Burnsville Seeing Just a Bit of its Future After No Child Left Behind

With Minnesota's waiver last week from the federal No Child Left Behind education law, one thing is clear: Burnsville schools most severely affected by that law have cause to rejoice.

The waiver will avert “restructuring” at Vista View Elementary, a school that hasn't met Adequate Yearly Progress standards for the last five years. Under No Child Left Behind, restructuring could mean replacement of the principal and staff, reopening Vista View as a charter school or ceding management to a private company or the state.

“This is going to be positive for us, though we’re not sure exactly what will come out of it,” said Randy Clegg, superintendent with Independent School District 191.

The waiver, granted to Minnesota and nine other states last week by the Obama Adminstration, will also lift strictures on schools’ Title I funds. Under No Child Left Behind, a school that hasn't met proficiency requirements must use 20 percent of its Title I funds — federal dollars that would normally be used for direct instruction— to pay for individual students’ tutors or transportation to another school that has passed the test.

Though thousands of dollars are set aside for this purpose and can't be touched for any other purpose, only 21 students in the district have used the funds to be bused to a “school of choice” and even fewer have availed themselves of a tutor. The financial hardship of this Catch-22, Clegg said, makes it even harder for a school to redeem itself and achieve the goals outlined by No Child Left Behind.

President Obama announced late last week that Minnesota’s own proposed reforms to its standards and accountability measures would meet requirements to replace No Child Left Behind, which was passed nearly a decade ago. Minnesota will have to outline new reforms to improve teacher effectiveness, grade school accountability and close the achievement gap in social and ethnic categories. The details of this are still fuzzy, Clegg said. The Minnesota Department of Education plans to give schools more information next week.

“Schools like Vista View that were labeled as ‘failing’ that have made a lot of progress in closing the achievement gap will be recognized rather than penalized,” Clegg said. “And schools that passed but had a very small population of minority students will now be held accountable for their achievement gap.”

U.S. Rep. John Kline, who represents Apple Valley and the rest of Minnesota's Second Congressional District, said, however, that he does not support the waiver. He recently introduced two bills that would instead reform No Child Left Behind.

This year, schools are still subject to No Child Left Behind, and next year they'll be under the waiver, but after that the situation could change, said Steve Troen, director of teaching and learning for neighboring District 196. The unknown brings another wrinkle, he said.

"It's still early," Troen said. "It will be interesting to see what evolves.”