ALBERT LEA, MN-Minnesota schools will soon see a federal program, many say was a burden, taken off their hands.
The state has been granted a waiver to get rid of strict standards set by No Child Left Behind.
It means more flexibility for local schools.
The president has announced that ten states, Minnesota being one of those, will not have to abide by the rules and regulations of No Child Left Behind any longer.
The move gives leeway to states that promise to improve how they prepare and evaluate students.
The Bush era education policy known as No Child Left Behind will soon be getting the boot in Minnesota.
Austin schools curriculum director John Alberts says, "I think my first reaction was a pleasant surprise."
Albert Lea superintendent Mike Funk says, "I thought it was a good thing."
The current law requires students be tested every year, with the results used to grade schools on whether or not students are meeting benchmarks.
Some educators say it's a heavy burden that actually drives down standards, weakens accountability, causes narrowing of the curriculum and labels too many schools as failing.
Alberts says, "While well intentioned and the idea behind making sure that every student achieves is good, I think one of the pieces that we saw that was problematic was that it didn't necessarily account for student growth."
President Obama is granting waivers to states because he says he can't wait around for Congress to make it better.
Obama says, "Because our kids and our schools can't be held back by inaction.">
Minnesota school leaders agree, it's been holding them back for far too long.
But they can't just sit back and let their classrooms go by the wayside.
By taking the waiver, they agree to some terms of their own.
Alberts says, "With the new waiver accountability won’t go away and in fact it's probably going to be a more accurate measure of accountability."
Funk says, "With the wavier process, I believe we are going to be able to start measuring kids on growth."
School officials are still waiting to see how the Minnesota Department of Education will implement the waiver.
But they say for the most part things will be behind the scenes.
Alberts says, "In a lot of cases it will be business as usual. We will still be given our Minnesota comprehensive assessments or MCA's and that data will still go in and feed essential a ranking system."
One thing that schools should see happening soon is the sanctions or penalties of no child left behind being lifted.
That should free up some money that can be used for other school improvements.
New Mexico was the only state that applied that did not get a waiver.
But they will be given another chance and other states, Iowa included are already in the process of applying for the waiver as well.
