Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings made news of her own today. She announced that Michigan and Missouri will be allowed to use growth models. Michigan can start now, but Missouri has to adopt the same ‘n’ for all subgroups before it can change over to growth.
Spellings has approved 11 states in the growth model pilot—the secretary’s first and biggest effort to provide flexibility under NCLB.
States will have one last chance to win Spellings’ approval in the growth-model pilot. She’s calling for applications again in the fall and will approve the last ones before she hands over the office keys to the next education secretary on Jan. 20.
