By Lynn Hatter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-982650.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – The U.S. Department of Education is planning to override a major part of the federal No Child Left Behind Accountability Law that says 100-percent of students in public schools will be proficient in math and reading by 2014. Lynn Hatter reports Florida is one of many states considering applying for a waiver of the federal rules.
No Child Left Behind works like this: Students are broken into subgroups. If one subgroup fails to make learning gains an entire school will fail. Each year, the standards go up, sort of like chasing a moving target. Right now 89-percent of Florida schools are failing according to the federal government, even though about 60-percent of them are A schools according to the state. Florida's new Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson says the state stands a good chance of having the No Child Left Behind Pass/fail requirement waived.
"Just because of our accountability system I'm pretty sure we'd be in the running to receive some pretty good waivers."
This year about 38-percent of the nation's public schools failed to meet federal requirements and the U.S. Department of Education says the number could rise to 80-percent this year as the federal rules become harder to reach.