This week, North Carolina schools presented citizens with a good news/bad news proposition. As forecasted in last week’s journal entry, Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) results for North Carolina schools were released Monday. Not surprisingly, this year’s results show a higher percentage of schools not meeting more stringent federal accountability standards.
So, what’s the good news? For starters, children in failing schools will now have greater options, including public school choice and supplemental services. The bad news? Tracking down these options is no easy task. Information on sanctioned schools is not readily available, making it very difficult for parents and citizens to understand their rights under federal law. In addition, sanctions apply only to Title 1 schools (schools receiving federal funding for low-income families), meaning that about half of the schools in our state have relative impunity when it comes to AYP.
Title 1 schools not making AYP for two years are instructed by the U.S. Department of Education to send parents a letter, alerting them to the school’s status, and highlighting student eligibility for public school choice. If schools miss AYP for three years, students may receive tutoring services. However, obtaining general information − matching sanctioned schools with services or choice provisions − is both difficult and confusing. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction does not provide a centrally-located, current list of Title 1 schools failing to make AYP for two or more consecutive years. Instead, citizens must link to each school district’s web site to find out if a particular school made AYP. The school system determines how user-friendly their data is − that is, if they even have a working web site.
To shed some light on this issue, I conducted a preliminary search of some area school systems. Here’s what I found:
- Eighty out of 138 Charlotte Mecklenburg schools (CMS), did not make AYP. CMS released a school-by-school report, with accessible and easy-to-understand feedback on which targets were not met. Yet the report does not include a list of sanctioned Title 1 schools.
- In Wake County schools, parents are given information by school on the percentage of targets met. However, the list fails to identify schools that must offer options to parents.
- In fact, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, Guilford County Schools, Asheville City Schools, New Hanover County Schools,and Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools all fail to clearly state which Title 1 schools must offer options to parents.
- The Durham Public School system does indicate which schools must offer public school choice, but does not list the schools required to offer supplementary services.
While school systems may dabble in obfuscation, they must comply with federal law. In the final analysis, knowledge is the best defense, so arm yourself with information. Understanding your school’s AYP status, as well as sanctions and services, will ensure full accountability on the part of schools, maximizing educational opportunity for struggling students across the state.