WASHINGTON – Falling short of requirements under President Bush’s education law, about 1,750 U.S. schools have been ordered into radical “restructuring,” subject to mass firings, closure, state takeover or other moves aimed at wiping their slates clean.
Many are finding resolutions short of such drastic measures. But there is growing concern that the number of schools in serious trouble under the No Child Left Behind Act is rising sharply – up 44 percent over the past year alone – and is expected to swell by thousands in the next few years.
Schools make the list by falling short in math or reading test scores for at least five straight years.
In perspective, the total amounts to 3 percent of about 53,000 schools that get federal poverty aid and face penalties under the law.
Seven states – California, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania – account for almost 70 percent of the schools ordered to restructure.
Nine schools in Washington, and none in Snohomish or Island counties, were listed by the Education Department as being ordered to restructure:
Mount Adams Middle School, White Swan; McFarland Junior High, Othello; Stevens Middle School, Pasco; Toppenish junior and senior highs, Toppenish; Morris Schott Middle School and Saddle Mountain Intermediate, Wahluke; and Adams and Barge-Lincoln elementary schools, Yakima.
Education Department officials caution that the numbers are still being verified.
“It’s just a matter of time before we see upward of 10,000 schools in restructuring,” said Michael Petrilli, a former enforcement official at the Education Department.
“Unless all of these schools suddenly turn themselves around, or the states continue to find ways to finagle the system, you’re going to see the numbers accelerate,” said Petrilli, vice president for policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.
More than a quarter of the nation’s schools have failed to make adequate annual progress for at least one year. Many will keep moving along the law’s penalty timeline. A district must choose an overhaul plan for a school by year five, then act on it in year six.
Assistant Education Secretary Henry Johnson said he’s not encouraged by the growing number of schools ordered to make changes. But the trend shows the law is working, he said, by identifying schools that are leaving poor and minority students behind.
When a school reaches the end of the line, its district has five choices:
* Hire an outside organization to run the school.
* Reopen the school as a charter school, with new leadership and less regulation.
* Replace most or all of the school staff who have any ties to the school’s failure.
* Turn operation of the school over to the state, if the state agrees.
* Choose any other major restructuring that will fundamentally reform the school.
Most districts are opting for the last choice, a wide-open category.
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