Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for March 30, 2006 IMPACT OF NCLB

NCLB marches on...

More than a quarter of nation's schools fail to meet law's requirements

By Stephen Ohlemacher
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON – More than a fourth of the nation's schools failed to meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Law last year, according to preliminary numbers reported to the Department of Education. About half the states increased the number of schools making “adequate yearly progress” in improving student test scores in math and reading in the 2004-05 school year. Overall, 27 percent of the schools failed to show adequate improvement, up one percentage point from the year before.

“This is just one piece of data we look at,” said Chad Colby, a spokesman for the Department of Education. These numbers alone don't signify a trend in how schools are doing, he said Wednesday. “This isn't a trend indicator in proficiency.”

Schools receiving federal poverty aid can be sanctioned for not making “adequate yearly progress” two years in a row, with administrators and teachers eventually being replaced.

To meet goals, schools must show overall improvement, plus gains by minority students, poor students, students with limited English skills and students with disabilities.

States are required to get increasing percentages of students proficient in math and reading, with all students being proficient by 2013-14.

However, states are given flexibility in designing tests, and many have made it easier to meet federal requirements.

The result is an uneven measurement from state to state, said Joel Packer, a lobbyist for the National Education Association, the country's largest teachers union.

“Each state has its own standards, each state has its own tests, each state has its own definition of what it means to be proficient,” Packer said.

Oklahoma led the country in 2004-05 with 97 percent of its schools making adequate progress. It was followed closely by Rhode Island, Iowa, Montana and New Hampshire.

Florida was at the bottom, with only 28 percent of its school meeting the requirements. Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico and South Carolina rounded out the bottom five states.

Ross Wiener, policy director at the Education Trust, a Washington research and advocacy group, said states can do better if they address funding and teacher inequities. Wiener said too many poor school districts get less money and less qualified teachers than wealthier districts.

“We have not taken a lot of steps that could dramatically improve student achievement,” Wiener said.

...And in the State of Maryland

Maryland Acts to Take Over Failing Baltimore Schools

By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
New York Times

BALTIMORE, March 29 — Invoking the federal No Child Left Behind law, the Maryland school board voted today to take control of four Baltimore high schools with chronically low achievement and strip the City of Baltimore from direct operation of seven more middle schools.

In approving the request of Maryland's superintendent of schools, Nancy S. Grasmick, a longtime advocate of the school standards movement, the state board took the most drastic remedy provided under No Child Left Behind, one reserved for schools that have failed to show sufficient progress for at least five years.

It is the first time that a state has moved to take over schools under the federal law, according to the federal Education Department, which praised the vote. One of the board's 12 members opposed the state takeover of the high schools, and one member was absent.

By taking a step that other states have so far taken pains to avoid, Maryland guaranteed that its experience would be watched closely by other states, many of which are likely to face the same tough decisions in responding to failing schools as the law's testing regime expands in coming years. The takeover goes into effect in July 2007.

"Clearly, Maryland is leading the way in terms of state actions in dealing with schools with low test scores," said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, which has closely tracked state responses to No Child Left Behind. He said the state would now have the onus of showing that it could bring improvement. "The buck stops with the state now," Mr. Jennings said.

The state and city have long struggled over Baltimore's troubled school system, which has been plagued by poor test scores and deteriorating buildings.

The high schools designated for takeover here — one with only 1.4 percent of the students passing the state biology exam and another with only 10 percent passing the algebra exam— have failed to show improvement for nine years, said Ronald Peiffer, Maryland's deputy superintendent for academic policy. That is longer than No Child Left Behind, President Bush's signature education law, has even been in existence.

In addition to the high schools, seven middle schools are to be taken away from the direct operation of the Baltimore city school district, and will be reopened as charter schools or taken over by other entities — universities, nonprofit groups or for-profit private companies — but will remain under city supervision.

City officials and community leaders were enraged by the move, accusing the schools chief of bad faith, of failing to deliver needed resources and of playing politics.

"This is unprecedented," said Mayor Martin O'Malley. "No other state superintendent in the history of the country has ever tried to do what Dr. Grasmick is trying to do in this election year." Mr. O'Malley vowed that the city would do all it could to fight the takeover, "whatever it takes."

The issue is particularly charged in Maryland, where the governor's race is likely to pit Mayor O'Malley, who is seeking the Democratic nomination, against Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican. In his last race, Mr. Ehrlich asked Dr. Grasmick to be his running mate, an offer she turned down.

Mr. Peiffer, the deputy superintendent, said politics were not a factor. "Some of these schools have been failing for 12 years under three different governors," he said. "Regardless of when you do this, there's going to be somebody, there'll be a governor, there'll be a mayor and there'll be a cry of politics. What you have to do is to do the right thing."

The No Child Left Behind law seeks to have all students reach proficiency in reading and mathematics by 2014 and threatens public schools with sanctions if they do not adequately improve performance. Last year, 27 percent of schools in the nation failed to make adequate progress, according to preliminary Education Department figures.

While Baltimore is roughly on a par with many other struggling urban systems, standardized tests have been in used there since well before No Child Left Behind became law in 2002. That has created a longer record of school performance.

"Not too many states came into No Child Left Behind with as many schools involved in intervention as Maryland did," Mr. Peiffer said. As states build longer records of testing, he said, "they are going to have similar discussions about alternative governance."

Maryland's action is not the first time that a state has stepped in to take control of troubled schools. Ohio officials for a time took over the Cleveland school district, and New Jersey has taken control of schools in Newark in the past.

But this is the first time that a state has taken over schools using No Child Left Behind, which sets targets for improvement and lays out stiff penalties for falling short of those goals. Ray Simon, deputy federal education secretary, said Maryland "should be commended for taking historic and decisive action on the side of Baltimore students."

In Arkansas, where officials invoked state law to take over three districts for fiscal mismanagement, the schools commissioner, Ken James, said he might make the same decisions as Dr. Grasmick in a few years. Several schools have shown inadequate improvement for four years now, he noted.

"If they consistently show no improvement and are not able to turn the tide, that will be one of the potential situations that we face here in a couple of years, " Mr. James said.

A local perspective from the Baltimore Sun...

Baltimore leaders criticize state takeover proposal

By Liz Bowie, Jill Rosen and Sara Neufeld
Sun reporters

As the State Board of Education voted to seize control of 11 Baltimore middle and high schools, city leaders erupted with anger yesterday and promised a fight to block the takeover through court or legislative action.

Around a city often divided by squabbles over how to fix broken schools, parents, students, ministers and elected officials gathered to speak in unified protest against what they see as an unwarranted and politically motivated action in an election year.

"We're ready to do whatever it takes in order to defend the right of the people of Baltimore to control their own children's education, whether that plays out in court or whether that plays out in the legislature," Mayor Martin O'Malley said on the steps of the school headquarters on North Avenue.

In Annapolis last night, Baltimore's legislators and state Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick began screaming at each other about the breakdown of what had been a city-state partnership to run the schools. City delegates are expected to introduce legislation this morning that would require Grasmick to get legislative approval before she can take control of a school.

Where the legal challenges might end was not clear. Grasmick's authority for the takeover is clearly laid out in Maryland statute, but the legislature could vote to take away that power. The question would then become whether the U.S. Department of Education might challenge the legislative action.

Chad Colby, a spokesman for the federal department, said his agency hasn't faced the question before. Yesterday's action in Maryland is believed to be the first time a state has moved to take over schools under the four-year-old No Child Left Behind Act. "Everything is hypothetical," Colby said.

Amid the outcry, Grasmick had few vocal defenders, but they were powerful ones. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Ray Simon offered their support.

Standing on the steps of the State House, Ehrlich sharply criticized the years of poor performance of Baltimore's schools and said the state had no choice but to act.

"This is about kids who for years and years and years have not received their constitutional rights," Ehrlich said. "It's not about short-term political calculations. It's about a system that continues to receive more dollars and becomes more dysfunctional."

Simon issued a statement, saying Grasmick and the state board "should be commended for taking historic and decisive action on the side of Baltimore's students."

Within hours after the state board voted yesterday morning, about 150 people convened around a podium on the white stone steps outside city school system headquarters. There were students and system employees, parents and politicians, activists and alumni of the affected high schools, all there to rally around the city's leadership.

Michael Carter, president of the system's Parent and Community Advisory Board, who just the night before had accused city school officials of not having the best interest of children at heart, stood beside city school board Chairman Brian D. Morris and called the state action a "travesty."

The Rev. Frank Reid of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church asked city residents to pray for the children. Saying "the eyes of the nation" would be upon Baltimore, he called on the governor and mayor to put aside their political differences long enough to work out a partnership for the students' sake.

In Annapolis, city lawmakers angrily denounced the state's action. Sen. Nathaniel J. McFadden, an East Baltimore Democrat, huddled with aides in the Senate lounge to draft an emergency bill that would require General Assembly approval before a takeover could occur. He said he had garnered support from some of his colleagues in Montgomery and Prince George's counties.

Most Baltimore lawmakers learned of the state's plan by reading about it on a newspaper Web site on their laptop computers as the House of Delegates voted on other matters. Del. Clarence Davis summed up the spirit of the city delegation, saying lawmakers were standing in "total solidarity" in their opposition.

Del. Salima S. Marriott said she considers the takeover political payback because the city circumvented the state when it proposed to bail out the financially strapped schools two years ago.

"This is an act of revenge as far as I'm concerned," Marriott said. "I think that we must take a stand."

For veteran lawmakers, it was a reprise of an earlier state takeover of city schools, albeit on a far larger scale. In 2000, the state gave three city elementaries to a private operator.

Late in the day, the city delegation met for three hours, sitting down first with city schools chief Bonnie S. Copeland and then with Grasmick for an extremely tense and at times testy session. In a small conference room in the House of Delegates office building, lawmakers fired one question after another at the state superintendent, asking for her definition of "partnership," why she chose to do this now, why she blindsided them with the news and why she can't communicate with them.

Senator McFadden, at one point, pounded his hand hard onto the wooden desk, shouting, "You know why I'm really upset? Our children are in the middle of this."

Sen. Lisa A. Gladden told Grasmick said, "We can dance around this all we want, but this is politics."

Grasmick insisted that she was not motivated by politics and that she's doing this because she cares about Baltimore's children. "I feel like I'm the culprit when I come here," she added.

"Have we been hostile to you?" asked Sen. Adrienne A. Jones. "You have to talk with people. You have to develop relationships with the leaders of Baltimore City."

"It's a two-way street," Grasmick replied, her voice rising as she complained about the legislation being drafted to stop her. "Did you tell me about that?"

Other voices raised throughout the day were calmer and more measured.

"We would question whether a unilateral move like this will be best for the children," said Bebe Verdery, education reform director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, noting that the school system had been planning to make major changes at all four high schools being taken over.

Verdery, whose organization is involved in a long-running lawsuit against the state over inadequate school funding, said Maryland treats its other 23 school systems with more courtesy than it has shown Baltimore. "It is inconceivable to me that [the state] would treat any other jurisdiction the way this school system is being treated," she said.

Robert C. Embry Jr., president of the Abell Foundation, questioned why the state had not allowed time for the public or city school officials to see its proposal and comment before yesterday's action.

He also said the city schools had made significant progress in the past several years, noting that the high school graduation rate had risen from 42 percent in 1996 to 59 percent last year.

"I don't think this action is necessary. I think the system is progressing," he said.

At yesterday morning's state school board meeting, the vote was unanimous on most of the issues. The lone dissenting voice was Dunbar Brooks of Baltimore County, the board's vice president, who voted against turning control of the four high schools - Frederick Douglass, Northwestern, Patterson and Southwestern No. 412 - over to the state.

Brooks, a Douglass graduate, said he strongly supports overhauling the management of the four schools, but he said that "at all costs" he wants the city system to develop the ability to educate its students on its own.

Grasmick responded that the situation at the high schools is particularly urgent because in 2009 the state will start denying diplomas to students who can't pass exams in English, algebra, biology and government. The pass rates on those exams have been dismal at the four schools. At Douglass, for instance, 4.8 percent of students passed the algebra test last year.

"We cannot allow students to be denied high school diplomas ... because the system is not providing quality instruction," she said.

All the other actions that the state board took against the city schools yesterday were approved unanimously. Grasmick said the moves are "among the most significant actions" the board has ever taken.

State board President Edward L. Root said afterward that the board cannot allow the city school system to continue to "handicap a student for life" and to relegate them to the "bottom economic rungs of our society."

The board is requiring 11 schools to overhaul their management, either by contracting with a third party or converting to charter schools, public schools that operate independently. Contracting with a third-party entity to run a school would be similar to creating a charter school, with two key differences: Charter schools in Maryland must be operated by nonprofits, and their teachers must belong to a union.

The outside entities running the four high schools would contract with and report to the state, while those running the seven middle schools would remain under the jurisdiction of the city school board. The middle schools are Calverton, Chinquapin, Diggs-Johnson, Dr. Roland N. Patterson, Hamilton, Thurgood Marshall and William H. Lemmel.

All 11 of the schools have been on the state watch list for persistently low test scores since at least 1997. Their new management structures will not take effect until the summer of 2007. Grasmick said planning is to begin immediately, but she expects it will take all of next school year to ensure the transition goes smoothly.

By next school year, the school system will have to implement curriculum being used in a successful neighboring county - likely Anne Arundel or Howard - in middle and high school core subjects. Among other reforms, the system must assign case managers to students with chronic behavior problems, develop individual plans for high school students at risk of failing the state graduation exams and work with the state to develop leadership training for principals at schools with low test scores.

Copeland's chief of staff, Douglass Austin, criticized the state for requiring those interventions, saying most of them were things city school officials had said they would do in their updated master plan for school improvement.

Copeland said the four high schools stand to lose substantial money from foundations supporting the city's efforts to make its high schools smaller.

"To have the state decide that these schools can no longer be Baltimore schools ... to me is just tragic," she said.