WSMV Channel 4 TN among 10 states getting education waiver

President Barack Obama announced Thursday that he has freed 10 states, including Tennessee, from the strict requirements of the No Child Left Behind law.

Under the current law, all students must be 100 percent proficient in language arts and math by 2014.

A White House official said the waivers will exempt the selected states from that deadline, but they will have to set new goals for improving student achievement and closing achievement gaps.

While no one doubts to intentions of No Child Left Behind, some said they just doubted the reality. And schools that have been deemed "failing" will now be leaving that designation behind.

"That would be de-motivating to me if I'm a teacher and making real progress and doing a great job, and yet I'm labeled as a failure," Gov. Bill Haslam said.

The new accountability system will have so-called "reward schools," which are the schools that are in the top five percent for either high student performance or quickly closing the achievement gap.

Officials said 169 Tennessee schools are in this category.

Then, there are the "focus schools," which are the 10 percent of schools that have low graduation rates or large achievement gaps. This group also includes 169 schools.

Finally, there are "priority schools," which are the schools that are in the bottom five percent in student achievement.

These schools can be taken over and placed in a special state-run school district. There are 85 schools in this category, including several Metro school.

Teachers said they see this as a better way to recognize progress.

"This will give us a better opportunity to approach it in ways that have a better chance of being effective," said Al Mance, with the Tennessee Education Association.

Parents hope to see more parental engagement and hope to see less of the one-size fits all approach.

"What I have difficulty with as a parent is that there are all of these people sitting in offices either in Washington or in the state capitol here that are making decisions about children, and they have no idea what those children really need," said Metro Schools parent Laquita Martin.

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