In an unexpected twist, just days before the new school year, Illinois State Board of Education officials said Wednesday they believe at least 13 failing high schools, including 12 in Chicago, must allow students to transfer into better schools.
State board officials said a recent decision by the U.S. Department of Education may also apply to other failing high schools across the state, raising the prospect of widespread disruption as districts try to comply with sweeping federal reforms.
“We just don’t know. We are still evaluating things,” board spokesman Wade Nelson said after a board meeting Wednesday.
Until late last month, state and local educators believed the choice provision of the new No Child Left Behind Act would apply only to under-performing elementary schools in Illinois during the 2002-2003 school year.
The federal law mandates that districts provide transportation to children who want to move out of schools where pupils have failed state achievement tests one year and where not enough progress has been made in the next three years.
About 230 elementary schools in Illinois, including 179 in Chicago, were declared to be failing under those criteria.
The Prairie State Achievement Exam is only 2 years old and did not provide enough history to make a determination of failure at the secondary level. The state board assumed the new law would not apply to high schools until the 2003-2004 school year.
But the U.S. Department of Education disagreed, state board officials said.
Kim Knauer, spokeswoman with the state board, blamed the mix-up on the federal agency, saying it approved in mid-June the state’s plan for implementing No Child Left Behind, but changed its decision a month later. The state plan did not include providing choice to high school students.
“We are not taking this decision at face value but instead are going to continue negotiating with the feds,” Knauer said. “We don’t think it’s fair. It’s coming too close to the start of school and could really disrupt things.”
U.S. Department of Education officials could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.
Chicago Public Schools Chief Arne Duncan said the change would not cause substantial problems because Chicago already has a high school open-enrollment policy, which allows students to transfer into other neighborhood high schools if space is available.
More than half of the city’s high schoolers attend schools outside their neighborhoods, he said. The city does not provide transportation for them, however.
Duncan said he spoke Wednesday to a U.S. Department of Education official, who told him the city would not have to provide transportation to high school students who change schools, even though the federal law calls for it.
“They are comfortable with our choice plan (for elementary students),” Duncan said, “and my understanding is that we will not have to provide busing for high school students.”
But Knauer said state officials are not convinced that Chicago will be exempt from busing and are awaiting a decision from federal education officials.
The latest confusion over the state’s plan is the most recent glitch in implementation of the federal law. Signed by President Bush in January, the law took effect almost immediately, giving local and state educators little time to prepare.
State education officials across the nation have complained loudly that the U.S. Department of Education has been slow to provide guidelines.
Local educators complain that state officials are not filtering down the information fast enough to notify parents, structure busing schedules and find enough quality teachers.
The newest twist in providing choice arose almost as an afterthought, as officials tried to sort out a different provision of No Child Left Behind.
The federal law mandates that districts provide tutoring and other services to pupils in schools that fail achievement test in one year and do not make sufficient progress in subsequent years.
Illinois’ elementary school achievement test is only four years old, so the state board assumed the tutoring provision would not take effect at all this school year. The formal plan sent to the federal agency June 10 did not provide for such services.
State officials said the federal department approved the plan in a July 1 phone call and then in a formal letter a week later.
But Gail Lieberman, the state board official overseeing compliance with federal reforms, said federal officials called her July 24 to tell her Illinois must gather five years of data, combining the results of current tests with results from previous tests.
Using those criteria, the state identified a preliminary list of 26 schools–all except one of them in Chicago–that failed to make adequate progress after failing. The 13 elementary and 13 high schools on the list must provide after- or before-school tutoring to students.
That decision could create another set of problems because the state board has to approve every company that provides tutoring services under the new law. The state has yet to approve any provider and is just now beginning the process of creating guidelines.
“Ultimately, these services will be very helpful to students,” said State Supt. of Education Robert Schiller. “But right now, the inconsistency shown by the federal government will be greatly disruptive for local school administrators.”
Adding to the trouble, tutoring services were to be offered only after a choice of transferring out of a school was given.
Therefore, Lieberman said, the 26 schools on the list must offer parents the choice of moving their children into better schools as well as providing tutoring.
What is not yet clear to state officials is whether the federal agency will insist on using old and new test results to compile a complete list of high schools across the state that could fall under the choice provision.
That list would include schools in which a majority of students failed the Illinois Goals Assessment Program in 1999 and did not make significant progress on either the IGAP or the Prairie State exam over the three years that followed.
“We’re still working with them on that one,” Knauer said.
Schiller chided federal officials Wednesday.
“We should have been told sooner,” he said. “It’s bad planning on their part and causes immense problems for the two districts involved, which have already established budgets for the coming year.”
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Failing high schools
State officials believe 13 high schools must allow students to transfer into better schools this school year.
1. Wells Community Academy High School
2. Orr Community Academy High School
3. Flower Vocational High School
4. Marshall Metropolitan High School
5. Crane Technical Prep High School
6. Manley Career and Prep Academy High School
7. Collins High School
8. Farragut Career Academy High School
9. Tilden Community Academy
10. Richards Vocational High School
11. Harper High School
12. Carver Area High School
13. St. Anne Community High School in St. Anne, Ill., Kankakee County (not shown on map)
Source: Illinois State Board of Education
