[TheRealVille]

Posting this only because Kentucky is on the list.

(CNN) -- Ten states are being granted waivers to free them from parts of the No Child Left Behind law, a White House official told CNN Thursday.
President Barack Obama will make the announcement Thursday, saying that the states "that have agreed to implement bold reforms around standards and accountability will receive flexibility from the most burdensome mandates of No Child Left Behind," the official said.
The states are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
They will no longer have to meet 2014 targets set by the law.
"In exchange for this flexibility, states have agreed to raise standards, improve accountability, and undertake essential reforms to improve teacher effectiveness," the official said.
New Mexico also requested such flexibility, and the Obama administration is working closely with that state, the official said. Another 28 states, as well as Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., have indicated plans to also seek such flexibility, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in advance of the announcement.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/09/politics/s...index.html

Provisions of the act

No Child Left Behind requires all government-run schools receiving federal funding to administer a state-wide standardized test annually to all students. This means that all students take the same test under the same conditions. The students' scores determine whether the school has taught the students well. Schools which receive Title I funding through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 must make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in test scores (e.g. each year, its fifth graders must do better on standardized tests than the previous year's fifth graders).
If the school's results are repeatedly poor, then steps are taken to improve the school.[8]
Schools that miss AYP for a second consecutive year are publicly labeled as being "in need of improvement" and are required to develop a two-year improvement plan for the subject that the school is not teaching well. Students are given the option to transfer to a better school within the school district, if any exists.
Missing AYP in the third year forces the school to offer free tutoring and other supplemental education services to struggling students.
If a school misses its AYP target for a fourth consecutive year, the school is labelled as requiring "corrective action," which might involve wholesale replacement of staff, introduction of a new curriculum, or extending the amount of time students spend in class.
A fifth year of failure results in planning to restructure the entire school; the plan is implemented if the school fails to hit its AYP targets for the sixth year in a row. Common options include closing the school, turning the school into a charter school, hiring a private company to run the school, or asking the state office of education to run the school directly.
The act requires states to provide "highly qualified" teachers to all students. Each state sets its own standards for what counts as "highly qualified". Similarly, the act requires states to set "one high, challenging standard" for its students. Each state decides for itself what counts as "one high, challenging standard," but the curriculum standards must be applied to all students, rather than having different standards for students in different cities or other parts of the state.
The act also requires schools to let military recruiters have students' contact information and other access to the student, if the school provides that information to universities or employers, unless the students opt out of giving military recruiters access.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Left_Behind_Act