5th March 2012 9:00
By Blue Tutors
The state of New York has filed an application to have a waiver from the most restrictive elements of the ‘No Child Left Behind’ scheme. The programme provides funding for tutors to help many under-privileged students across the United States, but many districts have complained about the conditions that must be met for the programme to be considered a success, and hence continued.
The motion in New York’s application is for the targets set to reflect improvements by students, and not just concentrate on absolute results. The changes would also allow schools to use the funding to provide extra help other than simply private tuition, and would allow access to more resources generally to help struggling students.
The waiver is yet to be ratified, but 10 of 11 of the states who have previously applied for a similar relaxing of the restrictions have been successful. Combined with the feeling that many tuition agencies have taken advantage of the scheme, it’s likely that the government will be happy to improve funding to be taken away from the tutors, and put with the schools.