The State Board of Education is convening Tuesday to discuss how it can hold on to its No Child Left Behind Waiver. The meeting comes after the U.S. Department of Education sent state superintendent Glenda Ritz a letter informing her the state’s waiver is at risk of being pulled.
During a formal review last summer, the U.S. Department of Education found Indiana was not meeting the requirements that exempt it from No Child Left Behind benchmarks.
The state now has 60 days to prove to the federal government that they’re implementing college and career ready standards and monitoring low performing schools.
That responsibility falls to the Indiana Department of Education, but the State Board of Education called a meeting to learn how the Department of Education plans to meet the requirement deadline.
State Board of Education member Gordon Hendry says this is not a surprise because last year’s review brought Indiana’s issues to light. He says now that the DOE is giving them a deadline, this should be the state’s priority.
“This is a critically important issue for the state of Indiana, one that is very serious, and we really need to pay a great deal of attention to addressing the issues that have been raised,” Hendry said.
If the state loses the waiver, they would have to follow No Child Left Behind requirements, which mandates 100 percent of students be proficient in math and reading.