NSBA on NCLB

Apparently, NSBA is trying to water-down the transfer provisions of NCLB by allowing transfers only for students scoring less than proficient in the subject where the school failed to meet AYP, and then only for those students in the subgroup whose failure to meet AYP triggered the transfer provision.  NSBA's issue brief says the amendments would change NCLB so that:

A transfer option need only be offered to those low achieving students within the group who failed to meet their AYP targets in the same subject for two or more years – not to all students in the school.

Financial obligations for a school district to provide transportation for a student ends when the group to which the student belongs no longer is identified as not meeting AYP target within the student’s former school even if that school continues to be identified as not making AYP for other reasons.

Bogus.  This creates a perverse incentive for schools to cycle attention, remediation and resources through subgroups rather than try to improve the school as a whole.  At least, as it stands now, high-achieving students have a chance to escape a bad school if it fails any subgroup (and high-achieving students are not such a sub-group; NCLB falls into the "they'll be ok anyway") trap.

I picked up on this from a story in our local paper about TN school board members going to Washington to lobby for NSBA's position.  The official spin, from TSBA's director of governmental operations, is "It just doesn't make sense that we would use those funds to transport students who are doing well to another school."

Comments

[Bill]

Well, maybe it's bogus if you buy into the idea that schools with a "Failing" designation are actually failing and those which aren't failing are somehow doing a better jobs. In the REAL world of education, many schools which have been designated as "failing" are actualy striving mightily to do the best they can for their students under sometimes adverse circumstances, and succeeding in most cases. Many schools which have avoided the designation have done so more through fortunate circumstances rather than through any significant educational know-how or effort. Many of these schools do a mediocre job for all of their students, but adequate for the AYP bean counters.
Which school would your rather send your kids to? One that's on cruis control or one that's exerting great effort to improve?