HONOLULU — The U.S. Department of Education is giving Hawaii a flawless progress report on its education reforms.
The report obtained by The Associated Press shows Hawaii received the highest mark of “meeting expectations” for all categories. The department says only a handful of states achieved such high scores.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan lauded Hawaii’s progress. The state’s reforms replaced provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Most states were granted a federal waiver that allows them to try new ways to measure student success.
Hawaii initially was approved for a one-year waiver, but that was later extended to multiple years.
Anne Hyslop, a national expert on the waivers, says it’s rare for a state to receive a clean monitoring report. She says most states were flagged for issues.