Earlier this month, three more states – Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming – requested waivers from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) that would provide more flexibility from certain provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in exchange for state-led reforms to promote accountability. This brings the total number of states that have requested NCLB waivers to 47, in addition to the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Bureau of Indian Education. So far, ED has approved requests from 34 states and the District of Columbia.

Also earlier this month, ED released state-adjusted high school graduation data, which show the total number of students included in each school’s graduation cohort for 2010-2011. The data file is available for public access, will include the calculated percentage of those students graduating within four years and is categorized by race, ethnicity, presence of a disability, economic status and degree of English proficiency. The data release is part of the Department’s EDFacts initiative, which is a broader effort to share performance data provided by K-12 state education agencies with those in policy, management and budget discussions. States are required to report graduation data to the department under Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. 

Link: News Release; Public Data; EDFacts Information