State Superintendent Janet Barresi requests immediate reinstatement
of waiver from No Child Left Behind
OKLAHOMA CITY (Oct.
21, 2014) – State Superintendent of Public Instruction Janet Barresi and
senior staff from the State Department of Education (SDE) asked for immediate
reinstatement of Oklahoma’s flexibility waiver from No Child Left Behind in a
conference call late Monday with high-level officials from the U.S. Department
of Education (USDE).
“With word from the state Regents for Higher Education last
week that our current state standards in English and math are indeed considered
college- and career-ready, we have asked USDE for an immediate decision to
return flexibility to Oklahoma schools,” Barresi said. “Such flexibility would
come in the expenditure of federal funds and the removal of the burdensome
federal requirements that exist under No Child Left Behind.”
The SDE will now begin the process of resubmitting the
waiver request.
USDE rejected Oklahoma’s waiver extension request in August,
saying the state was unable to demonstrate state standards were college- and
career-ready. The decision came after a repeal of Common Core State Standards
in English and math with the passage of House Bill 3399. The legislation
directed the state to revert to Priority Academic Student Skills (PASS)
standards in the two subject areas, which had been in place prior to Common
Core’s adoption in 2010.
When HB 3399 was signed into law in June, the SDE
immediately asked the Oklahoma Regents for Higher Education to help determine
if PASS standards could be considered college- and career-ready. One of the
definitions of such status is based on state college remediation rates, which
in Oklahoma have hovered at about the 40th percentile for years.
On Oct. 16, the Regents announced that a study of PASS
standards revealed that if students achieve mastery of the standards they could
be considered college and career-ready.
The State Board of Education, in the meantime, is overseeing
the process of writing new state standards in English and math. The standards
are to be in place by the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year.
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