Source: video of White Business firm press conference

Duncan, a close friend of President Obama as well as his secretary of educational activity, speaks at a press conference

Source: video of White House press conference

Duncan, a close friend of President Obama as well as his secretary of teaching, speaks at a printing briefing

A collaborative of 9 California school districts is submitting today a start-of-its-kind waiver seeking relief from the harshest sanctions of the No Child Left Behind law. The proposal would commit the participating districts to a new accountability system, focusing on student achievement merely deemphasizing standardized test scores. The existing requirements and penalties would remain in effect for all of the other districts in the land.

If U.South. Secretarial assistant of Education Arne Duncan consents, the districts in the California Office to Reform Instruction, or Core, would join the 34 states and Washington, D.C., with waivers from NCLB; ten more states have applications pending. Since California'due south waiver was rejected last yr, and the state is not reapplying this year, Core is going its own way, filing for a waiver under a provision of NCLB allowing districts to submit proposals. Land Board of Education President Michael Kirst said Tuesday that he has read the law and agrees that Duncan has the authority to grant waivers to districts.

CORE's accountability system would replace the current system, with most schools in Program Improvement, facing NCLB sanctions, with a three-tiered system that rewards top Schools of Distinction and identifies the 15 percent of Title I schools needing improvement. Teams of teachers from Schools of Distinction would mentor their peers in the Priority and Focus schools. All subgroups of underperforming students would have to show academic progress under a strict timeline.

Cadre'southward accountability system would supervene upon the current system, with most schools in Plan Improvement, facing NCLB sanctions, with a iii-tiered system that rewards tiptop Schools of Stardom and identifies the 15 percent of Title I schools needing improvement. Teams of teachers from Schools of Distinction would mentor their peers in the Priority and Focus schools. All subgroups of underperforming students would accept to show academic progress under a strict timeline. (Click to overstate)

Cadre is required to send its proposal to the State Board of Instruction for review, but under federal police the board can only comment, not block the awarding. CORE Executive Director Rick Miller said Core is on schedule to formally submit the plan to the U.South. Department of Education in time to be included in the adjacent round of evaluations this spring, with implementation in the 2013-fourteen school year. If the waiver is approved, CORE volition extend information technology to all districts and charter schools in the state that agree to the waiver'southward conditions. The nine CORE districts seeking the waiver include three of the country'due south 4 largest districts – Los Angeles, Long Beach and Fresno Unified – besides every bit Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento Metropolis, Santa Ana, Sanger and Clovis, which combined serve more than a million students.

Today is this year'southward application deadline for the handful of states that have non already sought relief from some of the mandates of NCLB. Although California is not reapplying, Gov. Jerry Brownish and the Country Board haven't ruled out another effort. However, that would be at least a year away.

Miller and 4 CORE superintendents flew to Washington, D.C., last week to encounter in person with Duncan, and afterward all said they were encouraged by the prospects for their proposal. "The secretary was very supportive of our efforts," said Long Beach Unified Superintendent Chris Steinhauser. "He'due south been positive about our efforts to exist innovative."

Miller said he left with the impression that Duncan "clearly has a strong desire to assist in California. He's been frustrated that it hasn't worked as a state, that would be his preference, but he saw this as a viable alternative if that doesn't happen."

Running toward, non away

The waiver awarding contains the same commitments that all states seeking waivers were required to run across: implementing Mutual Core or other rigorous standards preparing students for college and careers, developing a teacher evaluation procedure that includes the results of local and state tests, and creating an accountability system that recognizes that success is more than students' exam scores.  Non-academic dimensions such every bit a school's civilisation and climate and social-emotion learning are given significant weight in determining what constitutes a high-achieving school.

In substitution for meeting those commitments, the districts will get relief from some of the sanctions of NCLB.  They will regain apply of the 20 percent of Championship I money, nearly $110 1000000, they've had to plow over

CORE says it will expand measures of a school's success to include factors reflecting social and emotional learning – rates of suspension, absenteeism and as yet undefined gauges of non-cognitive skills – as well as school climate and culture, as measured by student and parent surveys, rates of identifying special education students and the progress of English learners.

CORE says it will expand measures of a school'due south success to include factors reflecting social and emotional learning – rates of break, absenteeism and every bit withal undefined gauges of not-cognitive skills – as well every bit school climate and civilization, as measured by student and parent surveys, rates of identifying special pedagogy students and the progress of English learners. (Click to enlarge)

for supplemental educational services and transportation for students who want to attend schools that are meeting federal academic targets. Superintendents say those funds could be put to improve use paying for professional evolution for Mutual Core, summertime school and other resources that would support the new accountability organisation.

CORE would also ringlet back the clock on the percent of students who must score at practiced or better for a school to run across the almanac growth target to the 2010-11 level of 67 percentage, rather than the current charge per unit of 90 percent, giving schools fourth dimension to implement the new system and see some results.

What makes the Core plan unique is that instead of establishing this system nether the authorization of the Land Department of Education, it relies on participating districts committing to specific conditions and responsibilities. These include openness with achievement data for all student subgroups and collaboration with other districts to amend student achievement.

The 126-page proposal states that, "At its heart, CORE's goal is to build a new system of accountability rooted in a moral imperative to brainwash all children and engineered on a foundation of transparent data sharing and mutual accountability."

A mantra of Cadre districts is that they're using this proposal to create something better for students and teachers, non to escape NCLB sanctions. "Nosotros're trying to get a waiver to something that we think is bang-up rather than abroad from something that we think is laborious," said Fresno Unified Superintendent and CORE Chair Mike Hanson.

"This plan is designed with recognition that the expectations for meeting students' needs accept been too narrow for too long; school districts accept too often been chasing success in a organisation that does not define success in a comprehensive or rigorous way," they write in the proposal.

The requirement that measures of student achievement cistron significantly in instructor and administrator evaluations has been a source of contention. About of the teachers unions in the districts rejected pursuit of a joint Core proposal for a Race to the Elevation grant last year because of the requirement. However, an NCLB waiver awarding does not require unions' consent, and union presidents complained that they had not been consulted well-nigh the application. "We had preliminary simply no substantial discussions; it was the usual matter where they talk about working with us and practise not do it at all," said Dennis Kelly, president of United Educators of San Francisco.

Even so, Miller and superintendents said they planned to piece of work with unions on developing their own district evaluation systems. "In my opinion the waiver does not take away rights of the marriage, or take away whatever collective bargaining," said Steinhauser.

Co-ordinate to the application, CORE based the evaluation framework on Greatness By Design, a report commissioned by Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and developed by a task force co-chaired by Steinhauser that made recommendations on teacher effectiveness. The chapter on teacher evaluations suggested a range of measures that could be used, including scored essays and projects created by teachers, results on tests tied to the curriculum being taught, every bit well as observations and parent surveys.

Superintendents expressed conviction that teachers would be attracted to the alternatives to NCLB that CORE is proposing.

For case, the only standardized tests that will count toward Adequate Yearly Progress, the federal operation measure, will exist those that students take in the highest class at their schoolhouse; 5th grade in a K-v school, 8th grade in middle schoolhouse and twelfth class in high school. Students would notwithstanding take state exams in all grades, only those would be used as diagnostics by teachers to see if students sympathize the cloth or if they demand more support or a different type of instruction.

Miller said the hope is this will encourage teachers to piece of work together across grade levels. "We like the notion of stepping back from the stress of assessment. We recall all those decisions that go forth with this are positive, such every bit putting more support at 3rd grade to make certain the students are ready for form five," said Miller. "No other country has proposed this."

Beyond the textbook

Not-academic dimensions such as a school'southward civilization and climate and social-emotional learning receive significant weight from Cadre in determining what constitutes a high-achieving school. Districts would accept to collect, submit and publish data on a multifariousness of indicators of success such as graduation and dropout rates, expulsions and suspensions, attendance, and surveys of student and community perceptions of their schools.

Because the California Longitudinal Educatee Accomplishment Data Arrangement, known as CALPADS, isn't collecting all the data that'south needed, CORE plans to piece of work with a third-political party data collection service run by a non-governmental agency: The John West. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University.

Miller insists that Cadre has no intention of creating a shadow state department of education. He says the CORE office will remain staffed by a handful of people and districts will be self-governed – with consequences. Those that don't come across the conditions of the waiver volition be forced dorsum into the original NCLB regulations and subject once more to the sanctions of the law.

"Our waiver submission is about our commonage responsibleness, teacher-to-teacher, principal-to-master, commune-to-commune, and school-to-school to make something better; not who's going to get punished for not hitting a target fix by someone outside our local environment," said Fresno Unified'south Hanson.

An early on partnership between Fresno and Long Beach Unified is a forebear of and model for Cadre and its proposal for cantankerous-district pollination. The State Section of Pedagogy approved the Fresno-Long Embankment Learning Partnership in 2008, giving the districts greater flexibility to apply state and federal funds to work jointly on improving instruction and developing leaders who were prepared to work collaboratively with another commune. "It worked beyond my ain expectations," said Long Beach Superintendent Chris Steinhauser.

Merely Steinhauser acknowledges that there will be challenges if dozens, or potentially hundreds of districts cull to sign on to the CORE program. "I would say that CORE is going to take a learning bend, simply I do believe it'due south achievable because of everybody working together," he said.

Some of the elements of the accountability program are similar to those being discussed by the State Board of Education under SB 1458, the bill past Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, that calls for a broader accountability organisation using college and career readiness indicators, dropout rates and pupil expulsions to determine a school's Academic Performance Index. Core superintendents don't see their proposal as a conflict; they come across it as an opportunity for the state.

"To me this is a pilot on the state level," said Steinhauser. "Once we become started the country has an opportunity to exist learning partners side-by-side with u.s., to see how's it's working and what'due south non working, and if they write a waiver they can learn from us."

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