NCLB Waivers in SREB States
Policy Brief: SREB States Transform School Accountability with NCLB Waivers
Bold accountability reform is under way in all 16 SREB states through federal waivers to No Child Left Behind provisions. SREB is monitoring these efforts. An earlier 2013 brief, Federal Waivers Grant Flexibility to No Child Left Behind in SREB States, reported that all SREB states requested federal waivers and 13 had already received them — in exchange for their commitment to certain reforms that include college and career readiness and teacher evaluation systems tied to student performance.
This latest brief (April 2014) updates education leaders on the key policies these 13 SREB states plan to implement under federal waivers to No Child Left Behind. It details, state by state, new policies for raising student achievement, evaluating school performance, and identifying low-performing schools for state assistance. On June 21, the United States Department of Education granted Alabama’s waiver request to be removed from many of the requirements of NCLB and instead use the Alabama-specific PLAN 2020 as the state’s method of measuring public school achievement.