Setting standards

Nevada is, for now, immune from the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. The decade-old federal law aimed to increase achievement and accountability in the nation's schools, but like many federal interventions - no matter how well-intentioned - it became a costly boondoggle.

The U.S. Department of Education granted Nevada a one-year waiver from previously mandated testing standards and the consequences for schools that failed to meet them. The District of Columbia and 32 other states have received waivers as well.

"Today is a new day for education in Nevada," Gov. Brian Sandoval said Wednesday.

Under No Child Left Behind, Nevada's internally formulated expectations for adequate yearly progress were ridiculously low, Clark County School District Superintendent Dwight Jones told the Review-Journal's editorial board last year. "Most of the other states are up here," Mr. Jones said, lifting his right hand above his head. "Nevada is down here, in the bottom 10 percent," he said, lowering his left hand to the table.

In the past two years, Nevada has welcomed a new governor, a new state superintendent and new superintendents at its two largest school districts. All four men strongly believe that if Nevada would only raise its expectations, its students are up to the challenge of meeting them.

And setting a high bar will be key to whether the state's new autonomy pays dividends.

The details of how Nevada will measure performance this year are being finalized, but it will focus on student-by-student progression and resemble the one- to five-star school ranking system now in place in Clark County. The state will administer new standardized tests, starting in 2013-14, that reflect the new Common Core Standards curriculum and the goal of having 90 percent of students attain grade-level skills by 2017. Currently, that figure is at 50 percent - with low standards.

Allowing the states to operate with a minimum of federal interference is a much better approach. The U.S. Department of Education is a glorified money launderer, raking in tax dollars from the states, lopping billions off the top and sending the rest back entangled in bureaucratic strings. American schools haven't improved over nearly four decades of federal meddling, but they sure do cost more.

In the meantime, Nevada has a reprieve from No Child Left Behind. Now it's time to leave failure behind.