and charter Schools a waiver from No Child Left Behind. The waiver gives the Office of the State Superintendent of Education more flexibility to set standards and measure progress in District schools.

Mayor Vincent Gray says he's not surprised about the efforts to tweak the law. "It means we won't be subjected to the rigors that everybody's complaining about of No Child Left Behind, in terms of assessing progress and some of the consequences that would befall us in 2014."

Under No Child Left Behind, all students were required to meet grade level proficiency by 2014.

"One key difference which is critical for us for the waiver is that we expect all students to show growth," says Kayleen Irizarry, with the Office of the State Superintendent. Irizarry says that under No Child Left Behind, students just had to meet grade level proficiency to be counted as a success.

"We're hoping to reach to 73 percent in reading and 74 in math by 2017," says Irizarry.

School officials have also set the goal of increasing four-year graduation rates from 59 to 78 percent by 2017.

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