Roseville School District, Rep. Greiling Applaud Waiver For Minnesota on No Child Left Behind Act

President Barack Obama's announcement this week that Minnesota and nine other states have been given a reprieve from the the federal education law No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was welcome news to Rosevile-area officials.

“Roseville Area Schools is pleased with the announcement that Minnesota will receive a waiver from the requirements of the No Child Left Behind law," district spokeswoman Karen Schaub said in a statement Friday. "This waiver will benefit both students and teachers, allowing us more flexibility in our efforts to provide a quality and equitable education for all students.”

State House 54A Rep. Mindy Greiling, DFL-Roseville, echoed similar sentiments in an interview Friday morning with Roseville Patch.   "This (the waiver) is a great relief," she said. "I applaud Gov. (Mark) Dayton and (Minnesota Education Commissioner Brenda) Cassellius applying for and getting this waiver."

In exchange for the waiver from NCLB, Minnesota will have to outline new, “bold” reforms to improve teacher effectiveness, grade school accountability and close the achievement gap in social and ethnic categories, according to the Obama administration.

“My administration is giving states the opportunity to set higher, more honest standards in exchange for more flexibility,” Obama said in a press statement 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 Cassellius, uses four measures of school performance, using 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 Minnesota Department of Education 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 as opposed to meeting 100 percent AYP by 2014, is much more realistic and achieveable, educators in the the Twin Cities said. 

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.

Last fall, Roseville Patch reported that the Roseville School District, like many other urban and suburban districts, did not make Adequate Yearly Progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

Six of its nine District 623 schools – including Roseville Area High School and Roseville Middle School -- also failed to make AYP, according to data released by the Minnesota Department of Education.

But a District 623 official said the results masked the true quality of their schools and highlighted the complexity and punitive nature of No Child Left Behind. Each year, the bar was raised for schools seeking proficiency under NCLB, which mandates that all students be proficient by 2014. 

“You measure where you are now; say 80 percent of your students are proficient," then District 623 Assistant Superintendent Joe Wemette said. "Then you consider how many years it is until 2014 – three years. One hundred percent of your students must be proficient by 2014.  If 80 percent are proficient in 2011, we need to go for 87 percent in 2012, and 94 percent in 2013.”

“It’s frustrating,” Wemette said. “Yes, we have some challenges meeting the needs of a diverse, mobile student population. But we have many, many high performing students.”

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

The 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.

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