The federal government approves Oregon for a waiver from "No Child Left Behind." This means that the one size fits all legislation approved back in 2007, that increasingly punishes struggling schools, doesn't have to be followed.
Instead, individual states granted this waiver can come up with their own plans with federal approval to improve education in their states.
Ben Cannon, Education Advisor for Governor Kitzhaber believes this waiver will result in positive changes in the state. “These priority or focused schools will see changes in the way the instruction is delivered, time used. There will be changes in leadership of school and changes in supports that are provided for students and families.” Without the waiver, 250 schools in Oregon were slated to be labeled failing and would face punitive fines.
Meanwhile, Bend La Pine School leaders have anticipated approval of the "No Child Left Behind" waiver for awhile.
The "one size fits all" was problematic for many states including Oregon. Lora Nordquist, the Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education in the Bend La Pine School District says NCLB was hurting many school districts. “It's not just the label failing, but school labeled that faced sanctions. And these penalties increased with AYP scores. We think sanctions hurt the schools instead of support the school district; it just punishes them with a harder hammer so to speak.” Oregon's waiver is the product of months of work of more than 120 education and community leaders in Oregon.