Teacher Evaluations Key to State Chances for NCLB Waivers

Where their teacher-quality proposals are concerned, the fates of the 11 states that have bid for waivers of core principles of the No Child Left Behind Act appear to depend largely on how the peer reviewers—and, ultimately, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan—interpret their applications.

The U.S. Department of Education's criteria for teacher quality—one of four policy areas states must address in their applications—hinge on the ability of states and districts to ready new teacher-evaluation systems for statewide implementation by the end of the 2013-14 school year.

But even long-standing observers acknowledge that the Education Department's criteria for vetting the states' plans are vague in places and that it's hard to determine at this stage exactly what the...