Joined by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and a host of Connecticut's political elite, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Tuesday that Connecticut was one of eight states to receive a waiver excusing it from some of the provisions of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act.
Malloy and Duncan hailed Connecticut's recent passage of as helping it to achieve the waiver, and Duncan went as far as to say that the education reform legislation made Connecticut "one of the leading states in this round of plans."
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“Connecticut’s plan to adopt college and career-ready standards, elevate and support teachers, and focus resources in order to close the achievement gap will include hundreds more schools and thousands more children who were invisible under NCLB. Connecticut’s hard work and collaboration show that state and local leaders are ready to lead the way in education reform," Duncan said.
Superintendent Nicholas Fischer of the New London Public Schools was also pleased with the announcement. The district, as one of the 30 lowest-performing districts in the state, stands to receive additional Education Cost Sharing funds and other assistance under Malloy's education reform plan.
“It gives us a little bit more flexibility in terms of how we use No Child Left Behind resources," said Fischer. "We can really focus dollars and our resources and how to get the maximum results for each dollar that we use.”
Malloy said the waiver grants Connecticut public schools greater flexibility to spend Federal Title 1 dollars, avoids a situation where about half of the state's public schools would be deemed as "failing" under the NCLB act and creates a better system to accurately measure student achievement.
