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Schools’ opt-out policy may expand

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Comments (21)

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

(Updated 7:56 am)

By J. Brian Ewing
Staff Writer

Parents with students in low-performing schools could have the option of moving their children to other schools next year, even if the school meets federal testing standards this school year.

That’s if the school board approves a change to the district’s school choice program at its meeting today.

There are 46 schools currently receiving federal funding because they are historically low performing and have a high poverty rate. The money comes with a catch: The district must offer other schools for students to attend if their home school fails to meet testing goals two or more years in a row.

Of those schools:

Eighteen are required to offer opt-out. Seven of these must continue to offer opt-out during the 2010-11 school year, and 11 could stop offering opt-out if they meet testing goals this year.
Nine schools could be forced to offer opt-out for the first time next year.

District administrators are recommending Guilford County Schools offer families at all of those schools the option of leaving, even if the option isn’t federally mandated.

The administrators also are recommending families be made aware of this option before the end of the school year, during the enrollment period for magnet school programs.

Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green says the policy change would end the scrambling that parents, schools and the district go through preparing for students to opt out. Preparations can include moving teachers and mobile classrooms.

“That can lead to a very disruptive start to the school year,” Green said.

But opt-out has caused crowding at receiving schools, many of which have had to add mobile units to deal with the increase in enrollment.

Also, the federal funding that is allotted to schools in the program, known as Title I, stays with the school rather than going with the students.

While many receiving schools are over their original capacity, some of the Title I schools those students left are well under capacity and receiving thousands of dollars more.

At least some on the board aren’t prepared to support the proposal.

Board member Kris Cooke worries about the impact such a policy change would have on receiving schools.
“Pretty soon, you’re not going to have any schools to opt into,” Cooke said.

Cooke said the district should encourage parents to stay at their schools, where funding is higher, rather than giving them more opportunities to leave.

“They’re expecting what any other parents want — a good learning experience for their child,” Cooke said, “but they should be getting that at their home school.”

Board member Paul Daniels echoed those concerns.

“I think it sends the wrong message,” Daniels said. “I think we need to go in there and take those schools back.”

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com

Accompanying Photos

Margaret Baxter (News & Record)

WANT TO GO?

What: Guilford County Board of Education meeting

When: 6 p.m. today

Where: Board room of the administrative office at 712 N. Eugene St., Greensboro.

On TV: Guilford County Schools Board of Education meetings are broadcast live on GCS Cable Channel 2, with replays aired the next day at 1 and 7 p.m. and the Saturday after the meeting at 1 p.m.

Want to be heard? Those wishing to address the Board of Education should call 370-8100, before 5 p.m. or at the meeting site from 5:45 to 6 p.m. Sign-up sheets also may be filled out before board meetings.

Full agenda and live video: http://gcsnc.com/boe/agenda.htm

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holland4

January 12, 2010 - 7:22 am EST

Low-performing schools are comprised of low-performing students. A student should only be allowed to transfer if they have a B average or above.

Otherwise, you're just importing problem students whose parents insist that "it's the teacher's fault that my kid isn't turning in his homework."

And it's interesting how we try to avoid blaming people. No, it just can't be students, parents, teachers, or administrators who are low-performing. Blame the "school".

It would help if parents kicked some tail occasionally. How about setting high expectations for children? Enforce consequences when expectations aren't met. What about checking homework in the evening? Try setting the alarm clock thirty minutes earlier in the morning. How about feeding your child a nutritious breakfast at YOUR kitchen table instead of expecting the school to do it?

oscardad44

January 12, 2010 - 11:03 am EST

How many more years before we make our district more accountable to fix all of our schools so that they are all good? If it is clear by the data that a instructor is not being effective perhaps performance must be acknowledged by principals.

So many people have leave low performing schools however the other schools want the funds and often complain. Perhaps in lieu wasting time on things like PBS more energy should be focused on sharing information in the district about how to choose a good school. IT IS NOT JUST ABOUT THE STATE TEST SCORES (EOC/EOG)

I agree a lot of the heart and meat of how parents can be involved happen at the school leave. If parents are disconnected and the school is not sharing information about leadership teams it is not fair to the parents.

They really do not have a clear picture of the challenges of the school. I recently called my school and ask who my parent representative was and when our leadership meetings where however this information should have been shared directly from the staff at the school at the beginning of the year and throughout the year.

After several months and this is January, 2010 all my school can say is that maybe the PTA will send out information that is not fair to our parents at our school to have to depend on volunteers from a parent group to share valuable information that the school by state statue must document.

holland4

January 12, 2010 - 11:31 am EST

oscardad44:

With all due respect, you sound like (judging by your multiple posts here) the parent of a low-performing student and you're "sad" (your words) that you might have to share some responsibility in the education of your child.

You seem to have the acronyms and lingo down pat. What you don't seem to have a grasp of is whether your child is attending class. Yes, it does matter where your child eats breakfast. That's ten minutes over a bowl of Quaker oatmeal that you could spend instilling some guidance and expectations into your child. I have two kids in GCS. I sat down this morning over strawberry bagels, butter, and a glass of milk talking about what the day had in store and how we could make the best of it.

I don't even know what a School Leadership Team is. Never heard of it. Why? Because our "leadership team" is my child, the teacher, my wife, and me.

I'm not going to tell you how to raise your child, but you seem awfully interesting in having Guilford County Schools and the taxpayers do it for you.

Get Over It

January 12, 2010 - 9:38 pm EST

As a proud parent of both a son who is a attorney, two daughters who are doctors and several children who me and my husband have adopted and we are proud of their career decision there has been many days that our kids had to catch a school bus and eat breakfast at school. None of them in any way have missed the family experience due to not getting a breakfast at home during a school day.

Unfortunately it is sad that as a parent of two in a school you do not know anything about the school leadership that was mentioned above. Perhaps if you learned more by working with your school you would know the facts of what the schools faces without having to defer to a newspaper or tv for facts about schools.

The fact that there are thousands of GCS students eating at school verse sitting at home and getting a bagel with dad does not make the child limited from having a successful life, and career opportunity

Paul Daniels

January 12, 2010 - 9:08 am EST

Holland:

Zactly right! Moms and dads have got to do their part, as must our students. Parents must insist that students work hard and behave appropriately and students must understand that how well they do in school depends on how much effort they put into it. Until we face these facts, I don't see us getting the sorts of educational outcomes that everyone rightly expects.

Paul Daniels,
District 5

dcolin

January 12, 2010 - 2:16 pm EST

"Zactly right! Moms and dads have got to do their part,"

Here is what you agreed with.

"It would help if parents kicked some tail occasionally." ( the beatngs will continue until things improve )

"Enforce consequences when expectations aren't met."( sticks not carrots )

"How about feeding your child a nutritious breakfast at YOUR kitchen table instead of expecting the school to do it?" ( unless you are poor )

Curse the the darkness.

Don't light any lamps.

Surely you are not involved in education.

I would hope.

holland4

January 12, 2010 - 4:41 pm EST

Great Value apple cinnamon oatmeal at Walmart: $1.67
Ten minutes at the breakfast table with your child: Priceless
Or just let the school do it.

Lordy, you people kill me sometimes. God forbid that you actually have to buck up and take some responsibility. I have two children in Guilford County public schools. How many times have they needed to be spanked like my father did me? Zero. Not once. Why? Because they know what the expectations are. They know what appropriate, civil behavior looks like. When they fail to meet expectations, privileges are taken away.

There are consequences to our behavior whether you're a child or an adult. You can continue to make excuses, but I won't. Unfortunately, my children will have to one day live and work with adults who were raised with your social philosophy. My children will have to pay for their drug treatment or incarceration because you -- today -- continue to make excuses for them.

dcolin

January 12, 2010 - 8:39 pm EST

"you people "

Who might that be.

oscardad44

January 12, 2010 - 10:23 am EST

Sad how with every problem that comes up parents are BLAMED! How about analyzing the current academic structure? I would like to ask Paul and anyone else on BOE where is the audit on the instructional programs that work in GCS and how often do they assess what is working and what is not as a result of so many thousands of students failing. >>>> LOOK AT YOUR DATA ! For years the district has given cd with benchmark and yearly data for there school and the information stops with the principal. This is the first year the district has spent time EXPLAINING data to teachers and telling them how to use it to provide remediation to students!

GCS staff is good for blowing the smoke to BOE I hope each of the BOE representatives are going directly into the schools in their district and openly talking with parents who have students who are struggling academically 1) HAS YOUR SCHOOL DEVELOPED A PEP (Personal Education Plan) for your student
2) IF YOUR EC STUDENT HAS A IEP (Individual Education Plan) does the school follow it in order to make sure your student masters there goals

IT DOES NOT MATTER WHERE CHILDREN EAT BREAKFAST >>> If a student eats at home or school it does not matter! There is thousands of dollars spent in the nutrition budget for staff who should be preparing healthy meals.

BLAME IT ON ATTENDANCE >>> How do parents and the community know which schools have low attendance this information is never shared by GCS it is not on the website or ever shared as part of the GCS Good News how about communicating some information to parents so they know what the big picture is for their entire school?
If my child is going to school everyday on time my neighbor student may be late due to a over crowded school bus which based on reviewing the GCS SIMS attendance system all schools are not correctly noting student attendance 100%. I have forwarded writtend correspodence to my childs school for excused absences and still have had to regularly pull attendance profile due to human error. EACH SCHOOLS ATTENDANCE PERCENTAGES should be shared monthly with parents and included during leadership meetings if schools are having poor attendance?

SCHOOL LEADERSHIP TEAMS >>>Over 98% of the parents at schools are not shared any information about school leadership teams and are not told that they are open meetings that parents by NC statue are allowed to attend. I invite each blogger to CALL A SCHOOL and ask "What is the name of the Parent Leadership Representative" and how and where is there information shared with parents at the school. Ask administrators how they regular updates parents monthly about items covered at leadership meetings.

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/councils/lea/previous/templates/sip-...

THE FUNDS NEED TO FOLLOW THE STUDENT IF THE PARENT WANTS THE STUDENT TO OPT OUT !! It is clear as that!

Garth

January 12, 2010 - 10:47 am EST

Impressive comments, thanks. Recent article in Atlantic magazine this month on teachers making all the difference. I believe in parental accountability, yes very much so, but teacher accountability must be also high on the list. For teachers to be accountable principals must be just as much to support and require productive learning environment. Safety and discipline is also a must, semi automatic weapons, guns of any kind must face most serious discipline. Assaulting teachers, resource officers etc. must be treated seriously. Kids need lines that are written in stone and cannot be crossed. Pointing finger at parents is great, but many of our society’s kids have amateur parents or no parents at all.

I was one of those kids, there is enough blame to go around, now instead of blame we need solutions, they may not fit into our preconceived framework and in case anyone thinks they are expert, I see no good, consistent solution in this country yet other than teaching a work ethic and opportunity. Many families are struggling to survive as families, many kids are all but orphaned at home, we cannot hold them accountable for their parents, we can teach them accountability for themselves and yes we must realize the solution will not come from great parents unless we are able to teach the next generation to be “great parents”. EVERY GCS EMPLOYEE must become a TEACHER of our future generation. By example, by interaction, by concern and by discipline. All of us must hold ourselves accountable for all our children.

I detest the “it takes a village” philosophy, it take a person to make a difference. Are you that person? Am I? “not my problem” = still a problem.

oscardad44

January 12, 2010 - 11:11 am EST

While I agree that there are tons of other issues in our schools how much more Professional Development does our district have to fund to train staff how to deal with situations. I am regularly in schools in all regions and in reading data and observing school sites alot of tension and disrespect shown towards staff is as a result of poor customer service from staff.

I have personally witnessed staff cursing, and not being professional with students. Practice what you preach!

I hope the movement of students recording on their cell phones will increase however instead of them videoing fights they video and record their TEACHERS and staff and how they are talking and interacting with students. While I know the videos exsist and many that are obtained by SRO officers have historically been deleted and destroyed by staff.

I will continue to believe the MOVEMENT is with the future generation and our students!

So to all the student and parents tell them to keep on video taping and recording STAFF and send the videos to your BOE representatives unfortunately as parent report it to principals many of them are the ones deleting the videos lets start with Ragsdale!

dcolin

January 12, 2010 - 2:23 pm EST

Pontification

Take some action.

Garth

January 12, 2010 - 10:27 am EST

This issue is so easily oversimplified that it is scary:
1. “low performing school” definition is way too broad as it may be a great school unable to comply with the federal definitions under no child left behind.
2. Reliable bus costs…I don’t believe it!
3. High Point Choice plan revisited (fiasco + whole district still equals fiasco)
4. The largest transportation provider in the county gets even larger and fuel is unpredictable (not really, it will go up+++)
5. We already keep kids on the bus way too long, and believe me, a bus is no place to raise and educate a child.
The High Point Con reinvented is still a con. The end result of this path is a lottery of seats around the district with no stable attendance zones, no accountability and one heck of a smog and fuel bill problem. I believe in current opt out structure and do not see good reason to go to a district lotto system.

dcolin

January 12, 2010 - 2:27 pm EST

Confused?

1 thru 5

You believe this or this is over simplification?

#1 in particular?

Garth

January 12, 2010 - 2:45 pm EST

Low performing school criteria is so overcomplicated that even our best schools could inadvertently be subject to sanctions. Then we add a complicated busing solution and blame game and it is a total mess. We need to look at what has worked in our country and apply it here. We need more people like oscardad44 challenging us, learning about the issues then trying to do something about it as well as demanding more from us. Complacency is the great enemy of learning and growth.

dcolin

January 12, 2010 - 3:11 pm EST

Just pick say Eastern High.

Look at the report card.
That is not low performing?
Surely you jest.

dcolin

January 12, 2010 - 3:31 pm EST

"Low performing school criteria is so overcomplicated that even our best schools could inadvertently be subject to sanctions."

You just told me two things.

1) As oppose to fixing the performance/measurement process we need to work harder on the education delivery.

2) Our best performing schools are really not so good ( only relative to the poor ones)

Garth

January 14, 2010 - 10:59 am EST

RE 1) Both must be addressed - performance/measurement is currently lame, promotes emphasis on maintaining a mediocre level of achievement for kids that deserve more and rewards teaching to the LCD - lowest common denominator, yes delivery needs improvement - massive improvement.

Citizen Bing

January 12, 2010 - 11:16 am EST

Opting out is a simple-minded solution that does not and will not work. Putting students on a bus and changing the location because of a "bad" school does nothing but increase transportation cost and time. If good students with good parent support opt out, they will do well in their new school. If poor students with poor parent support opt out, they will NOT do any better in their new setting. It is time to stop the shell game with poor performing students by blaming the "bad" school. Parents that support their children and teachers, school administrators that are willing support the classroom teacher to discipline unruly students, and retaining students that do NOT do any work will be more effective than putting a child on a bus. My observation has been that opt students cause a disproportionate amount of the discipline problems in the classroom. There is much that needs to be done to get to the root cause of the problem. This is hampered by well-meaning and ineffective measures left over from wrong-headed thinking.

Just Sayin

January 12, 2010 - 8:24 pm EST

As the parent of a child that has used the opt out choice, I can assure you that it CAN improve the performance of the child. The assigned school is low performing and my honor roll child became a low performing student in one year. After moving to the new school, my child is once again an honor roll student. The teachers and staff at the assigned school took no interest, spent their time dealing with the constant discipline problems and even went to the extreme of saying to me "with this many students in the class we are happy if we can just get them to sit still, we don't have time to teach". My child became a product of her environment in the assigned school and the entire year was wasted. My child is a prime example of a good student not performing well in a low performing school and turning it completely around and becoming an honor roll student when given the option to opt out.

Get Over It

January 12, 2010 - 9:22 pm EST

Excellent Academic Performance and Accountability should be expected for all schools!
Low performing schools should not only have qualified but EFFECTIVE staff who can provide the support needed to support students who have learning problems related directly to the classroom experience.

Classroom sizes in schools such as middle college experience the same type of discipline concerns. Discipline problems are in all schools.

The district must stop ignoring the fact that our district has poor instructional performance in many school and all the professional development in the world is not changing that fact. GCS has some teachers who really care and actually make great efforts to teach and meet student needs!