States running from Obama’s education reforms

But rather than operating under No Child Left Behind, 42 states had been operating under different education rules: policies dictated by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan under conditional waivers from No Child Left Behind’s federal penalties. The law was replaced eight years late, making it increasingly unworkable for states to comply with its rules. The new law makes waivers unnecessary, and gives states freedom over how to handle failing schools.

With the waiver system gone, states are running from the education reforms that Obama pushed onto states using the conditional waivers.

The New York Board of Regents already approved a four-year delay in using test scores in teacher evaluations, according to U.S. News & World Report. Student test scores in teacher evaluations were an important part of Obama’s Race to the Top program and the conditional waivers.

Last week, Oklahoma also decided to alter its teacher evaluation system. It’s keeping test scores as a factor, but also introducing new options for districts to choose how to measure student growth.

Iowa unveiled a new school report card last week. The report card has been years in the making, but officials claim it is a more accurate measure of student performance. But officials quickly promised that more changes were on the way after they were criticized for leaving out data for racial minorities in calculating the achievement gap between student groups.

As states get time to fully consider how they want to handle their newfound freedom over education policies, expect almost every state to make major changes from what they’ve been using under Obama’s waiver system. From New York to Oklahoma, both red and blue states will make changes, but their changes will vary according to their specific needs.

Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.