San Francisco Unified School District Joins Consortium Seeking Federal NCLB Waiver

CORE NCLB Waiver Application Submitted to  
CA State Board of Education
San Francisco, California - The San Francisco Unified School District today joined eight other California school districts submitting an application for a waiver from federal No Child Left Behind accountability rules. The participating districts are part of the California Office to Reform Education (CORE) and their collective CORE Waiver applications propose to replace the federal rules with a new, higher level of locally-driven accountability that will support local districts' collective effort to prepare all students for college and career. The participating districts submitted their bundled CORE Waiver applications today to the California State Board of Education today for review. Following a state review period, the CORE Wavier applications are expected to be considered by the U.S. Department of Education.  

"Federal approval of this waiver will give us flexibility to improve our district's work to prepare all students for college and career," said Superintendent Richard A. Carranza. "The current federal accountability bar has been too low and too narrowly focused for too long. We want a new accountability system that encourages a culture of collaboration and collective responsibility for preparing all students for successful futures and holds us accountable for eliminating disparity and disproportionality in all aspects of a child's learning experience: academic, social, and school culture."  

"We will accomplish this by building on the expertise within our own district and collaborating with like-minded educators from other districts in the California Office to Reform Education (CORE) consortium. We are prepared to hold ourselves collectively accountable on a range of college and career preparedness measures."

The CORE Waiver proposal outlines a plan for participating districts to collect and share data far beyond what is necessary for federal accountability purposes. The additional data elements will be shared so that the districts can work together and share responsibility and accountability for preparing every student for college and career. To ensure that schools are succeeding on these measures, the SFUSD will participate in a school support system and professional learning community with the other CORE districts focused on supporting a culture of excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement at each school.



The CORE Waiver proposal is built upon four foundational goals that align to, and extend beyond the three principles of the waiver guidelines:

• College and career ready expectations for all students.

• A focus on collective responsibility, accountability, and action that emphasizes capacity-building over accountability.

• The development of intrinsic motivation for change through differentiated recognition, accountability, and support for schools.

• Focused capacity-building for effective instruction and leadership.

To be eligible for the waiver, the SFUSD and other participating CORE districts commit to implementing the Common Core State Standards by the 2013-14 school year and transitioning to aligned assessments by the 2014-15 school year.

Districts participating in the CORE waiver plan to share a broad range of student and school data that collectively measure progress in preparing all students for college and careers. Using this data, schools will be identified as a "School of Distinction," a "Priority School," or a "Focus School." In line with the ethos of collaboration and shared responsibility for all students' success, coaching teams from Schools of Distinction will provide intervention planning and support for continuous improvement at Priority Schools and Focus Schools.

The SFUSD will also use the shared data system to strengthen teaching and learning and will work with other CORE districts to identify elements that will be common among educator effectiveness and evaluation systems that each district will develop individually by the 2013-14 school year and implement by the 2014-15 school year.

The participating CORE districts hope to work with the U.S. Department of Education to reach approval of the waiver and finalize provisions of the waiver plan. Once finalized, other school districts in California will be eligible to participate in the waiver provided they are willing to similarly reorient their work around preparing all students for college and careers, including by implementing college- and career-ready standards and assessments, participating in the new accountability system, committing to sharing data, and developing and implementing educator effectiveness and evaluation systems.