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President Obama will waive central provisions of the No Child Left Behind federal education law for 10 states that have embraced his educational agenda and promised to raise standards, and improve accountability and teacher effectiveness, the White House announced on Thursday morning. The 10 states - the first group to receive the waivers - are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, New Jersey and Tennessee. New Mexico was the only state that applied for and did not receive a waiver, but it is working with administration officials to secure approval, the White House said.

No Child Left Behind turned 10 this week, and former President George W. Bush, who led the effort to enact the landmark federal education law, marked the anniversary with an exclusive interview with TIME education columnist Andrew J. Rotherham. Bush discussed the law and its legacy, criticized both parties for trying to walk away from its hard-nosed accountability efforts and called on President Obama to resist “the temptation to take the easy path.”

Merely a decade ago, the No Child Left Behind Act inspired the country to provide the best education possible to its youth. Yet today, on its tenth anniversary, many say the legislation has not only been ineffective, but it has also been a distraction from what is really needed to fix the education system within the United States. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act was seen as one of the most significant domestic accomplishments of George W. Bush's presidency. He signed NCLB into law in Hamilton, Ohio alongside leaders of the education committees in Congress, which included Representative John...

The stress was overwhelming. For years, this veteran teacher had received exemplary evaluations but now was feeling pressured to raise her students' test scores. Her principal criticized her teaching and would show up to take notes on her class. She knew the material would be used against her one day. "My principal told me right to my face that she — she was feeling sorry for me because I don't know how to teach," the instructor said. The Los Angeles educator, who did not want to be identified, is one of about three dozen in the state accused this year...

The desperate search for an acceptable Republican Party presidential candidate continues. Republican leaders apparently are pushing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who previously said no, to jump into the race. The GOP's frustration is palpable. Mitt Romney has been running for four years but generates little enthusiasm. Rick Perry was an instant front-runner before losing much of his support after unimpressive debate performances. Michelle Bachmann briefly streaked across the political firmament but now barely registers in the polls. Newt Gingrich committed political seppuku shortly after announcing his candidacy. Ron Paul's support is fervent but limited. However, the real Republican problem...

President Obama today unveiled a sweeping plan to give states the flexibility they have been clamoring for under the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) education law. The goals behind No Child Left Behind were admirable ... but experience has taught us that in its implementation, [it] had some serious flaws that are hurting our children,” the president said in a White House speech, flanked by students, principals, state education leaders, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Twenty-two California schools had their test scores thrown out this year. Nearly half the campuses lost their Academic Performance Index scores because of cheating by teachers. Several others were penalized because of help teachers gave students that violated rules. Additionally, some school scores were rejected because of what appeared to be accidental actions. In most cases, schools or school districts turned themselves in. Because of budget cuts, the state Education Department no longer conducts random audits at schools or scans test booklets for irregularities. The number of schools with invalidated test scores remains relatively small but is edging upward. In...

Pastor John Piper and others have told the story of 19th-century evangelist D.L. Moody visiting Scotland and opening his talk at a local grade school by asking rhetorically, "What is prayer?" To his amazement, hundreds of children's hands went up. Moody called on a boy near the front, who promptly stood up and answered, "Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, in the name of Christ, by the help of His Spirit, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies." Moody, recognizing that as the answer to question No. 78 in the Westminster Catechism,...

RENE, S.D. – When the nearly 300 students of the Irene-Wakonda School District returned to school this week, they found a lot of old friends, teachers and familiar routines awaiting them. But one thing was missing: Friday classes. This district in the rolling farmland of southeastern South Dakota is among the latest to adopt a four-day school week as the best option for reducing costs and dealing with state budget cuts to education.

RESEDA, LOS ANGELES -- The scores are in for Southern California students who took the annual STAR exam. Despite cutbacks and layoffs, scores are up for the ninth straight year. They're at their highest levels since the testing began. At a 10th-grade physiology class at Reseda High School, reading and language skills are combined with mathematics, and there are improved results in the latest statewide Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) examinations given to nearly 5 million students in grades 2 through 11. "Despite the cuts we are seeing that kind of significant progress. It's been steady over the last nine...

Standardized tests in English and math taken by students in New York State are about to become slightly less tricky. Beginning next spring, a new company, Pearson, will write the standardized tests that the Education Department gives to nearly all third through eighth graders. The department switched to Pearson this year after its contract with another company, CTB/McGraw-Hill, expired. The department has advised the new company that catch-all answer choices known for tripping up students, like “none of the above” and “all of the above” and already rare in the state’s tests, are now banned. Mirroring a national trend toward...

States are rushing for the No Child Left Behind exit door. Within hours of Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s announcement Monday that he will grant waivers from federal mandates, several states announced that they would apply for relief. Many others are expressing interest, pending the release of more details next month. Tennessee didn’t wait for Mr. Duncan’s news conference: The state sent its waiver request two weeks ago. The mad dash to escape high-stakes testing and gain more flexibility represents “a sense of desperation” among states, said Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators. “There’s no question...

Education Secretary Arne Duncan joined the briefing at the top to discuss the waivers that the Department is offering states from “No Child Left Behind” until Congress reauthorizes it. TAPPER: And the other question I have is, given that Speaker Boehner was one of the people who helped draft No Child Left Behind, can you explain what the problem is in Congress? DUNCAN: Well, I think you guys understand Congress a lot better than I do. TAPPER: I hope not.

Julie Rogers-Martin had started to doubt her teaching skills. After 30 years in education, working mostly with underprivileged inner-city students, Rogers-Martin felt she had developed a level of competence and professionalism that can only be gained from hard work and experience. Her superiors at East Lake Elementary School in the Atlanta Public Schools system where she taught for six years seemed to agree. Administrators held her up as a model, praising her classroom management skills and use of technology and showcasing her class to parents and administrators, she says. But between 2007 and 2009 a strange thing started happening: Some...

Obama administration Education Secretary Arne Duncan is announcing today a system of waivers relieving public schools from federally-mandated reading and math proficiency tests.

State and local education officials have been begging the federal government for relief from student testing mandates in the federal No Child Left Behind law, but school starts soon and Congress still hasn't answered the call. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says he will announce a new waiver system Monday to give schools a break. The plan to offer waivers to all 50 states, as long as they meet other school reform requirements, comes at the request of President Barack Obama, Duncan said. More details on the waivers will come in September, he said. The goal of the No Child Left...

The Obama administration will change aspects of the “No Child Left Behind” education law by executive action rather than wait for a congressional overhaul, officials announced Monday. The Department of Education will issue waivers to states granting them relief from penalties under the 2002 law that could take effect next year. The announcement by the White House and education secretary Arne Duncan is a slap at the Republican-led House, where efforts at a bipartisan overhaul of the George W. Bush-era law have progressed slowly. President Obama had called on Congress to revise and reauthorize the law before leaving for its...

A national scandal hit the news when Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal released a 413-page report describing how hundreds of Atlanta public school teachers and principals had been cheating during the past 10 years on standardized tests in order to falsely report that their schools were doing a good job and the kids were improving. A total of 178 teachers and principals (38 were principals), 82 of whom have already confessed, had fraudulently raised test scores so their schools would meet test targets set by the district and thereby qualify for federal funds. The truth came out after a 10-month inquiry...

Almost two weeks after Georgia Governor Nathan Deal (R) released a report last week that detailed evidence of cheating on the state test in the Atlanta Public School System (APS), parents are still left to wonder who will be held responsible for these appalling actions. The report found that 44 of APS’s 56 schools – or 78.6 percent of the schools in Atlanta – had teachers or principals collect students’ test, check their work, and correct wrong answers before submitting the tests for the official grading process. In fact, of the 44 schools where widespread cheating occurred, 38 principals were...

PITTSBURGH -- The Pennsylvania Department of Education is looking into a newly surfaced report indicating possible cheating on state standardized tests. The data forensics report examines results of the 2009 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, or PSSA. The annual tests measure math and reading skills in students statewide. The report flags exam scores in about 35 districts, plus some charter schools. It does not assert cheating occurred, but says that certain answer patterns and erasures make the results suspicious.