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Half of Minnesota's schools failed to achieve the No Child Left Behind federally mandated "Adequate Yearly Progress" standard this year but, don't worry, Governor Pawlenty has it under control.

I'm having great difficulty reconciling this week's AYP report from the Minnesota Department of Education with Governor Pawlenty's statement in yesterday's Saint Paul Pioneer Press concerning his dramatically increased travel beyond Minnesota's borders. Essentially, the Pioneer Press asks, who's minding the store?

I don't want to present his remarks out of context, so let me dig into this a bit.

Here's the full quote, reported by Rachel Stassen-Berger: "Right now, the Legislature is not in session. So, we are planning for the next session; I had meetings yesterday on (Republican National) Convention security; I've been busy appointing judges; I've been involved in National Guard issues; we're planning our budget process; we are getting our legislative initiatives ready for next year. I had meetings on that yesterday as well. And candidly, this time of year the governor's job, you know, is manageable, I've got it under control."

It's published as a Pioneer Press sidebar story, following up on Pawlenty's recent National Press Club speech.  Stassen-Berger explores the governor's increased national travel on his Minnesota job performance.

Minnesota's NCLB "Adequate Yearly Progress" report, released at 9:45pm on Tuesday evening by the Minnesota Department of Education, paints a grim present and a grimmer future.

Roughly half of Minnesota's schools, 937, failed to "make AYP," a 210 school district increase from 2007. Next year, we'll tip into the 60% failing range, if not more. By 2014, every student in every school must pass the MCA II test to achieve the mandated "adequate yearly progress" standard. Simple mathematical probability calculations suggest that an entire population achieving a singular result without deviation is statistically improbable.

As a ringside seat parent with kids being tested yearly, I'll go a step a further: it's impossible. Therefore, no later that 2014, every Minnesota school will "fail". A few years after that, mandatory restructuring of Minnesota's "failed" schools will begin and, with it, the wholesale disassembly of public education.

Maybe I'm being alarmist but, remember, No Child Left Behind is the law. Federal education funds are already being redirected from schools failing to meet AYP. In a few years, this will be a common rather than a selective experience.

So, our governor is talking big to groups around the country while Minnesota's problems mount. Granted, his aforementioned "I've got it under control" quote was uttered in late July, before the MDE released the 2008 AYP data. Maybe he didn't know. Maybe MDE Commissioner Alice Seagren kept the governor completely in the dark, thus Governor Pawlenty couldn't include Minnesota's 50 percent AYP failure rate is his observation's context.

My colleague, Minnesota 2020 Education Fellow John Fitzgerald, in his recent article examining the AYP results, quoted Grand Meadow School District superintendent Joe Brown. Brown observed that Pawlenty would be addressing the National Press Club concurrent with the AYP results release. "I hope someone there asks him why half his schools don't make AYP," Brown said.

Regretfully, they didn't. But then, despite growing evidence to the contrary, Governor Pawlenty has it under control.

http://www.mn2020.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={F98BEA27-B576-4229-B603-8E1DB5E7D9B0}&DE=