BY LOUISE R. SHAW

Clipper Staff Writer

DAVIS COUNTY — This year, no Davis County schools will be told they are failing by the federal government.

The annual accounting, wherein schools whose students don’t reach a federal benchmark are given a “no” mark, will not happen this fall thanks to a waiver granted the state of Utah last week.

Currently, three Davis School District elementary schools: Fremont, Antelope and Vae View, are in “improvement,” meaning they are receiving federal funds to study and make changes because they received a “no” for the past two years.

Utah is one of five states, out of 26 that applied, to receive the waiver, which grants “flexibility regarding specific requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001,” according to an overview by the U.S. Department of Education. That flexibility was granted “in exchange for rigorous and comprehensive state-developed plans designed to improve educational outcomes for all students, close achievement gaps, increase equity and improve the quality of instruction.

"The five states join 19 others who were granted waivers last November.

Under the new state system, the bottom 5 percent of schools will be designated as “priority” schools, and the bottom 10 percent, “focus” schools.

There will no longer be school choice, where parents in a school deemed failing could transfer their children to a school that is not. In the system now being implemented, students will stay in their designated school.

For more information check out the July 5 edition of Davis Clipper.