North Carolina Requesting Waiver from Assessing Speaking and Listening in Reading/English Language Arts Assessments


The U.S. Department of Education (USED) is allowing states to request a waiver from assessing speaking and listening as part of its Reading/English language arts assessments. In June 2010, the North Carolina State Board of Education adopted Reading/English language arts content standards, which include standards for speaking and listening. Federal law requires assessments include all adopted content standards; however, measuring speaking and listening skills in a large-scale summative assessment is not practical at this time.

As a result, North Carolina is seeking a waiver from this requirement pursuant to section 8401(b) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Specifically, North Carolina is requesting a limited waiver of section 1111(b)(3)(C)(ii) of the ESEA, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), so that the state’s assessment system need not measure speaking and listening standards at this time.

The requested waiver would be effective through the 2016-17 school year. North Carolina will continue to develop best practices with respect to assessing speaking and listening on large-scale assessments, though it may request an extension of the waiver for subsequent years.

The public may submit input/feedback on this potential waiver online by clicking on the Let’s Talk icon on the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction website then selecting the USED Waiver as the dialogue topic to provide feedback. The feedback window is open until 5 p.m., Monday, April 4.