At the end of July, Gov. Bill Haslam submitted a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan asking for a four-year waiver on certain provisions of the No Child Left Behind act, noting the new nationally based standards would result in the majority of Tennessee schools being under sanction.The letter also questioned the unattainable goal of requiring schools to achieve 100 percent proficiency in reading, math and science by 2014.The letter pointed out Tennessee received a Race to the Top grant due to the state’s commitment to improving student performance and holding the state’s education system accountable for actual results, but also noted Tennessee’s long-term goals are to focus on state-measured student achievement rather than the standards of the national assessment for educational progress (NAEP) exams. When this exam was given to students around the state, they didn’t do as well as they did on the state TCAP tests.