President Barack Obama announced Sept. 16 that the federal government will cede some key aspects of school regulations to states.
Under the new policy, states will be allowed to apply for waivers that will remove federal standards imposed by No Child Left Behind. In order for a state’s waiver to be granted, they must demonstrate their own standards to hold schools accountable, and propose a system to support schools’ improvement efforts.
MSAD 40 Director of Instruction Kim Schroeter said Maine state school officials will likely apply for a waiver in February.
There are still a lot of unanswered questions about the details of the new policy, Schroeter said, but if Maine’s waiver is granted, Maine schools will no longer be held to the No Child Left Behind standards and the state will design their own system for school evaluation.
State officials told Schroeter and others in education they are applying for the waiver because the current standards are “unrealistic and unfair,” Schroeter said.
Under No Child Left Behind, every US school is required to demonstrate that students are able to meet standards for their grade level in math and reading. The number of students at a school that meet those standards must increase every year, until 100 percent of students meet standards by the 2013/’14 school year.
Last year, the number of students at Maine schools that must meet standards had reached 70 percent. If the system remains in place, a higher percentage will be required next year.
Unfortunately, for schools like the Miller School in Waldoboro, getting such a high percentage of students to meet standards has proven difficult for a variety of reasons. Like 82 percent of schools nationwide, Miller School failed to make adequate yearly progress and has been place on Continuous Improvement Priority Status (CIPS).
A major issue with current evaluation methods is that every student, including those in special education, are given the same test and held to the same standards.
“They can’t pass an assessment at their grade level because they’re not at their grade level,” Schroeter said. “That’s why they’re in special education.”
The Miller School failed to make adequate yearly progress in math because too few students in special education met standards. The school overall failed to meet literacy standards.
CIPS comes with financial implications. Miller receives a certain amount of federal funding through the Title 1 program each year. Now that they are on CIPS, 10 percent of that money must be designated for improvement programs. The school will also receive $45 per student in additional federal funding to pay for improvement programs.
If Maine receives its waiver, there will be no impact on local schools until next year. Miller School will receive their full allocation of federal improvement funds for this year, but it’s unclear exactly what Maine’s new standards would look like or how the change would affect funding next year.
Schroeter believes it’s likely that the new Maine standards will be based on what’s known as a growth model. This means that students would be tested once in the fall and once in spring, and their performance would be evaluated based on improvement, rather than universal standards.
Miller School Principal Julia Levensaler said the growth model of tracking student progress would be a better fit.
Like many Maine schools, “we have students that enter kindergarten and have never held a book, and we have students who enter knowing how to read,” Levensaler said. “We have to teach some students how to be at school before they can start doing academics.”
In an effort to help solve this particular issue, Schroeter said the district is considering starting a free preschool program. The closest Head Start program is in Rockland, she said.
Although CIPS comes with a host of improvement strategies, Levensaler said the school was already working to improve in several key areas. One change, which was designed before the school was placed on CIPS and implemented this year, is that the school reorganized class schedules to allow for more small-group instruction with students struggling in math and literacy.
Last year, Miller School held their first annual Literacy Night, to give parents a chance to see what their kids are doing and learn about ways to get involved.
This year, Literacy Night will be held Oct. 13 from 5:30-7 p.m. All parents of Miller School students are encouraged to attend. The night will include pizza, games and activities, as well as an appearance from a children’s author. Last year, local author Ann Hassett and her husband and illustrator John Hassett entertained kids at Literacy Night.
Now that they’re on CIPS status, Miller School and Warren Elementary are working through a state prescribed improvement program. At this point, they are compiling a self-evaluation, Levensaler said. Soon, they will begin work, with the help of a state consultant, on programs to provide professional development for teachers throughout the district and ways to increase parent involvement in children’s education.
“After we got over the initial devastation of being labeled an under performing school, we saw this as an opportunity to improve,” Levensaler said.
The improvement plan, as well as all expenditures of CIPS money, must be approved by the state.
This may all change, however, if Maine’s application for a waiver is approved next year.
Whatever the evaluation system ultimately looks like, all the educators and school officials interviewed for this article agreed on one point: none of it matters more than children’s education.
“I know it sounds sappy, but the real incentive for us, is for the kids,” Levensaler said. “We know what it means for a kid to not be able to read.”
Levensaler said that kids who don’t learn to read by the time they leave sixth grade are unlikely to learn at all.
“When we talk about classrooms, we’re talking about our kids’ lives,” Levensaler said. “No one wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I want to do OK for the kids today.'”
