Minnesota education officials think the federal No Child Left Behind law is so flawed that they have designed a new accountability system that will focus not just on test scores but also on other measures of student growth - such as boosting the achievement of students of color.
Under No Child Left Behind, enacted in 2001, a majority of Minnesota schools - even some perceived as excellent schools - are labeled as failing because small groups of students haven't made enough progress in reading or math. Minnesota was one of 11 states to apply for a waiver from the law this month.
In its waiver application, the state spelled out a new way of measuring whether schools are doing a good job of educating children.
"I think it will be a fairer, more accurate way to judge school performance," said Minnesota Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius. "We recognize that proficiency is important. But it's not the only factor that is important."
But critics say that while No Child Left Behind is far from perfect, the state's plan would let hundreds of schools off the hook for not producing better results for all children.
"It essentially destroys the accountability system for schools," said Charlie Weaver, executive director of the Minnesota Business Partnership. "And it really reinforces the soft bigotry of low expectations. Basically, Minnesota is saying it's giving up."
The Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments are given every spring to students in grades three through eight and in 10 and 11, and the state uses test results to measure student progress under No Child Left Behind. Each year, states must release a "watch list" of schools failing to make what's called "adequate yearly progress."
Many agree that overhauling No Child Left Behind to better judge school performance would be a better option than giving states waivers. But it appears unlikely that Congress will act anytime soon to overhaul the law, which requires all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014.
That leaves schools such as Eastview High School in Apple Valley finding a waiver as the next best option until the law is changed.
The school's ACT scores and graduation rates are consistently better than the state and national averages. But low-income students and those with special needs aren't making enough progress under No Child Left Behind standards, so the entire high school made the state's watch list this year.
Lumping Eastview in with lower-performing schools because of a few dozen students out of more than 2,000 doesn't give an accurate representation of achievement, said Jane Berenz, superintendent of the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan district.
"If everyone is failing, then no one is failing," she said.
It takes far more than a single test to evaluate how well students and schools are doing, state education officials say.
If the waiver is approved, schools would be assessed on multiple measures, and fewer schools would face sanctions if they don't meet goals.
Under No Child Left Behind, schools are judged on whether students' test scores reach a level considered "proficient" in math and reading. In the new state system, proficiency would still count, but so would improvement in individuals' test scores and narrowing a school's achievement gap between students of color and their white peers. High schools also would be judged on their graduation rates.
"We want to make sure students are growing, so schools get credit for moving kids ahead," Cassellius said. "I think that's a much more accurate measure of whether students are learning."
But leaders at the Minnesota Business Partnership said the new system would overemphasize growth. A school could make enough progress and look OK but still have many students not reading or doing math at grade level.
"It makes existing performance acceptable," said Jim Bartholomew, the group's education policy director. "That might make someone feel good, but it does nothing to help the kids."
HALF STATE'S SCHOOLS MISS MARK
Some school leaders believe Minnesota's new system would give parents a better idea how their schools are performing.
"It is not that we are shying away from accountability, but how do you create a system that, while it isn't perfect, gives a more accurate measure of the district?" said Steve Troen, director of teaching and learning for Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan schools.
The current labels can be hard for parents to understand, Troen said. Schools labeled as failing to make adequate yearly progress can be put into categories for remedial steps they must take - such as offering school choice and tutoring or restructuring the whole school.
"Those labels are important, and if a school doesn't make adequate yearly progress it can damage its reputation, said Tracy Monro-Moran, who has two children in the district.
"People make comments about it," said Monro-Moran. "It's competitive."
Attaching labels based on one academic measure and the results of a handful of students is unfair, she said. "It just doesn't make sense. It is like comparing apples and oranges."
This year, 1,056 schools - about half of the schools in Minnesota - did not make adequate yearly progress. Of those, 442 receive federal funding to educate higher concentrations of low-income children, so they could face sanctions.
Under the new system, only about 130 schools would be identified as underperforming.
But some say the new accountability system proposed in Minnesota's waiver application would not improve the public's understanding of how well their schools are doing.
The highest-performing schools would be designated "reward schools." The bottom 15 percent would be either "priority" or "focus" schools.
"I don't think people know what the hell that means," said Rep. Pat Garofalo, the Republican chairman of the Minnesota House Education Finance Committee. "If policymakers don't know what that means, how are parents going to understand it?"
Republican leaders in the Legislature proposed grading schools with a letter system, but opponents argued that would be too simplistic. Garofalo said he believes the education department is trying to find ways to avoid labeling poor-performing schools.
"We assign a letter grade to student performance," Garofalo said. "Why don't we hold adults to the same standard?"
Receiving a waiver from No Child Left Behind might save some schools from the "scarlet letter" of being labeled failing, but it doesn't fix the core problems with the federal law, said Robert Schaeffer, spokesman for the Massachusetts-based National Center for Fair and Open Testing, which advocates for better education evaluations with less emphasis on standardized tests.
"The truth is the waiver requirements give schools a choice between the frying pan of No Child Left Behind and the fire of further misusing standardized testing," Schaeffer said. "We appreciate the dilemma states are facing and understand they are looking for something else. Often it is only better in limited ways and often times equally bad or worse."
In efforts to save their schools from the failing label, many states may misuse achievement data in other ways, Schaeffer said. A complete overhaul of the No Child Left Behind law is the best answer, he said, but that is unlikely before 2013 because of congressional deadlock. "There is widespread agreement that the law needs an overhaul and has failed," he said. "There is no consensus on what that should look like."
TUTORING HAS LITTLE IMPACT
One of the sanctions that would disappear if Minnesota's waiver is approved is forcing underperforming schools to offer supplemental services such as school choice and private tutoring.
"We're taking away money from those who need it the most," said Weaver, of the Minnesota Business Partnership.
But many educators argue Minnesota already has a strong system of school choice, allowing students to transfer schools with relative ease. And a study done by the Center for American Progress and the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research found that the tutoring offered under No Child Left Behind guidelines has had little effect on student achievement.
Research shows students need at least 40 hours of tutoring to improve. But with some private tutoring companies charging Minnesota districts up to $80 an hour for services, many students are receiving only half of the minimum recommended help because there is no money to pay for more.
Under the law, parents are allowed to choose tutors no matter the price, as long as the tutors meet certain requirements.
St. Paul Public Schools spent at least $3 million on private tutoring for students last year. But district officials didn't see the results they were looking for, said Michelle Walker, the district's chief accountability officer.
"It's had very limited impact on student achievement," she said. "We really don't see that it's worth that level of investment."
Walker said giving schools more flexibility on how to spend money to help students would be a better route. For example, if a district enhanced its own after-school programming, the cost would be lower than hiring private tutors.
If Minnesota's waiver is approved, money now used on school choice and tutoring would instead be focused on the state's lowest-performing schools, those in the bottom 15 percent.
And some of that money would go toward sharing best practices to help students succeed. For example, schools dubbed "reward schools" would be paired with struggling schools to help replicate what's working to boost student achievement and close the gap between students of color and their white peers, Cassellius said.
"The way you move achievement is by working together," she said.
Megan Boldt can be reached at 651-228-5495. Follow her at twitter.com/meganboldt.
Christopher Magan can be reached at 651-228-5557. Follow him at twitter.com/cmaganpipress.
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND TIMELINE
2001: Congress enacts No Child Left Behind, requiring that all U.S. students be proficient in math and reading by 2014.
2003: Less than 10 percent of Minnesota schools - 144 schools - fail to make adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind. This was the first year Minnesota released a list of underperforming schools under the federal law. Only elementary schools were judged on test scores. Middle schools were assessed on attendance and high schools on graduation rates.
2004: A report by the Minnesota legislative auditor estimates that at least 80 percent of the state's school districts will not meet the expectations of No Child Left Behind by 2014.
2007: About 38 percent of Minnesota schools - or 729 of 1,918 schools - fail to make adequate yearly progress.
August 2011: U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announces that states can apply for waivers from No Child Left Behind if they agree to a host of accountability changes, such as toughening evaluations for teachers and principals and implementing programs to reduce the achievement gap.
September 2011: About 47 percent of Minnesota schools fail to make adequate yearly progress.
November 2011: Minnesota applies for a waiver from key No Child Left Behind provisions.
Source: Pioneer Press