Six schools — five elementary schools and one middle school — were slapped with the “in need of improvement” label for not hitting a benchmark set by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act.
Under NCLB, districts must give parents the option of sending their students to higher-performing schools when a campus fails to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) on state tests for two years in a row.
Under the law, AYP is defined as an annual improvement of 7.5 percentage points on test scores. In order to make AYP, students in all NCLB subgroups — including low-income, limited English proficient and students with special needs — must have test score increases of 7.5 percentage points.
This year, the following campuses were defined as failing under NCLB, giving parents a choice to send their kids to other schools, with District 202 providing transportation:
- Creekside Elementary School
- Grand Prairie Elementary School
District 202 Community Relations Director Tom Hernandez noted that while the schools did not make AYP for two years in a row, three of them — Crystal Lawns, Creekside and Timber Ridge — did hit the mark this year.
Those schools will have to make AYP for two years in a row to have the school choice requirement lifted.
“All six of them in various, very significant ways, made significant progress” on test scores, Hernandez said. “Under a growth model, this would not be an issue.”
Parents at all six campuses received a letter in early August notifying them that they could opt to send students to a different campus.
Hernandez said he did not know exactly how many parents took the district up on that offer, saying it was “more than a handful, but not a lot.”
Parents had their pick of and Wesmere elementaries and Drauden Point and middle schools.
The district will use Title I funds, which are federal dollars available to schools with high percentages of students from low-income families, to pay the additional transportation costs associated with school choice, Hernandez said.
Under NCLB, Crystal Lawns, which failed to make AYP for three consecutive years, must also offer supplemental educational services in the form of tutoring. After four years, schools are subject to corrective action from the state board of education, and could face state-mandated restructuring after five years.
For students whose parents opted to transfer them, the district must allow them to remain at their new campus until they have completed the highest grade level at the school. In other words, a sixth-grader who transfers would be allowed to complete eighth grade at his or her new school. However, if the student’s home campus makes AYP for two years in a row, the district is no longer required to provide transportation, making it parents' responsibility.
According to a letter sent to parents at the six campuses on Aug. 2, families were required to notify the district if they planned to switch schools by Aug. 13.
Parents also received a letter from Superintendent John Harper, along with their campus’ principal.
NCLB's future unclear
With No Child Left Behind’s future uncertain, Hernandez said it’s also unclear what that means for District 202’s school choice campuses.
By next year, "It could be a moot point," Hernandez said.
As NCLB approaches its 10th birthday, the law has produced mixed results, and, in an article in the Huffington Post, former U.S. Department of Education researcher Mark Schneider cited politically driven “significant flaws” in the law.
“The process is moving to common core standards,” Hernandez said, noting that 46 states, including Illinois, have adopted statewide common standards.
“Most of the states are moving toward a growth model as opposed to those 7.5 percent percentage points,” he said, referring to AYP.
Does your child attend one of the six school choice campuses? Did you opt to switch schools, or choose to remain? Sound off in the comments.
The list of failing high schools now includes some of the best 50 schools in the state. That has a lot to do with the test and the law, not with parenting or the intelligence of the kids. Long story short: stop saying nasty things when you obviously don't know what you're talking about.
Today we have departmental heads with doctorates, most teachers have masters degrees, and the administrative staff is huge! Our Plainfield Schools are Taj Mahals built to house the principal kings of education! HOWEVER our children's education often falls short of other scholastic achievements associated with private schools! We can no longer afford to throw money at a problem and hope that it will repair itself! Mr.Hernandez is praying that the president will be ousted this fall and that No Child Left Behind will be mooted. Failure of any system to function at its peak, cannot be the fault of one individual, it is the fault of all who employ it! Mr. Harper is in charge of these schools, however it it the District 202 board which must be blamed for making some poor decision which have lead to the demise and the grade of our education here in Plainfield, associated with their continued spending and their oversight/control.
Why don't you just home school your kids, that way the teachers will only educate children whose parents still think that teachers are necessary and are generally underpaid ?
Yes Tom...the school choice provision may become a moot point. However, the failure of our schools is NOT. Less administrators and 'community relations staff' and more teachers may help move us in a more educated direction. .
Judging by your comment before, and above, you are a person whose comments are to be ignored as they are to ignorant to respond to. As far as paying for something I never receive, yes I do. I do not use any of the services or parks, or schools, or ball fields, or anything else that Plainfield has to offer, but, I pay taxes that support all of those things and am happy to do it. Too many people like you, have no foresight to see that these are the building blocks to a great community, one where people would be happy to reside in. I saw the same attitude in the last town I lived in where people said exactly the same things about not paying for services they didn't use, and I always spoke the opposite, saying that by building fields and improving schools, in the long run make for a better and highly desirable place to live, and also HIGHER home values for the same reason.
If you are going to be a buffoon, at least attempt to write properly. It is apparent that school was very hard for you and that you have somehow projected all of your own personal academic failures upon teachers. Now, since you were upset about paying for something that you never received, I have taken the liberty of correcting your little, witty diatribes. Happy now? ;-) You should have written: Hey, the teachers need a raise. Give them more money to put into their pensions, just because they're worth it. LMFAO!!! Also, it's you're perfect, not your perfect.
It's easy to point fingers and blame the test scores on bad teachers or poor parenting. But it's more complex than that. Some kids don't do well on standardized tests. Some kids learn and develop more slowly than others - my son has been one of them when it comes to reading (he went from below grade level to well above in the space of a year, thanks in part to his teacher's expert help). And when you dig deeper into what NCLB requires, it seems great in theory, unrealistic in practice. MidwestGal, you point out that Cindy probably didn't mean to insult ALL of the students at these 6 schools ... but it sure seems like you intended to finish the job. Our school is not "crummy" and we, too, have parents and teachers who "work their butts off for successful kids and a great school atmosphere." I hope that you are in the minority at your school and is not indicative of the type of welcome your school is giving to kids who have transferred. Can we stop the NIMBY-ing and recognize that these are OUR kids, regardless of what school they attend?
I strongly suggest commenters do some research on the requirements of meeting AYP as well as researching the specific results of specific schools before posting remarks that sweepingly insult our district, our teachers, the parents, our children, or anyone else. Yes, "Something needs to be done!!" but let's talk about the specifics of what and how instead of spouting off ill-informed nonsense full of generalities and guesswork that have nothing to with anything. If you don't have specific ideas on how to improve math, reading, or science instruction and/or scores for specific student subgroups chances are high you don't have anything constructive to add to the conversation.
Some bad teachers are to blame, but most are not. NCLB put most of what the teachers have to teach and how to teach are a major thorn in all of the school systems in the US. They are required to teach to test scores not learning as money from the Fed will not be doled out for how many learn but how well they do on testing. I can see by you comment that you are against unions, which is fine, and your choice, but to blame the benefits that teachers have gained through union representation over the years, is downright ridiculous. Also, what has a teachers weight have to do with him/her ability to teach ? Yes, also, parents have much to do with the way children learn, if there is no respect for teachers at home, then where is the respect for learning in school ? Oh, yes, blame higher taxes on teachers salaries, or policemen, or fire fighters, not on the people responsible for higher taxes, the elected officials we put in office. So you went to school in Chicago and the dropout rate, so you say is 50%, maybe it is they neighborhood or maybe it is poor administration or maybe it is under funding, or maybe all the kids there are leaning impaired, and not that teachers are so bad.
We taxpayers are paying a good dollar for our schools, and should demand the best from our teachers and supervisory staff! Plainfield should never have any schools fail! With this happening - we set the blame with Mr. Harper as the buck stops with him! In the military when a leader fails to lead, set examples, and generally FAILS to oversee the issues at hand he gets replaced! Has anyone looked at District 202 proposed budget? Here is a link -http://www.psd202.org/Documents/201213budgetdetail.pdf Are they really taking into account our kids safety when they cut Criminal Background Checks - food service, Drivers Ed, security, text books and more! Maybe that is why they wanted rifles in our schools? In this budget they added over $103,000.00 for teachers mentor programs, and are allowing $229,681.00 for travel then added over 1 MILLION DOLLARS for SITE IMPROVEMENTS????? It is SHAMEFUL to see an administrative and supervisory pay rise - when schools fail! Administrators, staff and supervisors pay should be linked to performance!
We pay extremely high taxes to support the school district, if their leadership cannot provide quality services they should be replaced. Text books should always be top priority over site improvement. With good teachers and good books you can learn anywhere. With beautiful buildings but no books or teachers you are doomed for life.