An in-depth exploration of education in the 21st century South.
Mississippi along with 32 other states have officially opted out of the federal No Child Left Behind Act through a custom written waiver. It had become obvious there was no way 100 percent of the 492,000 Mississippi public school children would reach a proficiency level by 2014.
Alabama students are officially headed back to school — and a big change may soon be headed their way. State education officials have decided to opt out of the No Child Left Behind Act. Instead of Adequate Yearly Progress standards, they’ve created their own rating system dubbed “Plan 2020.” And officials say this plan will better serve the students and teachers of Alabama.
The US Department of Education has granted Mississippi a waiver from some of the provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Law. Mississippi is now one of 32 states no longer required to have all students proficient in Reading and Math by 2014. But new flexibility was exchanged for new policy.
There’s been a short break from Birmingham Board of Education fireworks, but that doesn’t mean the state takeover story, or the Alabama education beat in general, has slowed down at all. In this week’s Edu-Chat, WBHM’s Tanya Ott inverviews Southern Education Desk reporter Dan Carsen on No Child Left Behind, the Education Trust Fund, local kids in China, and “meatless meetings.”
As part of the state’s application for a waiver from some aspects of the federal No Child Left Behind law, Mississippi schools are changing the way they look at minorities and “special populations” such as students with disabilities and English Language Learners (ELL) whose numbers are sharply rising across the state.
Teacher evaluations are controversial in many parts of the country and the South is no exception. But in Mississippi, every public-school teacher and principal will soon be plugged into an evaluation system that’s being implemented largely without public scrutiny.
Mississippi is often cited as having the worst education system in America. With the incentive of a waiver from certain aspects of the No Child Left Behind law (NCLB),the federal government is pressuring the Mississippi Department of Education to start turning things around and ramp up hands-on support for the state’s struggling schools.
More than 60 percent of Louisiana’s school districts made AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress), but districts are finding it much harder to close the achievement gap.
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