Coping with student overload
GREENSBORO — Twenty second-graders said goodbye to their teachers Thursday — just a few days after meeting them — and said hello to Sally Myers, their new second-grade teacher.
Myers joined Irving Park Elementary on Tuesday, a late addition to a school bulging at the seams, due in part to other schools failing to meet testing goals.
Under federal education guidelines, schools that fail to meet academic growth goals are sanctioned for their performance. One of those sanctions allows students to “opt out,” or transfer from a failing school to another designated school.
This year, three schools were added to Guilford’s list of 15 already required to offer the opt-out.
Several schools have received nearly 100 students this year from schools that failed to meet federal testing goals. Officials say most of the receiving schools can accommodate the influx, but that isn’t the case at every school, especially Irving Park.
Irving Park Elementary is near capacity again this year. As of Thursday, the school had 725 students, 84 of whom transferred from two schools that failed to meet testing goals last year.
“Things are tight, that’s for sure,” said Melissa Nixon, principal at Irving Park.
Enrollment projections for the school were about 680 students before classes began last week. Nixon even cut two teachers over the summer when the school board was preparing for state budget cuts.
Some of the local cuts were rolled back, and Nixon rehired one teacher and hired Myers this week. Still, teacher-to-student ratios are at or above state limits in many classes.
Amy Johnson, the teacher Nixon rehired, has 25 students in her second-grade class. The state cap is 24, but schools can request a waiver.
Johnson said she’s making do with the space she has — the kids don’t all fit on her reading rug — but she’s more worried about how much time she spends with each child.
“It just takes more time, and I just can’t give them the attention I want,” she said.
And that attention has an impact on test scores, Johnson and Nixon said.
Three of Johnson’s students were moved to Myers’ class on Thursday.
Opting out of one school for another can be costly in other ways. If a family decides to send a child to another school, the system must pay for the busing. That cost was more than $420,000 last year.
School board member Paul Daniels says it’s time for bigger changes. “I think at some point folks are going to say we can’t keep shoveling money into these schools and depriving others,” he said.
Daniels believes Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green’s plans for teacher accountability and other initiatives could help low-performing schools.
But, Daniels said, “We also have to have parents and students doing their part.”
Many school officials say federal testing goals are unfair. Those goals apportion students into demographic groups. Every group must achieve academic goals. If one group fails, the whole school fails and suffers the consequences.
“It only allows for an all-or-nothing model, it does not show all the growth our students are making in all of our subgroups,” said Kelly Hales, director of Guilford County’s Title I program.
Title I is a federal designation for schools that have a large percentage of students living in poverty. Those schools receive additional funding to help improve achievement.
In turn, the government holds them to higher standards. If those schools fail to make academic growth goals, they face sanctions, including tutoring or the opt-out provision.
School board member Deena Hayes said there are other problems with opting out. She said the numbers show that most students still struggle to meet testing goals after they leave their original schools. And leaving their neighborhood schools takes students away from their communities.
“What happens to our kids is they’re called 'opt-out kids’ and they’re seen as a liability to the school,” she said. “They’re treated that way, and they’re taught that way.”
Nixon said she knows that occurs at some schools but not hers. But she could use one more teacher and more money for services like tutoring. The Title I schools many of her students have left receive money for just those types of things.
“They receive hundreds of thousands more that we could use,” Nixon said.
Meanwhile, enrollment at those Title I schools remains well below capacity.
Jackson Middle was built for 759 students; on Tuesday, its enrollment was 398.
Mendenhall Middle, a school that is receiving students who opt out of Jackson Middle, is at 967 students so far. It was built for 878.
Enrollment at Title I schools must remain low because federal guidelines require those schools to have low teacher-to-student ratios. But enrollment at some of those schools is below even those thresholds.
Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com
Accompanying Photos
Photo Caption: Second grade teacher Amy Johnson gives a hug to one of her students who cried as she left for the newly created class, created due to the increase in student numbers at the school.
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