The No Child Left Behind Flexibility Waiver: Leadership and Self-Governance With School and District Administrators

• In Event: 30.080 - Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: 30.080-18 - Policy, Equity, and Bilingual Students

Abstract

The No Child Left Behind flexibility waiver period of 2012-2015 allowed US states to create different mechanisms of accountability to measure the performance of their overall student population. In Indiana, the institution of a super-subgroup identified the lowest 25% of a school's population, inclining principals to focus heavily on this student group, taking resources away from ELs, diminishing EL programming and de-professionalizing bilingual/EL specialists' expertise. Principals tacitly accepted the NCLB flexibility waiver as fixed and inherently good as it brought attention to their local contexts for improved teacher performance to enhance EL test performance. Foucault’s construct of governmentality informed the discursive practices of the leaders. Understanding these discourses of governance can reshape the way administrators are prepared and mentored.

Author

• Trish Morita Mullaney, Purdue University