The waivers are coming, the waivers are coming!

President Obama will be announcing the first round of NCLB waivers today. According to the Associated Press:

The first 10 states to receive the waivers are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee. The only state that applied for the flexibility and did not get it, New Mexico, is working with the administration to get approval, a White House official told the AP.

Now to see what that means on the ground...
I'll update this post as more comes out today.
UPDATE: The Boston Globe has this report, including the key:

...under the waiver that Massachusetts will recieve, the 100 percent proficiency rule will disappear. In its place, the state is setting a requirement that local schools must cut gaps of achievement among students of different races and other backgrounds in half by 2017.

UPDATE 2: For some reason, DESE has not posted the press release they sent out. The first part is the sort of "he said..." you would expect. I'm posting the pertinent details after the jump.  


The Commonwealth’s plan, approved today, will incorporate the state’s best indicators of progress toward college and career readiness, beginning with: (1) progress on gap-closing as measured by MCAS results in English language arts, mathematics, and science; (2) success in moving students out of lower levels of performance (Needs Improvement/Failing) and into higher levels (Advanced); (3) growth/improvement; and (4) graduation and dropout rates for high schools. The state will include data for the four most recent years, with the most recent years weighted most heavily. Targets will be differentiated for each school, district, and subgroup based on its starting point in 2010-11.

The state will report annual results for students in the aggregate, as well as results broken down by low income students, students with disabilities, English language learners, and the state’s major racial and ethnic subgroups. The state will also make determinations based on a new “high needs” subgroup composed of students who are low income, have a disability, or are English language learners or former English language learners. Building on the development of a five-level scale created by the Achievement Gap Act of 2010, the state will use an index to classify schools into Levels 1-5 as follows:

Level 1                  On track to college and career readiness

Level 2                  Not meeting gap closures
Level 3                  Focus: Lowest performing 20% of schools (including schools with the largest gaps)

Level 4                  Priority: Lowest performing schools

Level 5                  Priority: Chronically underperforming schools

Districts will continue to be classified at the level of their lowest performing school, consistent with the state’s current school and district accountability and assistance framework. Data will also be used to identify and recognize high achieving and/or greatly improving schools, known as Commendation Schools.