This just came across my newsfeed:
Delaware continues to work with the U.S. Department of Education to develop best practices with respect to assessing speaking and listening on large-scale assessments. As with many other states, Delaware will be requesting a limited waiver of section 1111(b)(3)(C)(ii) of the ESEA, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), so that the state’s assessment system need not measure the state’s speaking and listening standards for the 2016-2017 school year. Input, comments and questions may be submitted at feedback@doe.k12.de.us through April 15.
Why does Delaware need a “limited” ESEA Flexibility Waiver? What are we giving up so we are not beholden to this “state’s speaking and listening standards”? I looked on both the Delaware Department of Education website and the United States Department of Education website and found nothing about this crucial need to submit another waiver. President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act three months ago. It goes into effect August 1st of this year.
The only reference from now US Secretary of Education John King about using federal funds for anything is for assessment inventories, something Delaware is nearly done with. Why isn’t the Delaware DOE giving more information about this? Why would they solicit public comment without anything to look at? Yes, we know most of the changes with ESSA won’t take place until after the 2016-2017 school year, but why are they trying to implement more waiver schemes, something ESSA strictly forbids them to do? I’m calling shenanigans right now! John King can’t be trusted and the Delaware Department of Education follows suit. Funny how the two bills that would call for the General Assembly to approve any ESEA flexibility waivers were stricken in January. Maybe they need to come back tomorrow! Paging State Representatives Kim Williams and Sean Lynn! Get your bills back on the table! This is most likely a play to get Regulation 103 back on the table in Delaware…
To read John King’s missive to “Chief State School Officers”, look below…
The Season Of Myths 