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By MARK GUYDISH markg@leader.net
Saturday, March 08, 2003 Page: 1A
The fact that obscure federal mandates are twisting a local district’s
schools into convoluted shapes is symptomatic of bigger problems, according to
an official from the Association of American School Administrators.
And districts, as well as states, are sure to look for even more loopholes
as they try to adhere to the new rules.
“The law of unintended consequences is in full play” with the federal No
Child Left Behind Act, said Bruce Hunter, the association’s executive director
for public policy.
Those consequences, at least in Dallas, have parents grumbling, and could
impact other area school districts soon as they struggle with changes in
enrollment and tightening budgets – common impetus of change.
Dallas Superintendent Gilbert Griffiths and Assistant Superintendent
Michael Speziale cited a relatively obscure component of the federal law as
one reason for a proposed change at Dallas and Wycallis elementaries.
The new plan puts third grade in one school and fifth in another. As
strange as it sounds, splitting the grades between buildings improves the odds
the district will meet complex new standards. Why? In the first five grades,
test scores matter most in Pennsylvania.
Hunter said he has not heard of individual districts reconfiguring grades
based on No Child Left Behind regulations, but he was not surprised. States
across the nation are looking for loopholes in the law that allow them to meet
mandates while still serving students fairly.
“We hear something every day that we didn’t think of before. And we are
reminded again and again why we had real reservations about the statute even
though we really endorse the goal.” Hunter said.
The goal is to have 100 percent of public school students “proficient” in
reading and math as measured by standardized annual tests – by 2014. That
includes students in four subgroups who traditionally do poorly: low income,
English as second language, special education and ethnic minorities.
The law requires districts to “disaggregate,” or separate the scores of
students in those subgroups if there are more than 75 such students in a
building. If a subgroup fails to meet test standards, the whole school is said
to fail. Dallas proposed putting third and fifth in separate buildings to
avoid hitting the 75-student threshold in any subgroup.
“Reading the statute literally, school systems are required to never
fail,” Hunter said, “and that’s not reality.” He used the English as second
language category as an example.
“When those students become proficient with English, they move out of that
subgroup. So (the subgroup is) always populated with kids who aren’t
proficient in English.” Translation: the subgroup is destined to fail to meet
standards.
Moving students is an issue
Dallas School District parents are concerned about a different issue: They
don’t like the idea of their children having to change from one school to
another in those early years. Both schools house up to fifth grade.
“It seems to me – and Dr. Speziale agreed – that it’s not in the
children’s best interest to move them a number of times in elementary
school,” said Demetrius Fannick, who has questioned the plan at board
meetings.”
Fannick said he and other parents also are suspicious about how the
proposed change came about. A task force was formed late last year when the
schools ran out of space, but the meetings were not public and few – including
most board members – knew much about it until a presentation at Monday’s work
session.
“It appears to me there was every intent just to go forward without making
parents aware of it,” Fannick said.
Board member Frank Natitus, along with others, expressed similar concerns.
Natitus has proposed future task forces be better publicized.
Griffiths and Speziale insist secrecy was not intentional, and that no
action will be taken until the public and district staff have a chance to
offer input.
But for Fannick, it might be too late. Considering the way things were
handled so far, he said, he’s reluctant to trust the district’s promises now.
Research is mixed
Studies of grade configurations support and rebut the concern that building
transitions are bad for young students. The ambiguity, experts say, is because
research has been limited to a few geographic areas and a few grade
variations.
For example, a July 1997 report from the Northwest Regional Educational
Laboratory notes two studies – cited in other reports by other organizations –
that show sixth-grade students from lower-income families did better when
grouped with lower grades than when grouped with higher grades.
Yet it was the other way around with students from families of higher
social and economic standing. One district in Portland, Ore., switched to a
kindergarten through third grade configuration with “impressive” results.
Students scored very high in state tests.
Some rural Texas schools say that students who attend kindergarten through
12th-grade buildings – a rarity – do better than any other configuration.
There is a consensus in several reports, summarized in an extensive review
published in March 2002 in School Administrator magazine, that – all things
being equal – the fewer transitions younger students make, the better.
Yet a lack of transitions actually worked against students in a rural Idaho
school that goes up to grade 10. According to the Northwest report, students
had too much time – 11 years – to worry about the shift to a distant high
school. The change was often so difficult about one of every three students
who got through 10th grade did not graduate high school.
Middle schools are popular
Luzerne County has followed national trends that, since the 1970s, saw the
disappearance of kindergarten-through-eight schools and nine-through-12 high
schools, inserting middle schools that generally cover grades five or six
through eight or nine.
Hazleton Area bucked that trend in the last decade by building kindergarten
through eighth-grade “elementary/middle” schools, but Griffiths said
Hazleton Area, along with Wyoming Area, is considering reconfiguration.
Superintendents for those districts could not be reached for confirmation.
But Dallas’ reasoning for the proposed configuration proves a point made in
that March issue of School Administrator: “School districts poised on the
brink of making these decisions must take into account factors beyond simply
what is best for the students.”
And No Child Left Behind has clearly become a major factor, Hunter said.
The law seemed to offer a simple way to make sure students learn to read and
write: Test them every year, and require districts to make sure the scores
keep climbing.
Dallas’s proposed reconfiguration, like many decisions across the country,
shows the flaw in the logic, Hunter said.
“For every complex problem there’s a simple solution that’s usually
wrong.”
Mark Guydish, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7161.
The following are the various grade configurations and the number of
Luzerne County public schools that used them in 2000-2001.
Grade configuration Number of schools
Kindergarten only 1
K to 1 1
K to 4 5
K to 5 9
K to 6 20
1 to 3 1
1 to 5 1
2 to 5 1
4 to 5 1
5 to 6 1
6 to 7 1
6 to 8 3
7 to 8 3
7 to 12 6
8 to 12 1
9 to 12 6
Source: State Department of Education