news-record.com

Removing a child from a failing school should be a parent’s last option.

But it must remain an option.

Some Guilford County Board of Education members don’t like the opt-out provision allowed by the federal No Child Left Behind law. They aren’t meant to like it. They’re meant to do their best to avoid it.

The law says federally designated Title I schools that fall short of Adequate Yearly Progress standards for two consecutive years must offer special tutoring to students or the opportunity to transfer to a school that has performed better.

The tutoring unquestionably is a positive. All students can benefit from extra attention. The chance to transfer, known as opt-out, has been controversial since No Child Left Behind was enacted in 2001. The principle is sound: Parents should have the choice of removing their children if the assigned school isn’t providing an adequate education. The reality can be murkier. A school’s success or failure is determined solely by test scores. Some children may be doing well, but if overall scores are low, even those can exit. Sometimes, it’s the best students who go, leaving the others behind and making it even harder for the school to raise its scores. In addition, the schools able to receive opt-out students may be limited in number or far away. They may be overcrowded. Even if their scores are better, that could be due to factors other than better instruction. And, because of lag times in reporting and acting on test data, a school marked as failing actually could be making improvements — even while students are departing.

Guilford County has 18 opt-out schools. Although only 12 percent of eligible students are exercising their options this year, that adds up to a lot who have to be accommodated at other schools and also excess capacity at the schools that lost them. The board wants to reduce that percentage, which requires stronger efforts to sell the advantages of staying. Parents won’t be fooled: They must see real signs of progress or they will look elsewhere. Either way, they deserve good options for their kids.