No Child Left Behind update

The following information was posted by Supt. Dr. Mike Funk.  If you do not follow his blog, I wanted to be sure that all of those that look for my posts had this information.  It is a complete summary of some of the changes that the Minnesota waiver will have on schools with regards to NCLB and Annual Yearly Progress. 

Minnesota has recently received a waiver releasing schools in the state that receive federal Title I aid from many of the requirements of No Child Left Behind. Student performance will now be evaluated with multiple approaches. The new measurements include: Proficiency, Growth, Achievement Gap Reduction, and Graduation Rate.
Under the No Child Left Behind Act, students were tested at a specific point in time, and those results were used to determine if a school was making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) towards the goal of 100% proficiency in reading and math by 2014. This measurement of “progress” did not take into account any individual student growth during the year- it measured only proficiency. If a third grade student started the year at first grade reading level, and advanced a full year, they were labeled as not making adequate yearly progress, because they were only reading at the second grade level at year end.
Under the evaluation system devised in Minnesota, students will now be measured on growth, as well as proficiency. Students will now be expected to achieve a specific growth target to demonstrate gains that they have made throughout the year. The test results from the prior year will be used to predict the future target. This is a much more realistic measurement of the impact of the educational environment on the individual student.
The achievement gap between students is also a significant concern in Minnesota. Student groups will now be compared, as Minnesota attempts to reduce the achievement gap between sub-groups that score poorly and students groups that score better.
Graduation rates will now be analyzed using sub-group measurement. The target graduation rate will be the same for all sub-groups, not just the collective % of students graduating. Therefore if the target is 85%, then 85% of each sub-group of students must achieve it as well.
Using these measurement criteria, schools will be analyzed. Elementary and middle schools will be evaluated on proficiency, growth, and achievement gap reduction. The high school will be evaluated on these as well as graduation rate. From these scores a Multiple Measurement Rating will be developed. Schools will be given an MMR score that will compare them to other schools throughout Minnesota.
Schools in the state will potentially receive a label based upon their MMR score. The top 15% of schools will be designated as reward schools. The bottom 10% of schools will be designated as priority schools and the bottom 5% of schools will be labeled as focus schools.
So what does the waiver mean for Albert Lea? School Choice will no longer exist beginning in the Fall of 2012. Elementary students will no longer be allowed to transfer from a school not making Adequate Yearly Progress to a different school in the district.
The administration has determined that if a student moved because of school choice prior to 2012, then they can choose to remain at the elementary school they currently attend. However, all incoming students in the fall of 2012 will be required to attend their neighborhood school. This does not preclude a parent from moving a student back from their choice school to their neighborhood school so that they can be with siblings.