Morning Announcements: June 29, 2011

As reported on National Public Radio, states threaten to defy No Child Left Behind, saying that they need emergency relief from the controversial education law’s requirements—otherwise, they say, a huge number of decent schools will face sanctions.

According to the Boston Globe, students’ MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) scores and other achievement data will become key barometers in evaluating the performance of their teachers and administrators, under new criteria the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education recently approved.

On a related note, today’s Wall Street Journal reports that New York’s largest teachers union is suing the state Board of Regents over the state’s new system for evaluating public-school teachers, a move that could derail plans by the city and hundreds of other school districts to start basing reviews on how well students perform on standardized tests.

“If we really intend to update NCLB, let’s help the boys,” say RiShawn Biddle and Richard Whitmire in a USA Today column.