New Jersey Receives Waiver from No Child Left Behind Requirements

President Barack Obama today granted New Jersey a waiver from the strict requirements of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) education law. In total, 10 states were granted NLCB waivers. The waiver provides more flexibility, but in exchange the states that were granted the waiver have agreed to raise educational standards and provide increased accountability, according to a statement released by the White House Thursday morning.

"If we're serious about helping our children reach their potential, the best ideas aren't going to come from Washington alone," Obama said in the statement. "Our job is to harness those ideas, and to hold states and schools accountable for making them work."

By being approved for the waiver, New Jersey schools are no longer subject to the NCLB accountability provisions and sanctions that kick in when a school fails to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) threshold. 

As a result, the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) will implement a "more nuanced" accountability system beginning in September, with the goal of measuring schools based on growth and absolute attainment, according to Gov. Chris Christie's office. The DOE plans to focus state resources on drastically improving schools that are considered failing or have large achievement gaps.

"As we implement a new accountability system to more effectively assess, identify and intervene in troubled schools, we must also take the next steps to enact legislation to ensure our students have the most talented, effective teachers in classrooms and hurdles to innovation and creativity are removed," Christie said in a statement. "There is no single solution to turn around chronically failing schools or close the achievement gap. So, it is critical that the Legislature join me, standing alongside President Obama and Secretary Duncan, in providing the comprehensive set of tools needed to give every children in every part of our state the opportunity and hope that only comes with a quality education."

New Jersey was one of 11 states that applied for the NCLB waiver during the first round of applications. In addition to New Jersey, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Tennessee will no longer have to meet the 2014 NCLB targets set by the legislation.

New Jersey will still be expected to hold all schools to a set of high standards, while allocating resources to the schools that need the most support, according to the NJDOE.

As part of New Jersey's successful waiver application, the Christie Administration outlined plans for three principles that are in line with the goals of the Obama Administration, according to the governor's office.

These principles include college and career ready expectations for all students, state-developed differentiated recognition, accountability, and support, and providing support for effective instruction and leadership.

With the new accountability system, the NJDOE plans to create three tiers of schools that will be identified using growth and absolute proficiency. Those schools will be identified during the summer, with interventions to begin during the 2012-13 school year.

Priority schools will be the bottom five percent of Title I schools across New Jersey, measured using proficiency, growth, and graduation rates. Focus schools will be selected from the bottom 10 percent of Title I schools that are not categorized as Priority Schools. Focus schools will be identified based on achievement gaps between subgroups, along with low performance or graduation rates among a particular subgroup. 

Reward Schools will be based on "high proficiency levels or high levels of growth," which includes progress toward closing achievement gaps. The DOE said this would allow a range of schools to attain Reward status across New Jersey.

"During the past year, I heard from countless educators that the flaws of NCLB limited their ability to identify and improve areas of need in their schools," said Acting Commissioner Chris Cerf via release. "In partnership with educators across the state, we developed a new accountability system that will measure schools in part on what matters most - how much growth they make in a given year. In doing so, we will give unprecedented freedom to those schools that are doing well to continue to achieve without state or federal intervention."