Ninety-seven percent of principals surveyed across the state said Minnesota schools will not be in compliance with federal No Child Left Behind guidelines by 2014, according to a report released Thursday by nonprofit think tank Minnesota 2020.

Unless the rules of the law are changed, Minnesota should drop out of No Child Left Behind, the nonprofit organization recommends.

“It’s a sign we really need to do something different,” said Matt Entenza, Minnesota 2020 board chairman, during a press conference at Hawthorne Elementary School about the report. The law needs to encourage schools and work with them rather than use the “blame game,” he said.

Entenza’s comments were part of several press conferences that the group was holding around the state this week to spread the message of the survey.

Minnesota 2020 is based out of St. Paul and is made up of former legislators, journalists, educators and others involved in the political science realm.

At the press conference Thursday to talk about the report with Entenza were former District 27A Rep. Dan Dorman, who is a member of the Minnesota 2020 Education Advisory Committee; Corrine Tims, principal of Hawthorne Elementary; and John Fitzgerald, author of the report and Minnesota 2020 education fellow.

The group explained some of their concerns with the current No Child Left Behind law and what they think needs to change.

No Child Left Behind, which was signed into law in 2001 by President George W. Bush, increases the standards of accountability for schools, measured through yearly testing.

Each state is required to develop assessments to give to students, and in Minnesota the assessment is called the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment II.

When a school shows proficiency in the test, it is said to make adequate yearly progress, also known as AYP. The number of students that must show proficiency grows each year until the 2014 goal of 100 percent proficiency.

Special education students and students with English as a second language are tested at grade level.

Failure to meet AYP leads to an ever-increasing set of punishments including diverting money to private tutors and restructuring the leadership at schools that receive Title 1 aid — schools that serve low income students. This affects about 40 percent of Minnesota public schools, or three out of four of Albert Lea’s elementary schools.

Because of some of these concerns and others around the state, Minnesota 2020, in partnership with the Minnesota Elementary School Principals’ Association and the Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals set up the online survey in December 2008 to seek feedback from principals all over the state.

About 1,700 principals received the survey, and about 40 percent responded.

The results of the survey came together in the report, which is called “Boxed in by Bad Policy.” It includes the first comprehensive look at the feelings of Minnesota principals regarding the law. More than 740 elementary, junior high and high school principals responded.

In addition to the principals giving an almost unanimous response stating it would be unattainable to reach 100 percent proficiency by 2014, they also indicated how the No Child Left Behind law has forced their schools to focus resources on the annual test — which in Minnesota is the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment II — instead of using those resources on other areas.

The report found that more than 70 percent of principals surveyed said they are spending more time and resources on test preparation under the No Child Left Behind rules. Forty percent have taken away close time from the arts and other subjects to prepare for the test.

This part really stuck out to Dorman, he said.

And even with all the extra work that is going into the preparation, more and more schools are not making AYP requirements as the years go on, Fitzgerald pointed out.

“In 2005, 247 Minnesota schools did not meet AYP; in 2006, 483 schools came up short; in 2007, 729 failed; and in 2008, nearly half (937) of the state’s 1920 schools didn’t make AYP,” according to a Minnesota 2020 news release.

Fitzgerald said instead of a high-stakes, one-day test, Minnesota should develop a growth-model test as their No Child Left Behind measurement.

A growth-model test would be taken in the fall, winter and spring to see where the students are when they first start the school year and then how they’ve progressed as the year has gone on, he said. This would accommodate for special education students and students with English at a second language.

“All kids don’t come in starting at the same point,” Tims said.

And people also need to remember that not all children learn at the same rate, even when the target is set by the state, she said.

Tims and Dorman said it is frustrating to hear some of the public perception that takes place regarding which schools have met AYP and which have not.

People often assume that when a school didn’t meet AYP, the whole school failed, when a lot of times only the special education or English as a second language students did not meet the guidelines. While these students are of high importance, the whole perception of the school should not be judged by those students, they said.

More than 87 percent of principals surveyed said those two groups shouldn’t be tested at grade level as required under No Child Left Behind, the report stated.

Standards are also always constantly changing, and this makes it difficult for teachers to develop their curriculum, Tims said.

Plus, it is also frustrating that the results of the MCA-II come out after the school year is finished, the group indicated.

Only 15 percent of principals surveyed they thought the MCA-II was an effective assessment of student achievement, according to the report.