CARSON CITY - The U.S. Department of Education today approved Nevada's request for a waiver from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in exchange for a state-developed plan designed to prepare all students for college and career readiness, substantially raise the achievement of the lowest achieving students, and support effective teaching and administration.
Nevada's state-developed plan creates the Nevada School Performance Framework, a new system for classifying, rewarding, and supporting school performance. In addition to looking at student proficiency, Nevada will now be able to analyze and use student growth data and other measures in determining school and district success.
"This next generation accountability system is a central lever in statewide efforts to substantially elevate student performance," said State Superintendent for Public Instruction at the Nevada Department of Education Dr. James W. Guthrie. "This system was built through robust collaboration with key partners, together with whom we will re-engineer Nevada's educational system to realize true college and career readiness for all students."
"Today is a new day for education in Nevada," Governor Brian Sandoval said. "Nevada's ESEA Waiver creates an accountability system that improves student achievement and reflects Nevada's education values and goals. I congratulate and thank the Nevada Department of Education for working with stakeholders to ensure we put Nevada's children first."
In order to obtain a waiver, states were required to meet certain conditions including adoption of the Common Core State Standards, which Nevada had adopted in June 2010, as well as the creation of a statewide system for evaluating teacher and administrator performance that relies in part on student achievement data. Nevada passed such legislation in June 2011.
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