School measurements for alternatives

A bill that would allow up to 20 charter schools and alternative schools to waive the federal No Child Left Behind requirements for participation in a program to identify improvement measures for alternative schools received committee approval.

Rep. David Bly (DFL-Northfield), sponsor of HF2982, told the House E-12 Education Committee Feb. 21 that because of the mission of alternative schools, they will inherently score lower on standardized testing, making it hard to know if these schools need enhancement.

“We believe there are some schools that could use some improvement, but it’s hard to know from the measures we have now,” Bly said.

Terry Lydell, president of the Minnesota Association of Alternative Programs, said they would like to see these schools evaluated on systemic improvement and organizational learning, but it’s been difficult to find people in the Department of Education who speak in those terms.

Jamie Crannell, a chemistry teacher at Chaska High School, said children in the alternative school system have other problems that need to be addressed.

“It’s not that the requirements aren’t reasonable, it’s that the kids have lot of things to overcome, prior to getting there,” he said.

“These kids don’t want the bar to be lowered, they just want to be met where they are at,” Rep. Lynn Wardlow (R-Eagan) said.

The committee sent the bill to the House Finance Committee with the recommendation that it be sent to the House K-12 Finance Division.

A companion bill, SF3029, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Dahle (DFL-Northfield), awaits action by the Senate Education Committee.