More Students Leaving Failing Schools (WA)

November 16, 2010

More parents in Southwest Washington are taking advantage of a federal law that allows them to transfer their kids out of failing schools.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act allows parents to bus their children from a "failing" school to another school at district expense.

More than 160 elementary students in the Longview and Kelso school districts are using the school choice provision of the law this year, The Daily News reported.

That’s still a small percentage of the 5,510 students eligible to transfer in both school districts. But it’s up sharply from the 24 Longview students who switched out of failing schools last year.

Danielle Cline said her 8-year-old daughter wasn’t reading at grade level and educators at Kessler Elementary School wouldn’t develop a plan to help, blaming her failure on attention deficit disorder.

So this school year, Cline transferred her daughter and 6-year-old son to Columbia Heights Elementary School, using provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Columbia Heights created an individual education plan for her daughter and provides 30 minutes of one-on-one tutoring each day, she said.

"She’s actually doing better here. She’s actually reading now," Cline added.

The increase in student transfers reflects waning patience from families frustrated that their neighborhood schools aren’t measuring up to state and federal standards.

"If they aren’t meeting standards, how can I expect them to help my daughter meet those standards?" Cline asked.

Educators are hoping the trend won’t continue. They say they’re trying to turn the area’s failing elementary schools around, but they wonder about a more fundamental question: Does labeling a school a failure and allowing students to move out stigmatize the school?

Certainly, the community should be concerned about failing schools, "but is this the appropriate way to rank or penalize schools that aren’t reaching a certain level?" asked Scott Westlund, Kelso’s education assessment coordinator.

Westlund acknowledged, however, that mandates of No Child Left Behind &am p;quot;are going to require all of us, as a community, to work together to support our schools and find ways that we can educate our kids."

Schools are judged on how students perform in 36 areas, and most schools ranked as "failing" are only falling short in a few of them.

On state standardized tests last spring, there was a 5-percentage-point increase in the number of Mint Valley fourth-graders passing the standardized math test. However, for the second year in a row, the school failed to make federal "annual yearly progress" because low-income and special education students didn’t meet state math and reading requirements. Thus, it was labeled a "failing" school.

Catlin Elementary School in West Kelso was labeled a failing school because low-income and white students failed to make adequate progress in reading. So parents were given the school choice option, and 35 students transferred out this year, mostly to Beacon Hill Elementary.

"It was discouraging to staff," Catlin Principal Nancy Gill said.

It’s tough for her school to meet standards, Gill said, because the school has so much student turnover. Last year 160 students, or 61 percent of enrollment, either entered the school or left. Poverty is another challenge, she said. This year, 74 percent of the students are on the free or reduced lunch programs.