Eight California school districts individually* (encounter note below) will receive the kickoff district waivers from penalties under the No Child Left Behind police force, U.S. Secretarial assistant of Pedagogy Arne Duncan announced Tuesday.

Duncan praised the districts' "creative, thoughtful, innovative proposal." He said that 1 million students will benefit from the districts' "rigorous expectations" and that other states volition larn from the collaborative strategies that the districts are pledging to carry out. "Frankly, working directly with districts wasn't an easy decision," Duncan said. "Nosotros're not taking this up because it was simple, only because it was the correct thing to do."

The one-year waiver, issued after weeks of intense negotiations between federal officials and superintendents in the Cadre districts, will free the districts from key sanctions of NCLB and provide them with flexibility to employ about $110 million in Title I money for school improvement, including training teachers in Common Core standards. The districts volition end NCLB'southward accountability clock, in which boosted schools would exist labeled as failing, and instead be able to create broader measures of student accomplishment across standardized test scores.

The CORE districts are spread out geographically and represent 1.1 million California students. More than half of those students are from two southern California districts, Los Angeles Unified and Long Beach Unified. Clovis Unified, which is included in the charts, withdrew its application late in the process.

The CORE districts are spread out geographically and stand for 1.1 one thousand thousand California students. More than half of those students are from two southern California districts, Los Angeles Unified and Long Embankment Unified. Clovis Unified, which is included in the charts, withdrew its application late in the process.

The eight unified districts applying through their umbrella organization, the California Office to Reform Education, or Core, serve more than 1 in 6 students in the country; the districts are Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Ana, Sanger, Sacramento City and Fresno. Clovis Unified, an original applicant that concluded the waiver was similar to its accountability system, has dropped out.

The waiver comes in the nick of fourth dimension to accept upshot this schoolhouse yr. Duncan has issued waivers to 39 states so far and is reviewing applications for five more. An additional vi states either have not practical or, like California, had their applications denied.

The waiver, the first that was not issued to a land department of education, has been strongly opposed by land chiefs of education, teachers unions and some advocacy groups that see a district waiver every bit a potential end run around federal accountability rules. Duncan said in a printing conference that the police authorizes him to grant waivers to districts, equally previous education secretaries have done for specific provisions. Only Chris Minnich, executive director of the Council of Main State School Officers, characterized the CORE waiver Tuesday as "an unprecedented shift in the federal role in pedagogy — clearly usurping state leadership." California Department of Teaching officials expressed skepticism also. In a statement Tuesday, California Teachers Association President Dean Vogel reiterated criticism of the waiver, though primarily for the districts' failure to consult with local teachers unions in crafting the awarding, which he termed "counterproductive and divisive."

The Core superintendents argued to Duncan that they were seeking a stronger, "holistic" alternative to a narrowly focused and unworkable federal arrangement. Districts, the application said, "have been besides often chasing success in a system that does non ascertain success in a comprehensive or rigorous fashion."

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan during an interview on the PBS program NewsHour. Source: NewsHour. (click to enlarge).

U.S. Secretary of Educational activity Arne Duncan granted the CORE districts' waiver Tuesday.

Duncan agreed and singled out CORE'southward commitment to significantly expand the accountability system to include more minority and special teaching students than currently required under federal law. CORE'southward proposal calls for significantly lowering the number of students represented in a subgroup as role of a school's accountability measure. The waiver requires whatever subgroup of twenty or more children in a school to be included, instead of a minimum of 100 students, a threshold that Duncan said left 153,000 children "invisible" in the CORE districts under NCLB. Dozens of simple schools, for case, in which students with disabilities, Hispanic children or African American children business relationship for between twenty and 99 students will at present rails the progress of those student groups.

"These students face the same bug of poverty and should be treated with the aforementioned notions of accountability," said Los Angeles Unified Superintendent John Deasy.

Liz Guillen, the legislative director of Public Advocates, a ceremonious rights law firm, said that what the CORE superintendents didn't say was that this yr, nether the Local Command Funding Formula, the Legislature lowered the statewide subgroup number to 30 students anyhow.

The students volition at present be measured non just on standardized test results just by broader dimensions of student engagement and performance in a new School Quality Improvement System.

  • Scores on land tests, loftier school graduation rates and persistence rates – the percent of 8th graders that go along to enroll in 10th grade — volition comprise 60 percent of the index;
  • Factors of school performance, based on parent, teacher and student surveys, rates of redesignating English learners and identifying special education students, with an eye to over-identifying minority students, will comprise 20 per centum;
  • Cadre will airplane pilot a new domain, making upwardly some other 20 pct, of social and emotional factors including rates of chronic absenteeism, suspensions and expulsions and difficult-to-quantify measures of grit and determination that are predictive of success in college or work.

The land also is transitioning to a broader accountability system, although the pieces aren't in place. The country's Academic Accountability Index, or API, currently based solely on standardized tests, will incorporate graduation rates and other factors. Legislation establishing the Local Control Funding Formula requires that districts start tracking a range of academic performance metrics, parent involvement and school climate.

Long Embankment Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser said that measures under the Core waiver are "in total alignment" with the new state funding formula. Fresno Unified Superintendent Michael Hanson said that Cadre wanted to press forward now to reduce academic disparities affecting low-income and minority students simply that CORE'southward accountability index would prove valuable to the state. Members of the Land Lath of Education, in strongly endorsing the waiver earlier this twelvemonth, agreed.

But in statements on Tuesday, neither Gov. Jerry Brownish nor Superintendent of Public Instruction Torlakson was particularly complimentary or pointed to any benefit from the waiver.

"Several local schoolhouse districts take now received a ane-twelvemonth waiver of the proficiency goals of the No Child Left Behind police," said Evan Westrup, the governor'due south press secretary. "From our perspective, however, the primary challenge is to implement vigorously the landmark Local Command Funding Formula and the Common CORE curriculum."

"All California schools deserve relief from the unworkable mandates of No Kid Left Behind, then information technology's noteworthy that a few districts have — temporarily at least — managed to navigate the complex waiver requirements imposed by the Administration," Torlakson said. "I go along to believe … that relief from the failings of federal policy should non exist reserved only for those prepared to provide Washington an ever-expanding role in the functioning of California'due south public schools."

A collaborative model

The CORE superintendents based their programme on the work of Canadian author Michael Fullan, who introduced in Ontario a collaborative model of school improvement that he contrasts with the top-down "blame and shame" interventions in which low-performing schools have been closed or their teachers replaced under NCLB.

Instead, Cadre volition identify highly successful schools and place them as partners with low performers. Fullan emphasizes "non-judgmental" efforts to better instruction based on a collective "moral imperative" to do correct past all children: Only if there is little improvement after several years of work volition stronger actions be required.

Fullan, who described this process to 450 CORE district teachers and administrators concluding week in San Francisco, will likely be hired as an adviser during the waiver'southward roll-out. He already has worked in several Core districts.

Cadre's superintendents, still, tin can expect initial resistance.

Vogel and union leaders in the CORE districts blasted the superintendents for paying lip service to Fullan while ignoring them in the cosmos of a waiver that includes commitments for new instructor evaluations.

"I'm extremely disappointed," said Susan Mercer, president of the Santa Ana Teachers Association. The wavier "takes away the voice of the teachers. It's superlative-down and a stride backward. Reform only happens when everyone works together to make modify."

While  acknowledging that unions were non involved in developing the waiver, Deasy said "they must exist involved as we start our journeying today." And he said that zippo in the waiver superseded teachers' bargaining rights.

Two evaluation options

To qualify for a waiver, the Core districts had to commit to use growth in student achievement every bit a factor in teacher and principal evaluations. Most teachers unions oppose this, although the Stull Human action, the state law on evaluations, besides requires information technology.

CORE's awarding offered two options.

  • The Massachusetts alternative: Based on that country's NCLB waiver, results from standardized and other tests would be used indirectly, as a cheque. If test scores didn't hold with an evaluation based on classroom observations and other criteria, the commune would have a second await to identify the discrepancy and could create a ane-yr improvement plan for the teacher.
  • The xx percent minimum: Growth in student achievement, based a model that the Core districts volition develop, will comprise a minimum of xx per centum of a teacher's or chief's evaluation. Districts with their ain models, like Los Angeles Unified, could seek approving to use their variations from the Core lath of directors.

This year, the districts will consult with unions on the criteria for an evaluation; bargaining would occur after the first year of a waiver. A new organization would take effect in the third year of a waiver, assuming there is one. If teachers did not agree to one of the options, the commune would no longer authorize for a waiver.

Cantankerous-section of outside monitors

The approved waiver has several key changes from what CORE had proposed in May:

  • The waiver is for one year, non three. Duncan said he had imposed the same limitation on several other states and implied the Core waiver could exist folded into a future state waiver or extended if the state did non obtain 1 adjacent year.
  • The waiver applies to but the eight districts this year. Cadre had proposed to offer the waiver to any commune that met the federal criteria and agreed to the rules of the consortium.
  • Cadre created a 14-fellow member School Quality Improvement System Oversight Panel to add together teeth to the accountability system. CORE had proposed a decentralized organization based on peer review and a board of directors. The oversight panel, meeting twice a year, will review the districts' data and schoolhouse comeback plans. For districts disregarding data requirements or chronically failing to bear witness student improvement, the panel tin recommend that the federal Department of Instruction yank their waivers.

Its biannual meetings  will be subject to the state's open meeting law. Among those who will appoint one representative are the governor, the State Board of Education, the California Teachers Association, the California School Boards Clan, the Land Board of Teaching, the Association of California School Administrators Association, the land PTA, the California County Superintendents Education Services Clan, Educational activity Trust-W (an advocate for minority students), the California Collaborative on District Reform and groups representing students with disabilities, English learners and higher education research organizations.

Staff writers Susan Frey and Kathryn Baron contributed to this report. Check back for updates to this story.

* Note : Previous versions incorrectly characterized the approving every bit a commonage waiver for the Cadre districts. The Department of Education is granting individual waivers to the 8 districts in the Cadre network. The distinction is important, because the feds volition monitor each district separately for compliance, not through CORE.

To get more reports like this ane, click here to sign upwardly for EdSource'due south no-cost daily electronic mail on latest developments in education.