Hopkins Still Waiting on NCLB Waiver Details

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. But with no firm details yet from the Minnesota Department of Education, administrators said they can’t comment on exactly what the waiver will mean for local schools.

“My initial impression is that overall I’m very optimistic,” said Diane Schimelpfenig, the school district’s director of teaching, learning and assessment.

Minnesota requested a waiver from NCLB last year, laying out a plan in its place to reduce the achievement gap over the next six years. Schools will still be measured under the plan, led by Minnesota Department of Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius. But now they’ll be measured in four ways:

• Did the school meet its target for Adequate Yearly Progress?
• Did each student grow and by how much?
• Did all subgroups grow and how fast was that growth?
• Did graduation rates improve for all students?

Those four measurements will be used to create three school designations. 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.

Still, Schimelpfenig said Hopkins hasn’t heard exactly how those measurements will work and therefore can’t comment on any of the specifics—although she is hopeful that the waiver will recognize the success that the majority of Hopkins students see.

No Child Left Behind has drawn fire for not recognizing that kind of overall success—instead labeling them as “failing” if they didn’t make Adequate Yearly Progress even in only one subgroup.

“I think taking away that negative context has been difficult for schools,” she said.

Cassellius said the four measures will lead to those subcategories getting the most attention.

Obama said he granted the federal waivers after “waiting too long for reform.” 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.

“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.”

Schimelpfenig said Hopkins will maintain high standards for its students whatever details wind up coming down with the waiver.

“We will continue our own accountability to our students and ourselves,” she said. “All of our schools focus on excellence. Whatever labels come out of the waiver, we still focus on excellence. The label that works best for me is, ‘Excellence. Every Student. Every Day.’”

(Click on the PDFs to the right of the article to see a summary of what the waivers will do.)