AS HALF OF MINNESOTA SCHOOLS ARE TAGGED AS “FAILING,” FRANKEN OFFERS NEW DETAILS ON PLAN TO OVERHAUL NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

DFL-Endorsed Candidate Proposes Major Changes To Law That Isn’t Working For Minnesota Schools, Calls On Coleman To Support Badly Needed Reform

St. Paul-Area Teachers Join Franken, Share Inside-The-Classroom Challenges Of Working Under Failed Washington Policy

SAINT PAUL [08/08/08] – With a stunning new Adequate Yearly Progress report, released this week, tagging 937 Minnesota schools – nearly half the public schools in the state – as “failing” under No Child Left Behind and therefore in danger of losing critical federal funding, U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken today outlined steps that would radically reform this failed policy.

Al Franken:

“I haven’t met an educator who doesn’t want accountability – but I haven’t met an educator who thinks No Child Left Behind is working. This week’s news only confirms that the failed Bush-Coleman education policy isn’t working for Minnesota – and that we desperately need a change. I plan to make education a focus in this campaign and a focus in the Senate. And while Norm Coleman has spent six years as Mr. Bush’s teacher’s pet, I’ll go to Washington to stand up for Minnesota’s skilled educators, dedicated parents, and talented students.”

Franken identified the following steps to bring real accountability to our public school system:

1. Stop using NCLB as a blunt instrument to punish schools. Currently, there are 37 ways to fail AYP – and only one way to pass. If one “cell” of students at one school fails to meet the federal government’s arbitrary benchmark, the entire school, and the entire district, can be tagged as “failing,” potentially leading to the loss of critical funding for the students who need it most. No distinction is made between schools that fail in one cell, in one subject, and schools that have widespread problems. In particular, no flexibility is allowed for schools where the failing “cell” includes English Language Learners and students with special needs. It’s right to focus attention on at-risk sub-groups, and schools that have real problems should be targeted for research-based interventions – but one failing “cell” shouldn’t be an excuse to punish an entire district.
2. Measure individual student growth through flexible growth models designed by educators. The appeal of No Child Left Behind for parents was that they would receive assessments of their student’s growth over the course of the school year. Instead, an annual test on a single day stands in for the teacher’s professional judgment – and instead of measuring growth, NCLB simply compares students to an arbitrary performance standard. There must be accountability – but professional educators at the district level should be allowed more flexibility to develop growth models that accurately reflect year-to-year growth on the individual level.
3. Conquer Macnamara’s Fallacy. Macnamara’s Fallacy: “That which can be measured easily will be measured and will be deemed important. That which cannot be measured easily will not be measured and will be deemed unimportant.” Skills like critical thinking cannot be measured easily – but they are important. So, in keeping with our commitment to measuring student progress, Franken will invest in pilot programs to study educator-initiated methods for teaching – and, importantly, evaluating – these skills. In addition, he’ll focus the Department of Education on promoting educator-initiated “best practices” for incorporating a wide range of subject matter into reading and math curricula.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 8th, 2008 at 1:18 pm and is filed under Press Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.