(Garden City, KS) (westernkansasnews.com)

Kansas schools have been granted a waiver from certain provisions of the No Child Left Behind law by the U.S. Department of Education.  USD-457 School District Superintendent Dr. Rick Atha is applauding the decision.  “This gives us a better opportunity to focus on the continual academic improvement of all students, which has been our goal and will always be our goal in the district.”   Kansas now joins almost 3-dozen other states in getting the waiver. 

The waiver, granted by the U.S. Department of Education, will substantially change how Kansas schools, educators and students are measured.  The changes outlined in Kansas’ plan will move from simply measuring how many students score at “proficient” in reading and math to evaluating the improvement of all students and narrowing the gap between the highest and lowest-scoring students.  It also requires the state adopt a teacher evaluation system with a greater emphasis on student learning. 

USD-457 no longer be on ‘corrective action’ and none of its schools will be designated as ‘on improvement’ for the upcoming school year.