grant waivers to the No Child Left Behind act to without using standardized test scores for teacher evaluation.

The No Child Left Behind act is a law riddled with flawed methods of improving education. The single-minded focus on high-stakes standardized encourages poor teaching. The Obama administration rightly views the “100% proficiency” mandate as poor policy that only encourages teaching to the test. The Obama administration should not try to solve this problem via mandating that all teachers be evaluated on the standardized test scores of their students. No valid system of “value added” measurement of teachers exists. This mandate is “Voodoo” educational policy at its best and will cause a greater number of educators to teach to the test. Secretary Duncan should be directed to grant “clean” waivers to NCLB that will not compel states to tie teacher evaluation to standardized test scores.