Notice: New Hampshire Department of Education Seeking Speaking and Listening Waiver

On behalf of the State of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Department of Education (NH DOE) is requesting a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education, pursuant to the requirement of section 8401(b) of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), of section 1111(b)(3)(C)(ii) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), that New Hampshire’s assessment system measure the full range of the state’s academic content standards. This waiver request pertains only to the English language arts speaking and listening standards, which are part of the state’s English language arts academic content standards.

New Hampshire is requesting this waiver because it is not practicable at this time for the state to administer a large-scale summative assessment that includes speaking and listening standards. This waiver will advance student achievement by permitting New Hampshire to have a valid and reliable assessment system that measures the full range of the rest of the State’s academic content standards while providing time to complete the work necessary to have a valid and reliable measure of speaking and listening content standards.

New Hampshire requests this waiver to allow for continued State and local receipt of Title I, Part A funding in good standing while the state completes additional work to develop accurate, valid, reliable, and instructionally useful assessments related to speaking and listening. This waiver is requested for the 2015-2016 school year through the 2018-2019 school year. New Hampshire assures that, if it is granted the requested waiver —

• It will continue to meet all other requirements of section 1111(b)(3) of the ESEA, as amended by NCLB, and implementing regulations with respect to all State-determined academic content standards and assessments, including reporting student achievement and school performance, disaggregated by subgroups, to parents and the public.
• It will continue to work toward assessing speaking and listening consistent with the State’s academic content standards.

Public Comments

The NH DOE accepted public comment on this waiver request. All public comment received by June 15 will be transmitted to the U.S. Department of Education to inform their consideration of New Hampshire’s waiver request.