HELENA – Montana will not seek a waiver from federal No Child Left Behind education requirements because such a waiver would require spending millions of dollars developing alternative standards that could later be overruled by congressional action, the state’s top educator said.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau said Wednesday that state education leaders support the decision.
Montana, then, still must attempt to comply with No Child Left Behind, which requires students in public schools to reach 100 percent proficiency in math and English testing by 2014. Juneau tells Lee Newspapers of Montana that those goals remain unrealistic and she’ll likely ask for some sort of compromise, if the law remains on the books.
Montana will continue with its own education reforms and programs designed to improve student performance, such as the “graduation matters” program, along with moving forward with implementing the Common Core State Standards for English language arts and math. The new standards list specific skills students are supposed to learn in each grade and are expected to take effect starting with the 2013-14 school year, or earlier.
Lance Melton, executive director of the Montana School Boards Association, said school districts support Juneau’s decision.
He said it’s not clear if the Obama administration has the authority to create new requirements for the No Child Left Behind law, which is up for reauthorization. Melton said the NCLB law needs to be “substantially overhauled.”
In September, the administration said states could apply for exemptions from NCLB requirements by submitting plans that would adopt new “college and career-ready” academic standards for students, create a system of evaluating teachers and principals and have a plan to improve low-performing schools.
Juneau said such a plan would cost Montana millions of dollars to develop and implement, yet could be overruled by congressional action.
“It is clear the strings attached to this option do not make sense for our state,” Juneau said. “We cannot have yet another education-reform effort from Washington that doesn’t take into account the rural nature of our state and provide the flexibility states need to deliver a quality public education.”