Mississippi Takes Action to Fix Federal NCLB Law

Changes/Waivers Offered

Action Type: Official Action

Description of Action: In hearings before the Congress, Assistant Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education Henry Johnson and Secretary Spellings testified on the agency's response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Johnson (speaking just days before Rita made landfall) deftly outlined the flexibility and waivers granted to the most affected states as well as reiterated the administration's funding proposal for K-12 students, while Spellings (speaking post-Rita) announced two "temporary options" on certain aspects of adequate yearly progress (AYP). States may adopt one or both.

• Option 1: Exercise Existing Natural Disaster Provisions of NCLB. The No Child Left Behind Act allows a school or school district to delay, for up to one year, its school improvement timeline if the reason for not making AYP is "due to exceptional or uncontrollable circumstances, such as a natural disaster..." Consequently, any state or district with schools (1) that are located in the "major disaster" areas declared by President Bush [Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas] and (2) that have been closed for a significant period of time as a result of damage from Hurricanes Katrina or Rita may implement this delay for the 2005-06 school year without a federal waiver. In addition, the Secretary is willing to consider waivers for other schools and districts that have been adversely affected by the hurricanes due to enrolling large numbers of displaced students and/or other factors.

• Option 2: Establish a Separate Subgroup for Displaced Students. For the 2005-06 school year, the Secretary is willing to consider waiver requests from states for schools or districts heavily impacted by the hurricanes that would allow them to establish a separate subgroup of displaced students for NCLB accountability and reporting purposes. (If a waiver is granted, the state could decide not to include those students in any other subgroup.) Then, once test results are in at the end of the school year, the Department, in conjunction with the affected states, will make decisions about school and district accountability. Having separately identified achievement information will facilitate informed decisions about how such students performed and how, and to what extent, accountability determinations should be applied next year.

Status of Action:

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Changes/Waivers Requested

Action Type: Legislation

Description of Action: State House of Representatives introduced HB 150, an act to create the "School Testing Right to Know Act", which provides policymakers and the public with accurate information with which to make future decisions about the direction of education policy in the state of Mississippi, and for related purposes.

The bill reads, “The federal No Child Left Behind Act aims to dramatically increase the use and importance of primary and secondary school standardized tests. Standardized test scores do not accurately assess the causes of low student achievement; instead, they distract attention from the major causes of low academic performance, poverty and the lack of resources available to meet low-income students’ needs….”

Status of Action: last action 2/01/05

Click here to read full text of bill *