It’s a follow up for a bill passed during the regular legislative session.
In a letter sent [last] week to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Education Commissioner Michael Williams is seeking clarification on whether the federal agency has the authority to grant a waiver on the No Child Left Behind Act, formally called the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
The waiver request would allow the state to comply with House Bill 866, which would allow high-performing elementary and middle school students to skip reading and math tests if they had aced them in previous years.
[…]
Williams’ letter said the bill would allow students ahead of the curve to “focus their time and energy on learning new material and not focusing every year on a test where there is a high likelihood that they would demonstrate success.”
HB 866 won’t take effect this year and the letter is not an official request for a waiver, agency officials said.
See here, here, and here for the background. I figure this is likely to be a formality, but we’ll see how it plays out.
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