Little seen changing

School districts across Florida have been granted a reprieve from the pressures of meeting No Child Left Behind requirements, but one Hernando County union official said teachers will see little change because of it.

The U.S. Department of Education approved Florida's request for a flexibility waiver from No Child regulations, meaning that schools won't face sanctions for failing to meet performance standards.

State officials requested the waiver in order to move to a single statewide accountability system, according to a Florida Department of Education news release.

Students will continue to be tested with the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

And therein lies the rub. Joe Vitalo, president of the Hernando Classroom Teachers Association, said No Child standards and state requirements are so similar that the pressure remains for students and teachers to perform.

What changes, he said, is that district officials won't have conflicting requirements between state statutes and No Child or risk losing Title 1 funding — which was the threat levied against schools that didn't meet standards.

"This just cleans things up a little bit for us," Vitalo said. "We already added Democrat principles into our Republican state education system.

"By not having to meet No Child Left Behind, we don't have the consequence of having to send back part of our Title 1 funds, which was one of the problems. It punishes you if you're not doing well. But if you're not doing well, don't you need more financial help?"

Despite calls to Superintendent Bryan Blavatt, he could not be reached by press deadline.

No Child requires all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014.

Critics have said the 2014 deadline was unrealistic, the law was too rigid and led to "teaching to the test," and that too many schools felt they labeled as "failures."

Under No Child Left Behind, schools that don't meet requirements for two years or longer face increasingly tough consequences, including busing children to higher-performing schools, offering tutoring and replacing staff.

Despite the waiver from No Child, Florida and other states must submit for approval an education plan targeting school improvement.