No Child Left Behind Waiver Good News for District 622

President Barack Obama’s announcement Thursday that Minnesota would get a waiver from the controversial No Child Left Behind law is positive news for School District 622, said the district’s Assessment and Program Quality Coordinator Paul Brashear.

Brashear said he’s still learning the specifics of what the waiver will mean for the school district, however, it’s not likely you’ll see any schools labeled “failing” anymore.

“This is a far more blended accountability model; this emphasizes growth much more,” Brashear said of Minnesota’s alternative plan to No Child Left Behind.

In 2011, , schools were all labeled as, “failing to make adequate yearly progress.”

Instead of labeling a school simply as making adequate yearly progress, or failing to make adequate yearly progress, the new Minnesota model will have three categories—the bottom 5 percent will be deemed “priority schools,” the next lowest 10 percent will be “focus schools” and the top 15 percent will be “reward schools.”

The state will focus on developing and implementing turnaround plans for priority schools. Focus 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. Reward schools will be asked to share best practices with the state’s education department, and will be “publicly recognized” at the state level for their work.

“I think one of the good things is that this allows Minnesota to focus on schools that really will benefit from the attention,” Brashear said.

Minnesota is one of 10 states being given reprieve from the federal requirements.

In exchange, the state has to outline new, “bold” reforms—like the new labeling system—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 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 No Child Left Behind last August, 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.

The schools' designations will be based on those four measurements.

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