The Maryland State Board of Education is planning to vote Monday on the state’s application for a waiver from No Child Left Behind, federal legislation that imposes stringent benchmarks for student progress on standardized exams. Maryland missed its Adequate Yearly Progress expectations, or AYP, in 2011 for its special-education, low-income, limited-English-proficiency, African-American and Hispanic student subgroups. President Obama granted waivers to 10 states last week. Virginia and the District are also seeking waivers, as are 25 more states and Puerto Rico. The waivers “relieve states of the burden imposed on them by a law that set out worthy but perhaps unrealistic goals,” said Jim Kohlmoos, executive director of the National Association of State Boards of Education.
