State education officials say parents and students should have a better idea of how well children are being educated now that the federal government has let the state out from under the No Child Left Behind law.
State education leaders throughout the country have complained that the No Child Left Behind law was a one-size fits all program from Washington that did not give states the flexibility they need to really educate children. The Obama administration has started letting states with better ideas get waivers from the federal law. Missouri is in the latest crop of states who have a chance to prove the state knows better than Washington does.
Assistant state education commissioner Margie Vandeven says the waiver will let parents have a more accurate gauge of their children’s education.
AUDIO: Vandeven comments [arne4]
She says the goal is to have every student graduate from high school ready for a career or for college and to have Missouri one of the top ten performing states by 2020. The department thinks its evaluation system is better for reaching that goal than the No Child Left Behind law.
