By Constitution Staff

On August 28, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) decided not to extend Oklahoma's No Child Left Behind (NCLB) flexibility waiver that gave the state and school districts relief on 13 federal regulations. The action was apparently an effort to punish the state following Oklahoma's repeal of the Common Core State Standards earlier this year. In a letter to Oklahoma officials, Deborah Delisle, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education, explained the basis of their decision stating that "Oklahoma can no longer demonstrate that the state's standards are college and career-ready standards."

House Bill 3399 was passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Mary Fallin. The measure repealed the untested national Common Core State Standards and put in place a process to develop and adopt new, superior standards with the help of Oklahoma higher-education and CareerTech systems.

"I challenge the U.S. Dept. of Education to "demonstrate' that Common Core is college and career ready in Oklahoma before they begin dictating how we run our state's education system," said Rep. Jason Nelson (R-Oklahoma City) who helped push the repeal of Common Core. "They can't do it. Each state's college remediation requirements are different and they have absolutely no idea if Common Core meets their own requirements."

Rep. Nelson continued: "In the Obama administration's determination to compel Oklahoma to stay with Common Core, they plan to impose onerous federal regulations on our education system that were unnecessary this morning but are now, amazingly, necessary this afternoon. It's obvious that states like Oklahoma must not flinch in taking back control of our standards if we truly want standards that can be "demonstrated' to be college and career ready. Unfortunately, this letter is the latest example of the slow death of federalism which is being replaced with flawed logic."

Oklahoma House Speaker Jeff Hickman (R-Fairview) was the official author of the repeal legislation in the House. "We knew the federal government could opt to take some actions when we passed HB3399. None-the-less, this decision is troubling because it sets back the efforts of our local schools to continue improving by imposing on them unhelpful and unnecessary regulations. This situation makes it even more imperative that the State Board of Education move quickly to begin the process of creating and adopting new superior standards."

The USDE requires all states applying for waivers to use standards that are considered college-and career-ready. HB 3399 required Oklahoma's K-12 schools to return to using Priority Academic Student Skills (PASS) standards in English Language Arts (ELA) and math for two years, during which time new academic standards would be crafted by Oklahomans.

Following the passage of HB 3399, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Janet Barresi asked the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education to review PASS standards in ELA and math for alignment with college-and career-ready guidelines. Higher education officials were unable to complete that task before the August 12 deadline to submit the waiver's extension request. As a result, Oklahoma submitted its application without an assessment of PASS by higher education. USDE had indicated an assessment by higher education officials would be essential in determining the adequacy of PASS. Now that the application has been rejected, Oklahoma schools will now fall back under the mandates of NCLB. On October 16 the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education finally certified the PASS standards, so the state will be able to include the standards if it makes an application for wavier next year.

Supt. Barresi, who was defeated for reelection mostly due to her support of Common Core, directed state education officials to immediately begin the task of compliance with NCLB, which is part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). "This decision by the federal government is disappointing and frustrating. Oklahoma has made significant strides forward in strengthening our schools, progress that has largely been possible because of the flexibility of the waiver," Barresi said. "The State Department of Education worked hard making Oklahoma's case to USDE. The state's congressional delegation provided staunch support for the waiver extension, as did many others. Unfortunately, the USDE decided otherwise."

The Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) will be required to monitor district compliance with all other regulations that have been waived for the last two school years, including limiting how districts can spend many of their federal dollars. No Child Left Behind regulations also limit which schools may apply for certain grants, what annual targets must be set for improvement in each school, and even which schools are eligible for Title I funds. Most notably, NCLB regulations will require some schools to replace staff, change curriculum or possibly shut down.

Although USDE directed Oklahoma to comply with the bulk of NCLB as soon as possible, federal officials stipulated that a key component of that law won't have to be implemented until the 2015-2016 school year. USDE said Oklahoma will have one year to comply with a requirement that 20 percent of Title I funds be set aside for supplemental educational services (SES) and transportation for school choice.

The additional time for SES will be helpful to districts, said Kerri White, OSDE assistant superintendent for teacher and leader effectiveness. "In this era of teacher shortages and minimal per-pupil funding, the additional year to prepare for a set-aside for SES and choice-related transportation will likely spare districts from laying off additional teachers and support staff," White said. "Students will have direct access to services and supports they need to improve their reading and math skills this year, while administrators plan for these additional funding restrictions and federal requirements to go into place next year."

Upward of 90 percent of Oklahoma schools are expected to be affected to some degree by the loss of the waiver. Under NCLB, schools must meet 100-percent proficiency on a number of benchmarks to avoid being designated as a school in need of improvement. The number of failing schools in need of improvement could now swell from its current 490 to more than 1,600, according to NCLB definitions of failing.