No Child Left Behind forces transfer decisions on school systems, parents

Amanda Glover, 14, is one of them. Her mother, Shelia, is willing to drive her to a school that has met the benchmarks established under the No Child Left Behind Act.

“It’s all about academics, 100 percent about that,” said Shelia Glover, whose daughter would have been a freshman at Towers High School had it not repeatedly failed to make those benchmarks.

“Their scores in math and reading have really collapsed, and I absolutely want my daughter to go to college,” Glover said of Towers. “We had no choice but to send her to a better school.”

Her definition of better is Druid Hills High. The school was among the county’s leaders on the SAT in 2010, with an average score of 1513. Towers’ average score of 1134 was the lowest of DeKalb’s high schools and well below the state average of 1453.

But Amanda and about 300 other transfer students are attending an annex the school system opened on the grounds of the recently closed Avondale High after hearing complaints from Druid Hills parents about crowding. The transfer students, now housed four miles away from Druid Hills in the shadow of a Walmart in a less affluent part of the county, must take a bus to the main campus if they want to participate in sports or other extracurricular activities. Their testing scores will count toward Druid Hills’ scores.

It’s an example of the contortions forced on school systems and parents by No Child Left Behind.

Each year, the law raises performance standards and the list of failing schools grows. This year 379 Georgia schools failed to meet those standards for at least a second year in a row, an increase of 74. Students at those schools are entitled to transfer.

Cobb County, where about 200 students wanted to switch, announced a last-minute hiring of 15 bus drivers to accommodate transfers, system spokesman Jay Dillon said.

About the same number of students requested transfers in Gwinnett County, while roughly 400 sought new schools in Fulton County. In Clayton County, about 60 students wanted to move.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has called No Child Left Behind a “slow-moving train wreck.” Earlier this month, he said President Barack Obama has authorized him to grant waivers from its testing mandates, the details of which will be released in September. Gov. Nathan Deal said he plans to seek a waiver for Georgia because, in his view, the testing standards give an incomplete picture of student progress.

It’s a sentiment echoed by local school systems such as DeKalb, which has been scrambling to reshuffle students as a growing number of their schools have repeatedly failed to make adequate yearly progress, or AYP, on benchmarks.

Morcease Beasley, an interim deputy superintendent in DeKalb, said the failing label is unfair. “Many of the schools are successful schools,” he said. “We’re just dealing with the AYP ramifications.”

The DeKalb school system has not studied whether transfer students do any better once they have changed schools. School officials say their role is simply to follow the law.

Twenty-two of DeKalb’s schools, about one in six, failed to make AYP for two years in a row, meaning their students are eligible to apply for transfers. About 6 percent did so, according to the school system. Students who wish to transfer can choose from four high schools, three middle schools and three elementary schools designated to receive them.

Because students who have already transferred do not have to reapply, the effect compounds over time. This year, about 14 percent of DeKalb’s roughly 100,000 students are attending a different school as a result of No Child Left Behind.

DeKalb school board member Jesse “Jay” Cunningham said too many have abandoned their local schools.

“We need to quit thinking that the grass is greener on the other side,” he said. “We need to keep our kids in our neighborhoods. We need to give our local schools the tools they need to do their jobs.”

Tell that to Beneta Weatherall, who transferred her two sons out of Stone Mountain High. She drives them to the Druid Hills annex because “it’s supposedly better,” but she wishes they could attend the main campus. She calls it the “regular” school.

Beasley said the district has created such annexes before, and he said they’re not an ideal solution.

“Many of the parents who have had children at annexes have shared that it seemed to be a subpar experience,” he said.

The decision to create the Druid Hills annex came after parents there protested the plan to transfer in more students. Their school had just been asked to absorb about 200 students from Avondale High after it closed in May, and Druid Hills had already been receiving transfers for at least a couple of years.

“We felt like we had to rally to force the school board to consider other alternatives,” said Susan Finn, a parent who was involved. Their campaign focused on crowding and safety, but there were also concerns about academic quality.

Finn said her son’s accelerated English and Spanish classes were too crowded and less demanding than expected last year. She said anyone could sign up for such classes, including transfer students. “There’s no criteria,” she said, “so they, by effect, bring down the level of the class.”

Beasley responded with this prepared statement: “All students deserve access to rigorous and challenging classes and curriculum. They should all be encouraged to take such.”

Finn, treasurer of Druid Hills’ Parent Teacher Student Association, said she used to be happy with the DeKalb school system. But the shifting student population at Druid Hills may lead her to pull her son out of the school system.

Denise Abdel, a parent in a school that is losing students to No Child Left Behind, is also discouraged.

Her daughter graduated from Lithonia High in the spring. Each year, more kids — usually those with the most involved parents — transfer out, she said. And each year, fewer families participate in events such as homecoming and the “spring fling” garage sale. This year alone, 143 teens — a fifth of the student body — asked to leave.

Abdel said she has noticed an effect on the classroom as so many high achievers decamped.

“I think the school has state-of-the-art equipment and all the amenities for students to learn, including good teachers,” said Abdel, who stayed on as secretary of the PTSA because her son is to enter Lithonia next year. “It’s just a shame that we can’t hold onto all of the students.”

Abdel is concerned enough to consider joining the crowd. When asked whether she would send her son to Lithonia next year or request a transfer, she admitted “it’s kind of up in the air.”

No Child Left Behind

The No Child Left Behind Act requires that schools be measured against benchmarks, including graduation rates, attendance and results on standardized tests.

Failure to meet standards for two consecutive years lands a school on a “needs improvement” list. School districts must let students at schools on that list transfer to a school that is not on the list. The school district selects the receiving schools, but they must give students more than one choice. Priority is given to the lowest-achieving children from low-income schools.

Systems must pay for transporting students from low-income schools, either by busing them or by reimbursing their parents for driving. The transportation costs are subsidized by the federal government.

Each subgroup of students — defined by characteristics such as ethnic categories, disability, limited English proficiency and socioeconomic status — must meet or exceed the benchmarks. If one does not — even if the majority of students do — the school can wind up on the needs improvement list. The standards rise each year, and by 2014 they will require every student to be proficient in reading and math, which critics say is unrealistic.

Sources: U.S. Department of Education, Georgia Department of Education, Gwinnett County Public Schools