Anthony Cody, a National Board-certified science teacher who has worked in Oakland schools for 24 years, is responding to the Oct. 27 Viewpoints commentary, "State needs waiver from federal school law." The op-ed stated: "California should commit to apply for the NCLB flexibility waiver and develop and implement a reform plan that is rigorous and real."

No Child Left Behind has California schools in a vise. Next year, most schools will be declared "failing" based on our inability to make every child in the state proficient on standardized tests.

The U.S. Department of Education has created a waiver process however, that would allow our schools to continue to receive funding, which some Californians support.

Unfortunately, new mandates demand we trade one set of poor policies for another. In a time when the number of districts at risk of insolvency has tripled, the conditions for waivers will impose new expenses on our schools.

We will need to invest billions in a new teacher and principal evaluation system, which will unwisely tie ratings to student test scores. This will yield even more emphasis on narrow test preparation at the expense of deeper learning.

We will need to move toward national "Common Core" standards, which Edsource estimates will cost the state $1.6 billion and lead to a new round of tests. And the state will be required to continue to label a significant number of our schools in poverty as failures and implement harsh reforms from a narrow range of federally approved options.

Educators and parents have realized what policymakers are now beginning to discover. Standards and tests alone don't improve our schools. The independent National Assessment of Educational Progress indicates that student achievement gains have been virtually nil for the past decade.

There is another way. What if – instead of trying to force schools to improve – we built on their strengths? Schools that give teachers time to engage in meaningful collaboration have found sustained improvements. Our students need to be challenged to be creative thinkers, and these skills are stifled by the narrow emphasis on test scores.

Scarce funds should be used to provide basic services now being cut across the state. Instead of more reading tests, how about school libraries staffed by skilled librarians? Instead of standards for career and college readiness, how about funds for high school counselors, now being laid off in droves? Instead of focusing on firing teachers to improve schools, how about focusing on making their schools places where the best teachers want to stay?

No Child Left Behind has been, as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, "a train wreck." By rejecting these waivers, California will be leading us toward real reform and away from the train wreck of NCLB.

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.