There is alot of concern about school transfers right now - specifically the transfers to Northside and Hardaway. I understand that concern. The bottom line is that No Child Left Behind requires the district to allow parents the choice to transfer their child to a school within the district making Adequate Yearly Progress when the school in which their child is enrolled doesn't make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Lack of capacity at a school is not a reason for not allowing transfers. We are told the district "must create capacity;" therefore, modular units will be placed on those campuses.
What is the solution? The solution is for every high school to make AYP. Then the district doesn't have to offer choice under No Child Left Behind, but only under the new State law which requires us to offer choice. The difference between the Federal law and the State Law is that the State Law allows us to define capacity and we do not have to transfer students to schools which we have determined are full.
The guidance for NCLB states that districts can come up with creative and ingenious ways to create capacity. Believe me, I am searching for those creative ways, but I am not sure that parents will like the creative ways any better than they like the increased usage of portable classrooms! Time to brainstorm with some of my Superintendent buddies who are also dealing with this problem. I will keep you posted!
Friday, July 10, 2009
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Has the student:teacher ratios been reviewed with the "required" transfers under the No Child Left Behind requirements?
ReplyDeleteHow many teachers will these schools get? Where will they come from? They will come from the losing schools, correct? The numbers of students moving to the schools would indicate a fairly significant number of teacher moves. Will this be settled soon? Can students leave Shaw High also?
ReplyDeleteI look forward to seeing what can be done, for overcrowding cannot be good when looking toward improving each year. I can only pray that the federal government will come to understand the problem this creates throughout the nation. It cannot be only in Columbus!
ReplyDeleteAs a MCSD teacher I wanted to know about how we are going to deal with Governor Perdue's furlough. Are we going to have 3 extra days without work or do we have to work with no pay?
ReplyDeleteNo Child Left Behind and AYP is not about schools. It is about the students. Three years ago Midland Middle School was the only middle school to make AYP. Transfers were allowed. Midland Middle School has not made AYP since. If students and their parents do not take their education seriously, changing schools will not help. We are allowing performing schools to be dragged down.
ReplyDeleteHow can a district build a school and within months have portables added? It seems as though schools should be built to hold future students also. Now we have North Side High School with 5 or so buildings next to it with more to come and that school just opened a few years ago. Who decides the school size when the planning is done? What is the price of adding portable buildings? Do you plan on adding to the school buildings so that these portables can be taken away?
ReplyDeleteIf a school must make "capacity" for the transfers, then why does the list of schools require a lottery?
ReplyDeleteI just heard about supply budgets for schools being cut and have a question: is supply money being given to schools based on the approximate number of students served or is it the same for each school? Hardaway and Northside for instance will have many more students than Jordan and Spencer. Since more students are served, more supplies would be needed at the first schools mentioned.
ReplyDeleteJust as with the furlough news, the Governor has cut our other state funding by 3%. This has caused us to have to again adjust the budget for supplies, materials, textbooks, etc.; however, budgets for supplies are allotted by the number of students. We are having to adjust everything in light of the budget cuts. We are trying to balance what we need to fulfill our core mission with also trying to save jobs throughout the organization. We are trying to make our budget cuts in a thoughtful and deliberate manner.
ReplyDeleteThere are two laws that are in effect as far as transfers are concerned. If you are requesting a transfer under No Child Left Behind federal law because the school in which your child is zoned did not make adequate yearly progress, then we have a list of schools that meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind and you can go to one of those schools and we must provide the capacity. If you are requesting a transfer under the State Law House Bill 251, we provide a list of schools where there is capacity and then have a lottery to decide who may fill those spots. We are operating under federal law for one and state law for another. I know this is confusing for the general public and we are trying to communicate this and keep it all straight.
ReplyDeleteMy child is a freshman and is assigned to a class in one of the portables. I understand the need at this current moment for portables due to the overwhelming number of students, however, what concessions are going to be made for these students during inclement weather? Yesterday my child got “drenched” while walking/running to the portable. I am concerned about the walk to these portables when it is thundering and lightening and extreme cold, if that is possible in Columbus. We make sure our child wears appropriate clothing for the weather; however, I am not sure toting around a winter jacket is practical.
ReplyDeleteYour comment about students walking to the portable classrooms in inclement weather is one of the negatives about having portables. The school district has tried to put covered walkways where this is feasible although if the rain is blowing, this really doesn't help. If the weather is extreme with wind then the students are kept inside the main building. Thankfully, there are not many days that this occurs. Portable classrooms are meant to be a temporary solution. Unfortunately we end up having to use them for years. This is one of the reasons we need to pass the SPLOST referendum so that we can replace the portables with brick and mortar classrooms.
ReplyDelete