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'Failing' school label sparks debate

Ohanian Comment: I wish we could believe this is about doing what's best for kids. The vultures gather.

By Sarah Carr and Darran Simon

As parents in failing schools register for private school vouchers by the hundreds this week, the state Department of Education hasn't yet ruled on a dispute that could reduce the number of eligible "failing" schools by nearly half, from 41 to 23.

This week, the state Department of Education released a list of 41 eligible schools, including all Recovery School District schools and the charter schools the district oversees, that serve the grades covered by the law: kindergarten though third grade. That interpretation, education officials said, has the support of Gov. Bobby Jindal, a strong voucher advocate.

But a second, conflicting interpretation, raised this week by a former state school board member and a legislator who pushed for a key amendment to the voucher bill, challenges the "failing" designation for nearly half those schools.

Four recovery district schools have assessment indexes, a measure based on test scores, above 60, the state's cutoff for so-called "academically unacceptable" schools. Fourteen other schools opened last year and don't yet have academic labels. On Tuesday, state Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek said he would review the law and the arguments over its meaning before rendering a decision.

Pastorek hinted, however, that he favored the interpretation that includes fewer schools and runs counter to that of the Jindal administration.

The law's intent was "only to capture those schools that are failing schools presently," he said. "My interpretation of all the debate . . . would not include schools that are academically acceptable at this time."

Some of the leaders at schools that had passing scores in 2007 said they were surprised to find their names on the list.

"We are definitely confused and wondering why our school appeared on the list" as a failing schools, said Rhonda Kalifey-Aluise, the executive director of KIPP New Orleans, which runs several charter schools.

The school on the list, McDonogh No. 15, has waiting lists at all grade levels, however, so Kalifey-Aluise isn't worried about an exodus of students.

Doris Hicks, the principal of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Science & Technology, said she "would hope that none of our parents are fooled into thinking that they would leave a top-quality school seeking something."

Other eligibility rules dictate that families must live in New Orleans and have an income of less than 250 percent above the federal poverty level. Starting kindergartners must meet only the income and residency requirements.

State officials said they relied on the law, which is written ambiguously in parts, in deciding that students who attended any Recovery School District program last year are eligible. "The (department's) decisions were based on what we concluded were the legal definitions of the legislation," said René Greer, spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Education, in an e-mail. She added that "the RSD presents us with a unique set of circumstances."

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, officials removed New Orleans' poorly performing public schools, which made up the vast majority, from the control of the School Board, putting them in the state-run Recovery School District. Since then, several charter schools have opened up under the auspices of the district.

The law says that students eligible for vouchers need to be enrolled in a school that "has been identified as academically unacceptable," measured largely by standardized test scores. Greer said state officials decided that all Recovery School District schools meet the first criteria since they have been identified as "academically unacceptable" by virtue of their being placed in the district.

"We determined that under the circumstances, with some having incomplete scores or no scores, we were obligated by the law to do that," she said.

Rep. Neil Abramson, D-New Orleans, one of the lawmakers who pushed for an amendment calling for only students attending "failing schools" in New Orleans, disagreed. Including all Recovery School District schools on the eligibility list distorts the intention of the amendment, he said.

"The program was designed to spend money on the kids who are not getting the quality of education the state should be giving them," he said. "Those are the ones in the failing schools. There is only a limited amount of money to spend on this program, and it should not be spent on those kids where it isn't necessary."

When asked to respond, Jindal's press secretary, Melissa Sellers, issued a brief statement stating, "This legislation is intended to help kids in failing schools."

She said the state Department of Education will oversee implementation of the law.

Former Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member Leslie Jacobs said many of the schools on the list haven't been labeled as failing since before the flood, when some of them had completely different faculties and student enrollments. She pointed to a provision in board policy, passed when she was a member, that called for New Orleans schools to be given a one-year waiver after the storm from state accountability provisions, and to consider new schools after the waiver ends.

"There is no way you can use the academically unacceptable label from 2005 when, according to board policy, we said they are new schools," Jacobs said.

Through Jacobs' interpretation, four schools that had acceptable "index" scores at the end of the 2006-07 school year should not be included on the list: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School, Medard Nelson Elementary School, KIPP McDonogh 15 and Martin Behrman Elementary School.

Jacobs said 14 other schools that weren't even open in the 2006-07 school year, and therefore do not have any "index" score at all, should not be on the list.

"The intent is to let students who are really attending failing schools go to another school," Jacobs said. "This is not an issue of, 'Should we have vouchers or not?' It's an issue of prioritizing who gets vouchers."

Greer said the department "will certainly take (Jacobs') points under consideration. But at this point we still believe those . . . schools should be included."

Applications for the program will be accepted today at the Dryades YMCA at 2220 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Saturday between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.

All families will be notified of whether they received a voucher by July 31.

— Sarah Carr and Darran Simon
Times-Picayune
2008-07-17
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-11/121627262844080.xml&coll=1

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