Minnesota One of Ten States Ready to Leave NCLB Behind

President Barack Obama announced Thursday that Minnesota would be one of 10 states to receive a reprieve from the federal education law No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

In exchange, Minnesota would have to outline new, “bold” reforms to improve teacher effectiveness, grade school accountability and close the achievement gap in social and ethnic categories.

“My administration is giving states the opportunity to set higher, more honest standards in exchange for more flexibility,” Obama stated through a White House issued press release Thursday. “If we’re serious about helping our children reach their potential, the best ideas aren’t going to come from Washington alone.”

Minnesota requested a waiver from NCLB last year, laying out a plan in its place to reduce the achievement gap found via assessment tests over the next six years.

The movement, led by Minnesota Department of Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius, uses four measures of school performance, utilizing current tools such as the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment tests, Adequate Yearly Progress measures, a year-over-year measurement of student growth, and school district graduation rates.

Through those four measurements, three school designations will be created. Schools scoring in the bottom 5 percent will be designated as “Priority Schools,” where the state will focus on developing and implementing a turnaround plan for that school, or school district.

The next bottom 10 percent of schools, as measured by the state, will be tagged as “Focus Schools.” These schools will be asked to work with their respective school district and the MDE to identify which subgroups are creating an achievement gap, and target an improvement plan to address specific needs.

Finally, schools in the top 15 percent will be identified as “Reward Schools.” These schools will be asked to share best practices with MDE, and will be “publicly recognized” at the state level for their work.

The goal of closing the achievement gap by half, vs. meeting 100 percent AYP by 2014, is much more tangible, said Superintendent Jim Behle.

“You remove the punitive portion of AYP, as outlined by NCLB, and reward the schools that are excelling. Plus, you’re using more than one measure to identify and classify schools, which is something I think most districts can completely support.”

The punitive portion came, education leaders said, when an entire school was penalized (categorized as “not achieving AYP”) for one sub-category failing to reach its goal.

Instead, through its four measures, those sub-categories will attain the most assistance, Cassellius said.

The of last year.  

Obama granted the federal waivers after “waiting too long for reform,” he said. The administration requested rewrites to the national act back in 2010.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the current NCLB law, as written, causes narrowing of curriculum.

That’s a problem St. Michael-Albertville school have also identified, as teachers are forced to dedicate more time “teaching to the test,” or preparing students for what might be asked on annual assessments.

“It’s limiting, to a teacher,” Behle said.

The state will have to do a lot of work to inform people that the waiver doesn’t take Minnesota schools for measuring improvement.

“It’s important for stakeholders to understand that the proposal is not asking that the state be exempt from accountability,” explained St. Michael-Albertville’s assessment coordinator, Jim Pothoff, last fall. “It is merely seeking relief from a law that has not been successful and doesn’t accurately measure our state or district’s progress toward improving student’s academic achievement.”

Though Behle felt it was a positive outcome of NCLB to have schools increase their focus on reading, math and science, state leaders believe Minnesota can do a better job overseeing the education of Minnesota students than the federal government can.

St. Michael-Albertville was .

“I think we can only improve,” Behle said. “Minnesota has a strong record of strong educational programs, and I think local school districts like ourselves have demonstrated the ability to be accountable as well as have rigorous educational programs and strong evaluation systems. I don’t see that changing, with or without No Child Left Behind.”