After a year of work, the state of Vermont has dropped its plan to seek a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind education law. Governor Peter Shumlin says the conditions of the waiver are worse than the provisions of the law
Late last summer Vermont Education officials decided to seek a waiver from the federal law. It was hoped that the waiver would free the state from some of the law’s testing mandates.
But that excitement has been replaced with frustration and disappointment because the federal government insisted that teachers be evaluated primarily by using the test scores of their students.
The Governor says he sought a waiver because he felt the original law was terrible.
"It basically uses standardized tests to make judgments about students and teachers that I don’t believe is fair or accurate," Shumlin says. "It forces teachers to teach to a standardized test when they should be teaching creative learning. So it’s a disaster."
And Shumlin says he’s very disappointed that federal Education Secretary Arne Duncan wouldn’t budge on the teacher evaluation requirements
"I begged the Secretary for a Vermont waiver that wouldn’t be more onerous than the current bill," says Shumlin. "My view is that the waivers that they’re granting present bigger challenges, bigger obstacles to creative learning than No Child Left Behind. "
Martha Allen is the president of Vermont NEA – the state teachers’ union. She was part of the waiver process and was surprised by the federal government’s approach to Vermont’s waiver request.
"They’re really trying to put a square peg in a round hole and all they do is use a bigger and bigger hammer," said Allen. Her group supports an evaluation system for teachers but she says that process has to include a comprehensive review of a person’s teaching skills.
"It seems as though the federal government’s methods are very punitive and that doesn’t work at all from Vermont’s perspective," said Allen. "Everyone wants to get better teachers. They are not trying to do a bad job – that’s just absolutely ridiculous – so this way with multiple indicator using test scores as a guide as one guide then you’d use these other components too."
Without the waiver, the state will have to demonstrate that most students are proficient in math and reading by 2014.