Broad Changes Ahead as NCLB Waivers Roll Out

President Barack Obama is followed by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan as he arrives in the East Room of the White House on Feb. 9 to speak about flexibility for states in the No Child Left Behind law.

—Susan Walsh/AP

By Sean Cavanagh and Alyson Klein

The waivers being granted to 10 of 11 states that applied for flexibility under the No Child Left Behind Act would allow them to make potentially broad changes in how school performance and the performance of student subgroups are judged under the decade-old law.

Some advocates for disadvantaged students are questioning whether the waivers granted Thursday by the U.S. Department of Education will make it easier for states to ignore lagging student performance among various subgroups, such as racial and ethnic minorities, English-language learners, and students with disabilities.

But in announcing the waiver plans, Obama administration officials argued that the opposite will prove true: An increased number of students in those populations will be counted within states’ testing and accountability systems...