So what do you do when the school that has served you well is suddenly called a failure?
Quote of note:
The expanded list would feature some of California's highest-performing school districts, including Santa Monica-Malibu Unified and Cupertino Union near San Jose. Even though these districts are well regarded, they could still find themselves publicly labeled as troubled if certain groups of their students those in special education, for example were not making enough progress.
U.S. May Force California to Call More School Districts Failures
By Duke Helfand
Times Staff Writer
February 17, 2005
The Bush administration is pressing California to toughen its rules for identifying failing school districts a change that could add 310 school systems to a watch list this year and eventually threaten the jobs of superintendents and school board members throughout the state.
The U.S. Department of Education warned that it could cut off money to the state if California did not change the way it classified struggling districts under the No Child Left Behind Act.
The federal law calls for states to place districts on a watch list if the number of students doing well on math and English standardized tests fails to increase enough two years in a row. Such districts can face sanctions if they continue to falter.
California, however, lets districts avoid the list if students from low-income households reach a set score on a separate measure of achievement.
Federal education officials believe the state policy amounts to an escape valve. The policy violates No Child Left Behind by reducing the number of districts identified as needing improvement, the officials have told the state Department of Education.
Only 14 of California's 1,000 school districts were placed on the state's watch list this year.
But hundreds of districts could be considered failures within two years if California yielded to Washington's demands, according to state education officials.
