Washington in Danger of Losing No Child Left Behind Waiver

Washington State lawmakers next year must bring the state's teacher evaluation system up to federal standards, or risk losing a waiver from the No Child Left Behind law.

The new teacher evaluation law requires test scores or other measures of student achievement to be part of teacher evaluations. Washington law says statewide test scores can be a factor in teacher evaluations.

The federal government wants the word "can" to be changed to "must." Without that change, Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn says Washington will not meet requirements for a waiver from the federal education law.

Washington is one of a handful of states in "high risk" of losing the waivers granted to dozens of states. The waivers give states more flexibility to figure out how to boost education without meeting the 2014 deadlines under No Child Left Behind.