UPDATE: 6:05pm 6/24/13 After I posted this and sent an ANHPE mailing that included it, I learned that the New Hampshire Department of Education disagreed with how NHPR framed the report. NHPR has updated its story to include the NHDOE statement that “acceptance in imminent.”
This is definitely not good. It has to represent a reversal, possibly even by the U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, since earlier indications were that the approval was on his desk for signature.
There could be other issues as well – possibly issues that pending legislation would address – but the primary bone of contention has been teaching evaluations. The New Hampshire Department of Education, after long consultations educators from around the State, has been seeking flexibility in the extent to which student testing would be included in teaching evaluations. USDE has insisted that at least 20% of a teacher’s evaluation be based on test scores, something NH teachers and administrators have felt is unjustified.
DOE has not, apparently, convinced punitive testing hawk Arne Duncan of the wisdom of the approach New Hampshire educators want. Maybe No Child Left Behind will prove to be the lesser of the evils…
Sam Evans-Brown / NHPR
The US department of education has announced that once again New Hampshire’s application for a waiver from the controversial federal education policy, No Child Left Behind, has been passed over.
It has been ten months since New Hampshire applied for flexibility from the requirements of No Child Left Behind, and several rounds of waivers for other states have been approved since the application was submitted.
Alabama was the most recent state to be granted flexibility, making 38 states and the district of Colombia which have implemented their own plans for school improvement and accountability.
Seven states, including New Hampshire, have applications still pending, and five have not submitted waivers.
via N.H. NCLB Flexibility Request Passed Over Once Again By Feds | New Hampshire Public Radio.
Advancing New Hampshire Public Education 
I guess New Hampshire is one of the seven states left behind the waiver process.
It’s more than that – 14, maybe.
Kudos to Ginny Barry for holding her ground on value added assessments! There is no evidence— NONE— that these improve teaching performance or— more importantly— student performance. They are mathematically elegant but devoid of all meaning.
Here’s a link to a white paper I wrote in October 2009 when I was Superintendent in SAU 70. It outlines why I thought it was a bad idea to seek a waiver: http://waynegersen.com/?s=Race+to+the+Top+NO
Two years later, shortly after my retirement, I wrote this white paper discouraging the seeking of a waiver if it meant compromising too much on the value added assessment component: http://waynegersen.com/2011/11/14/nclb-waivers/
Anyone familiar with the Pareto Principle knows how the 20% of the evaluation based on value added scores will play out: it will consume 80% of the time and get 100% of the attention of the press.
NH should look across the Connecticut River and join hands with VT in rejecting the waiver. (see: http://waynegersen.com/?s=vermont) NH, VT, and ME could show the nation the best way to educate children is NOT by testing them to death but by engaging them in designing their own education plans.
[…] just read in an Advancing NH Public Education blog post that NH lost its waiver bid, reportedly because NH would not kowtow to the testing requirements […]
But you do see the update, right, in which NHDOE still anticipates getting a waiver?