How much slack should Wake get for not meeting federal No Child Left Behind guidelines for letting parents know ahead of time that they can transfer out of failing schools?
As noted in today's article, Wake says it can't tell parents at Title I year-round schools before the school year starts that they can get out under NCLB. They're arguing the mandated 14-day advance notice doesn't work for year-round schools that start July 7 because the test results aren't back yet.
Officially at least, that doesn't cut it for the feds.
"In the case of year-round schools, public school choice must be offered sufficiently in advance of, but no later than 14 calendar days before, the beginning of the “school year” as that term is defined by the (state education authority) or (local education authority)," according to guidelines from the U.S. Education Department.
But as a practical matter, Wake doesn't have anything to worry about.
U.S. Education Department officials say they haven't sent a warning letter to Wake.
State Education CEO Bill Harrison spokes with Supt. Del Burns after a parent complained, but that's about the extent of that.
"We are confident that Wake County is making every effort to meet the requirements of the law given the constraints of data collection timelines and capacity and their own efforts to serve a growing student population,” said Vanessa Jeter, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Instruction, in today's article.
Wake's argument about lack of time for NCLB notification doesn't work as well when it comes to the case of Barwell Road Elementary School. Under NCLB, Barwell was going to be sanctioned again and have to provide transfers for the 2009-10 school year no matter how well it did in the 2008-09 school year.
Schools that are sanctioned by NCLB have to pass for two years in a row before they can stop issuing transfers.
Federal guidelines say parents at schools like Barwell should be notified about their transfer options in the spring or early summer at least two weeks before school starts.
Despite knowing well ahead of time that Barwell parents would need to be given choice options, they couldn't begin to apply until June 29. The window to apply out of the year-round school expires today with placement possibly this month.
Barwell parent Chris Marsch said it's unfair not to let students transfer out before the school year begins. He said it puts parents in the awkward situation of making their kids move out after they've been in a class for a few weeks.
Willi Webb, Wake's Title I director, said they didn't let Barwell parents make their requests until June 29 because of delays getting a new online application system ready. She said they decided to take NCLB requests online because as many as 29 schools could be sanctioned this year, up from 14 the prior school year.
Marsch's case is pretty interesting. His two kids had been at Swift Creek Elementary last school year because he refused to give consent for Barwell. But once the state Supreme Court ruled for the school district in the year-round lawsuit, the non-consent families were sent back to their base schools.
Knowing that Swift Creek had been one of Barwell's NCLB options last year, Marsch had tried to take advantage of it for this school year. But school officials told him that they hadn't designated schools yet for 2009-10.
Marsch was forced to instead submit a regular transfer request for Swift Creek, which was rejected by both staff and the school board.
Marsch has since applied for Swift Creek now that the application process is open. But school officials could ignore his request and instead offer to send his kids to the other choice for Barwell, East Garner Elementary,
Comments
our kids will be employable
Mon, 07/13/2009 - 19:04 — klanders65They took longer than expected to complete some online application process... Is it any good? In the blog on separating grades from behavior, people are concerned that our kids will not learn that things have to be on time in the real world. And they have to be well done.
If our kids don't learn to do things right or on time, they can go work for WCPSS.
How much slack?
Mon, 07/13/2009 - 15:37 — g88ky07Is that a "for real" question??
Wake County school officials acknowledge they're flunking"
"But as a practical matter, Wake doesn't have anything to worry about."
"David Holdzkom, Wake schools' assistant superintendent for evaluation and research, said the 14-day advance notice won't work for year-round schools "
Just more proof FYR is a failure, doesn't work and is wasting MILLIONS of our educational $$!
"They're stonewalling parents and getting away with it,"
Sounds like a broken record and all this is beyond tired! Maybe voters will FINALLY do SOMETHING this fall? Or would that be too much effort on most voter's parts!?
Something Needs to be Done
Mon, 07/13/2009 - 17:00 — ChrisMarschI would hope that something is done. It seems politics run our schools, not the parents and educators. Wake county has shoved so many decisions down our throat and has completely cut off the parent's decision process in their own children's education. This issue is just one example of how the lack of caring Wake has for its own citizens and kids that will be the future of its communities. The elections is just one way to make a change, but if the peopole we elect just become part of the political machine, then nothing happens, as in the old saying goes, "Garbage in, garbage out." I would hope that whaever happens in the election, that this issue reaches enough people to finally take a stand against all of the wrong doings in Wake county and put our children first again in schools, not politicians.
"How much slack should Wake
Mon, 07/13/2009 - 12:46 — CaryMomof4"How much slack should Wake get for not meeting federal No Child Left Behind guidelines for letting parents know ahead of time that they can transfer out of failing schools?" In this case none. They knew that they would have to offer options no matter how the school's test results came back. If they couldn't have the on-line application system in place in time they should have had reused last year's process until they had it ready.
"But school officials could ignore his request and instead offer to send his kids to the other choice for Barwell, East Garner Elementary" Let's hope not. If the kids have attended Swift Creek for the past two years they should have priority placement there.
Here is another example of why you should take advantage of every option to get into the school you want (ie apply through the calendar/magnet option even if you're grandfathered). According to what I read, had these students attended Swift Creek last year as NCLB opt outs they would have been allowed to stay through fifth grade, but as non-consent students they were reassigned back to base.
Test Results and the choices
Mon, 07/13/2009 - 11:31 — ChrisMarschYou are correct, the test results do not take that long, however, it does not matter, as stated in the article, according the the Federal Law, the school must meet AYP 2 years in a row to exit NCLB Title 1 status, and they have not done that and according to the law, they must offer the choices either based off the preliminary results or offer the previous years choices. And once a child is part of that, they are by law assigned to that school and cannot be transferred until the completion of the highest grade in that school. So they are breaking several laws as part of the NCLB. For those of you not familiar with these laws and what your options really are, check this document out. http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/schoolchoiceguid.pdf
Sorry your family is being used
Mon, 07/13/2009 - 15:31 — g88ky07as a continuation of stupidity from our dictatorship school board and system, but you missed one of the main points of this issue, "by law" means nothing to those that control you, your children and your family's lives until you are out of THIS system!
Test results not back???
Mon, 07/13/2009 - 10:58 — Bob_SconceThat dog doesn't hunt.
If you got a 2 on your EOGs this year, you found out within a couple of days and were retested within a week. How on earth can the district claim, with a straight face, that it takes weeks to get results back? Heck, at a Year-Round schools, Track 1 students take the EOGs about three weeks early. Once you get those Track 1 results, you'll have a pretty good idea of whether that school met NCLB or not.
If NCLB requires 14 days notice if a school doesn't make AYP, and the district can't determine if a school made AYP before that 14-day period starts, then the district's ONLY alternative is to offer options to all students who *could* be affected, whether or not the test results eventually bear that out.
Much more to this story.
Mon, 07/13/2009 - 10:49 — ChrisMarschThere is much more to this issue than than was printed. Wake county receives about 20 million dollars for the NCLB program, yet the schools keep failing and getting worse. Not to mention the fact that the NCLB program, the school transfers, the calendar issues and everything has been placed in the hands of the Wake County Growth and Planning Board, same group that worked against the parent group Wake Cares to force Year Round calendars on the children and parents of Wake County. Barwell is just one example of the manipulation of the system here in Wake county, there is quite a bit more to this story.
I am amazed out how invested
Mon, 07/13/2009 - 10:36 — cybercris2I am amazed out how invested the state is in supporting WCPSS in their policies no matter what. The system is twisting to Wake County's whims rather than making them comply with federal law! What's going on here? Where is the accountability? Where is the regulation?