Illinois likely to seek relief from No Child Left Behind law

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Updated: November 11, 2011 1:13PM

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois likely will be among states to apply for relief from burdensome student-achievement requirements under an overhaul of the No Child Left Behind law that President Barack Obama proposed Friday.

The president’s announcement comes amid a deadlock with Congress over revising parts of one of former President George W. Bush’s signature laws, including its provision that all students meet or exceed state educational standards by 2014.

Illinois remains far from meeting the ascending student-achievement benchmarks set out in that law.

In the 2009-2010 school year, for example, when 77.5 percent of students were to have met or exceeded state standards, 1,845 of more than 3,800 schools failed to meet that threshold, state records show.

“It is very likely we’ll seek a waiver. However, we still need to see what the details are. We would like to get a little more detail as to what types of flexibilities and waivers would be out there,” said Matt Vanover, a spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Education.

State school Supt. Christopher Koch attended Obama’s announcement Friday.

Vanover said that his agency favors “a different accountability system.”

“Instead of looking at that unrealistic target, maybe we look at schools having growth on a year-by-year basis,” Van­over said.

Not everyone in Illinois agrees with that approach, however, including the ranking Republican on the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee.

“As an educator, I have always felt like every state in the union is going to have to seek a waiver on the special education aspect of that law. It’s untenable. There’s just no way you can reach it with kids who don’t have that ability,” said state Rep. Jerry Mitchell (R-Sterling), a former superintendent of the Downstate Dixon school district.

“But that’s the only area that we should seek a waiver. Everything else, we should strive to achieve,” he said. “Other states are doing it. We should do it. If we can’t do it, we should examine our programs and see where we’re falling behind.”