Commissioner of Education Michael Williams announced earlier today that Texas has been granted a conditional waiver from provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The waiver will apply to the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) provisions of NCLB, which requires schools to reach benchmarks for improvement or face punitive sanctions. Under the waiver, only the lowest performing 15 percent of schools will be subject to federally prescribed interventions. The waiver also frees Texas from a provision that requires districts to set aside 20 percent of their Title I funding for Supplemental Educational Services. Districts are now free to use those funds on academic intervention programs deemed most effective for their students. The conditional status of the waiver is based on the fact that Texas has yet to finalize guidelines for teacher and principal evaluations and support systems. Read the full press release here.