Failure of Schools Might Lead to School Choice

This week,
North Carolina schools presented citizens with a good news/bad
news proposition. As forecasted in last week’s journal entry, Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) results for
North Carolina schools were released Monday. Not surprisingly,
this year’s results show a higher percentage of schools
not meeting more stringent federal accountability
standards.

So, what’s the good news? For starters,
children in failing schools will now have greater options,
including public school choice and supplemental services. The
bad news? Tracking down these options is no easy task.
Information on sanctioned schools is not readily
available, making it very difficult for parents and citizens
to understand their rights under federal law. In addition,
sanctions apply only to Title 1 schools (schools receiving
federal funding for low-income families), meaning that about
half of the schools in our state have relative impunity when
it comes to AYP.

Title 1 schools not making AYP for two
years are instructed by the U.S. Department of Education to
send parents a letter, alerting them to the school’s
status, and highlighting student eligibility for public school choice. If schools miss AYP
for three years, students may receive tutoring services. However, obtaining
general information − matching sanctioned schools with
services or choice provisions − is both difficult and
confusing. The North Carolina Department of Public
Instruction does not provide a centrally-located,
current list of Title 1 schools failing to make AYP for two or
more consecutive years. Instead, citizens must link to each
school district’s web site to find out if a particular school
made AYP. The school system determines how user-friendly their
data is − that is, if they even have a working web
site.

To shed some light on this issue, I conducted a
preliminary search of some area school systems. Here’s what I
found:

• Eighty out of 138 Charlotte Mecklenburg schools (CMS), did
  not make AYP. CMS released a school-by-school report, with
  accessible and easy-to-understand feedback on which targets
  were not met. Yet the report does not include a list of
  sanctioned Title 1 schools.
  
  
• In Wake County schools, parents are given
  information by school on the percentage of targets met.
  However, the list fails to identify schools that must offer
  options to parents.
  
  
• In fact, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, Guilford County Schools, Asheville City Schools, New Hanover County Schools,and Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools
  all fail to clearly state which Title 1 schools must
  offer options to parents.
  
  
• The Durham Public School system
  does indicate which schools must offer public school
  choice, but does not list the schools required to
  offer supplementary services.
  

While school
systems may dabble in obfuscation, they must comply
with federal law. In the final analysis, knowledge is the best
defense, so arm yourself with information. Understanding your
school’s AYP status, as well as sanctions and services, will
ensure full accountability on the part of schools, maximizing
educational opportunity for struggling students across the
state.