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Texas school officials surprised everyone yesterday when they announced that they were going to apply for an NCLB waiver (see EdWeek: Texas to Apply for NCLB Waiver). Under the Obama administrations, states can apply for waivers from things like the annual rating system that are part of the 2002 law, in exchange for a series of other commitments.

As you may recall, California is one of very few states that hasn’t applied for or gotten a NCLB waiver, or a one-year freeze on NCLB minimum proficiency scores that determine whether schools meet federal standards or not (see previous post: No NCLB Waiver — No “Freeze”). Until yesterday, Texas was in much the same boat.  However, it quickly became clear that Texas was proposing a self-designed waiver along the lines of the approach that California officials have proposed (see EdWeek: Calif. Seeks Its Own Version of an NCLB Waiver).

According to some observers, the withdrawal of AB 5 (the bill to revamp teacher evaluation rules in the Stull Act) will make it harder for the state to get its NCLB waiver (see previous post here).  But perhaps Texas’ interest in a self-designed waiver will make federal officials look more kindly on what Sacramento is proposing.