Colorado was one of the first in the nation to be freed from the strict requirements of the No Child Left Behind law by President Barack Obama Thursday, and while the news is being praised locally and across the state, the exact implications for Summit Schools is still unclear.

“We believe that a single accountability system will provide a more focused and unified planning process for the district and schools, and the inclusion of student growth measures within the accountability system will provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate success through academic improvements from one year to the next,” Summit School District's director of assessment and technology Bethany Massey said in an email.

The waiver allows Colorado to shift from a federal accountability system to one defined by the state. So far 10 states have received waivers from the law: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

Because the information was just announced Thursday, Massey said the district has not had the opportunity to review the elements included in the final version of the approved waiver, and doesn't yet know all the implications it would have for Summit Schools. She said the district does know that one element of the plan specifies that No Child Left Behind's Adequate Yearly Progress goals will be replaced by the state's accountability standards, in which all Summit schools are rating well.

Summit schools were not all consistently meeting the No Child progress goals.

Summit County parent and former school board member Brad Piehl said in an email that is the exemption that matters most for the district, since those with schools not constantly making the yearly progress goals were at risk for re-organization. That could have meant the firing of principals and teachers.

He said the state uses student growth as the key indicator of school performance — something he agrees is a valuable tool — but feels schools should also be evaluated on what percentage of their students are proficient or above compared to the state standard. Because Summit High and Summit Middle School are currently rated as meeting 2011's academic achievement and growth ratings, Piehl wonders if the district will see any of the federal funding the state now directs.

“Our current CSAP test scores show that only 29 percent of 10th graders were proficient or above in math in 2011. Reading scores were much higher, but science and writing were at 51 and 56 percent. respectively,” Piehl said. “How can we be meeting academic expectations with the scores that we have?”

Cheers across the state

Congressman Jared Polis and the Colorado Department of Education praised the Obama administration Thursday for granting the waivers.

“Clearly Colorado is a noted leader in the nation for making the right changes in our education system to better support student learning,” Colorado's Education commissioner Robert Hammond said. “Colorado's comprehensive state accountability system has gained the U.S. Department of Education's quality seal of approval and has become a model for other states.”

Polis said that the need for the waivers reinforces that No Child Left Behind needed reform, and that Congress must work in a bipartisan way to do so.

Polis, Sen. Mark Udall and Sen. Michael Bennet introduced the Growth to Excellence Act Thursday, which proposes numerous measures, including: Ensure that all high school graduates are ready for college or a career by requiring challenging standards that measure each student's preparedness; allow states to set educationally sound rigorous and achievable measures of student achievement based on test score growth and high school graduation rates; and rate schools and school districts based on measures of student achievement and require state-developed interventions for schools that do not improve.

“The keys to reform are getting accountability right at all levels, expanding and replicating what works, and changing what doesn't work so we can improve all of our schools and boost student achievement,” Polis said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.