North Carolina Receives No Child Left Behind Waiver Extension

North Carolina and four other states will remain exempt from key parts of the controversial No Child Left Behind law.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education announced that these states received a four-year extension to their flexibility waivers.

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was signed into law in 2002. Congress is currently rewriting the legislation, which has been due for reauthorization since 2007.

It's intended to help schools improve reading and math in the third to eighth grades. The requirement for annual standardized testing still remains in place.

School districts that don't make sufficient progress can be punished with sanctions, including providing mandated tutoring and other programs.

“We know that with No Child Left Behind that there was the all or nothing, meaning you either met all of your goals and if you didn't meet all of them you were labeled as failing.” says June Atkinson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Atkinson says the waiver will allow North Carolina to continue making improvements in the classroom.

“The waiver allows us to give more flexibility to our local school districts as to how they use funds to help children, especially those who are economically disadvantaged. By having that flexibility, they can see what a student's needs are and then provide services, rather than having a wholesale way of dealing with the challenges that a student may face.”

Atkinson says North Carolina has made significant progress in recent years to identify achievement gaps in public schools. Last year, the four year high school graduation rate was more than 83 percent, the highest recorded in the state's history.

The U.S. Senate is expected to take up reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind law on April 14.

Follow Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news