Waiver Plan Generates Relief, Fret

Details to come on ways NCLB rules would bend

While the Obama administration’s plan to offer states relief from parts of the No Child Left Behind Act—if they agree to embrace unspecified education redesign priorities—has drawn kudos from some quarters, it isn’t sitting well in others.

Officials in a number of states have praised the idea as an opportunity for badly needed relief from what they see as unrealistic and punitive requirements of the federal law. But other states, including Montana and Washington, are skeptical of the plan, especially of the strings that will be attached. And some organizations and policy leaders—from the National Education Association to former U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings—have expressed outright opposition to such conditional waivers.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan argues that waivers are necessary, since renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, whose current version is the NCLB law, has been languishing in Congress. The administration has not yet spelled out what the waivers will entail, but Mr. Duncan has said in speeches that they are likely to address such areas as teacher...