In place of the law, Massachusetts will require that by 2017 schools cut achievement gaps in half among students of different backgrounds.
The requirement elicited kudos from Obama during his announcement. “I like that goal,’’ he said, according to a copy of his remarks.
Paul Reville, the state’s education secretary, said he was pleased that Massachusetts prevailed in its request for the waiver.
“It’s a relief,’’ Reville said. “We have been dealing with what is widely considered an absolutely broken accountability system. It’s punishing to school districts.’’
Under the 10-year-old federal law, state education officials have been forced each year to designate schools in need of improvement, corrective action, or restructuring, if they repeatedly failed to get more students to demonstrate proficiency on state exams. Most recently in September, Massachusetts officials gave 1,086 schools one of those designations in what local educators have called an annual rite equivalent to a public shaming.
Schools have been identified in urban centers such as Boston, Fall River, and Springfield and even in affluent suburbs such as Andover and Winchester.
The designations have consequences. If a school labeled in need of improvement receives federal grants for low-income students, it must reserve some of that money for parents who want to send their children to special tutoring programs.
In the direst category, restructuring, a school must overhaul programs, classroom instruction, and sometimes staffing.
When that system disappears under the Massachusetts waiver, it will be replaced by one the state created under a 2-year-old state law that aims to accelerate student achievement and that has already led to identifying 40 underperforming schools with chronically low test scores.
