The door is almost closed for "No Child Left Behind" in Florida. Thursday, President Obama announced 10 states, including Florida, will have some flexibility with mandates tied to the federal education law, giving freedom for those states to set their own student achievement goals.
"Today, I am pleased to announce that we are giving 10 states, the first 10 states, the green light to continue making the reforms that are best for them. Each of these states set higher benchmarks for student achievement. They've come up with a way to evaluate, support teachers fairly, based on more than just a set of test scores," Obama announced Thursday.
Bay District Schools Secondary Instructional Specialist Suzanne Farrar is pleased with the President's announcement as she says it was impossible for schools to do everything "No Child Left Behind" required.
"Federal government was asking something that no matter how hard we worked, how hard students worked how hard teachers worked, that we would never get there," Farrar said.
The federal education law was enacted under the Bush Administration in 2002. It required schools to meet 14 criteria among different minority groups, students who were economically disadvantaged and students with disabilities.
"15 schools in Bay District Schools that earned an a school grade of an "A" and we had one school that met "No Child Left Behind" criteria, but they were a "B" school, so do you see how they don't necessarily coincide or one doesn't relate to the other," Farrar added, explaining the state's grading system is much different than the nation's "No Child Left Behind".
The one school that did meet NCLB requirements was Callaway Elementary, whose principal Tim Keiffer said they worked very hard to meet all of the requirements.
"Extremely difficult because of the population and the challenge to meet the needs for those struggling students," Keiffer said.
He added it was his teachers' idea to come up with a plan to successfully do what "No Child Left Behind" had asked. But even while achieving the impossible, Keiffer believes it's time for the "No Child Left Behind" era to come to an end.
"I believe it was successful but I believe the time has come where we need to move forward," Keiffer added.
In exchange for the flexibility of the federal act, the 10 states must adopt standards of their own to target struggling students, focus on the 15% of their most troubled schools, make students college and career-ready and create guidelines for teacher evaluations based in part by student performance. Farrar says Florida schools are already doing all of those things, as it is required by the state.
The ten states approved for the flexibility are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
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