Beacon Heights Elementary, a failing school as determined by the No [Rich] Child Left Behind Act is now marketing their school to bring back students.
This fall, 10 of the 450 students at Beacon Heights exercised the transfer option offered them under the No Child Left Behind Act -- a mere trickle, compared with the number of students who have left other Prince George's schools in the same predicament in recent years.I have personally been in the Prince George’s Public School System as a elementary, middle, and for two years as high school. To tell you the truth the No Child Left Behind Act is nothing more than privatization by stealth and erosion.
Rather than accept the inevitable stigma of being on the wrong side of the law's school choice provision, officials at Riverdale's Beacon Heights and other embattled schools are trying a new tack: fighting back by marketing themselves to parents.
They promote the extra resources afforded to schools after their test scores repeatedly fail to meet standards, the easy proximity of a neighborhood school, the familiarity of friends and even their so-called inadequate results.
Four years into No Child Left Behind, many of the campuses entering the school choice process are actually fairly good schools. Principals point out that the standard for "adequate yearly progress," the measure of success under the 2002 federal law, is a bit higher each year. And a school can be labeled a failure if any one of several statistical subgroups misses the mark. For example, the test scores of special education students or those with limited English skills can open an entire school to transfers.
And now there’s word of the Prince George’s School Board taking “corrective action”:
The Maryland schools superintendent is expected to recommend "corrective action" for the Prince George's County school system at today's state school board meeting, according to lawmakers and the head of the county school system.
They said the move is prompted by the latest round of test results in the county, which showed some progress but not enough to meet the federal requirements of the No Child Left Behind law…
John E. Deasy, chief executive officer of Prince George's schools since May, said he did not know what measures state Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick would recommend. …she would not propose a state takeover of county schools or major changes in the school system's administration.
"In many ways, it's a decision based on previous events," Deasy said yesterday in an interview.
"She's reiterated numerous times, with lots of folks, that she's pleased with the leadership. Will something change tomorrow morning as a result of it? No, because changes are already in progress."
Test results in Prince George's County have improved in the past three years but remain better only than those of Baltimore. Under No Child Left Behind, the state board can order school systems to change their curriculum, replace executive staff, spend money in specific ways and pull schools out of the district.
Change the curriculum; replace executive staff, spending money in specific ways, pulling schools out of the district; I can tell by what they’re really doing: After-school program cuts, more focus into math, reading, and writing, and changing the public school into a charter school.
And the obsession with test scores, what about real education? Not everyone is going to college you know.
But wait, there’s more details of the “corrective action” that will be taken
The Prince George’s County school system has been placed under state oversight for failing to meet annual improvement goals over the last four years.
The announcement by state and county officials on Wednesday formalizes a punitive step, conceived as part of ‘‘No Child Left Behind” law, in which state officials play a more intimate role in a school system’s operations when local officials haven’t achieved desired results.
The federal law requires that all the nation’s public school students test proficient in math and reading by 2014.
Test scores on the High School Assessments and the Maryland MSAs are among the measurements of achievement, and although Prince George’s students have shown some improvement, they haven’t met goals set for them.
Deasy’s reforms include professional development for teachers to improve classroom instruction, putting resources into chronically under-performing schools to help with reading and math and requiring principals to take a more hands-on approach to teaching rather than operating simply as building managers. Deasy’s reforms also press for more help in taking and passing standardized tests as well as recruiting and retaining the best teachers.
After-school help and for students who have trouble passing the High School Assessments is also critical among Deasy’s reforms.
Once a school system fails to meet its targets for four years running, sanctions can range up to a complete takeover by the state.
Deasy said that the state could still take over the system, replace personnel or withhold money in the future if the system doesn’t make significant strides quickly.
Deasy’s administration has already identified 83 schools that need improvement, and about two dozen of those schools have been targeted for intensive help to bring up student achievement.
And from the Washington Post…
That label has been given to only one other system in Maryland -- Baltimore schools -- and under the federal No Child Left Behind law, it carries a range of potential sanctions, including a possible state takeover of low-performing schools.
In March, the state board attempted to place 11 Baltimore schools under independent management, but Democratic legislators intervened and delayed the action by a year.
Although it raised the hammer, the board did not bring it down on Prince George's yesterday. State School Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick recommended no sanctions, saying the county's new schools chief had presented a plan to address the district's most serious academic problems.
John E. Deasy, a California educator hired in May to lead the 134,000-student system, "understands what has to happen," Grasmick said before the board unanimously approved her recommendations. "He understands, as we do, the urgency."
Deasy has vowed to raise the county's test scores, which have increased in recent years, by reallocating staff to the system's worst-performing schools, bolstering teacher recruitment and retention, improving parental participation, and giving children more opportunities and better training to participate in Advanced Placement courses.
Grasmick also recommended continuing a course of corrective action for Baltimore schools yesterday and lifted a less-serious "school system improvement" status for Charles, St. Mary's, Allegany, Cecil, Dorchester, Kent and Somerset counties.
The board's actions coincided with the release of Annual Yearly Progress reports for the state's 24 school systems and for individual high schools.
Basically, the goal is to have every student proficient with math and reading eight years from now. The Annual Yearly Progress show the progress of those schools by not regular grades, but by test scores, standardized test scores, like the Maryland State Assessments, or MSA’s. I took these same tests and was tested on Biology, Algebra, Geometry, and Reading/English. If these schools do not meet their AYP goals for a consecutive two years, they will be placed on a “watch list”, and if they’re still on the watch list they’ll be under state oversight. State oversight sanctions can include the requirements I mentioned above. But if the school still does not meet it’s AYP goals for a conceutive four years they’ll be completely taken over by their State Government of the school is.
The problem with N[R]CLB is that not everyone can be proficient in school subjects. Hell I didn’t learned much high school math since the 10th Grade (long story) and have to take a remedial course in UMD called Math 003, it’s a struggle but I’m doing well in the course. The fact is that the way I see it, 99% of the most schools will probably not meet their AYP by 2014. And what if they get taken over by the State government? Let me guess: Charter Schools? School vouchers allowing students to learn at a private or religious school?
The fact is that the Act is nothing more than to destroy our public schools inside-out. If I were a congressman right now I would introduce a bill that will shame and repeal the act. This bill would be called the “The No Child Left Behind Repeal Bill”, it would repeal and “shame” the act giving a name: “The No Rich Child Left Behind Act”. Our schools were just fine by themselves without that Act. It’s needs to be repealed.
I’m Ndubuisi Okeh, and The Modern-Day Prophet Has Spoken
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