Winchester Schools Hope to Benefit from No Child Left Behind Waiver

The may no longer be considered a “failing" school.

According to the Boston Globe, President Obama is expected to announce that Massachusetts will be granted a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind Law.

It's a move that Winchester Superintendent William McAlduff said will benefit the district.

“I’m pleased with it,” McAlduff said of the decision. “The way the federal law is structured, there’s no integrity to it for how it’s interpreted in states like Massachusetts and towns like Winchester.”

Due to low MCAS, the Lynch School was identified for

Since is a Title I school and a school that needs improvement, Twelve students ended up leaving Lynch and heading to different schools in the district.

“This will provide flexibility in terms of what we do and how we work with and improve our subgroups,” McAlduff said. “It doesn’t bog us down with meaningless requirements.”

But, more importantly, McAlduff said, it doesn’t tarnish the success of the Winchester school district.

“It takes the stigma of Winchester as a failing school district away,” McAlduff said.

According to McAlduff, Lynch, and – the three schools that failed to meet Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) – along with the rest of the schools in the district, have much higher standards than NCLB.

“The most frustrating piece was that there were thousands of schools whose general population scored much lower than our kids at Lynch and Ambrose and they’re not in accountability status because their standards are much lower,” McAlduff said. “[No Child Left Behind] was just so inconsistent. It never made any sense to me.

“The waiver levels the playing field across the country. Now we can focus on the schools in the state that need more intervention.”

McAlduff said that the along with its “failing” school status would be determined by the Massachusetts state standards.

“We’ll have more clarity in the next couple of weeks,” McAlduff said. “Schools will be designated by Massachusetts standards as opposed to the federal government.

“It remains to be seen if Lynch will have school choice next year, we won’t know that until probably around August.”