Intent to Seek Waiver of Speaking and Listening Assessment

It is the intent of The Arkansas Department of Education to request a waiver, pursuant to 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 Arkansas’s assessment system measure the full range of the State’s academic content standards.  Arkansas requests this waiver only with respect to measuring the State’s speaking and listening content standards, which are part of the State’s reading/language arts academic content standards.  Arkansas requests this waiver because it is not practicable at this time for Arkansas to administer a large-scale summative assessment that includes speaking and listening standards.  This waiver will advance student achievement by permitting Arkansas 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.