San Francisco, Oakland schools ask for exemption from No Child Left Behind standards

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Six of California's largest urban school districts have applied for a waiver freeing them from requirements of the nation's No Child Left Behind education law.

Fresno, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco and Santa Ana unified school districts have applied for a three-year extension of the waiver first granted in 2013.

A coalition of districts known as the California Office to Reform Education originally applied and received relief from the law after the state chose not to request a waiver.

The waivers free the districts from the law's requirement for all students to test proficient in math and reading or face a series of interventions in exchange for developing new accountability plans and targets for raising achievement.