Last month, the state trotted out a bunch of scary must-do reforms when it released the list of the so-called "worst-performing schools."
Fire the principal and staff. Convert into a charter school. Or possibly shut your doors forever. But absolutely no more business as usual.
Flickr photo by woodlewonderworks
Child, please.
According to some excellent reporting by the Contra Costa Times and the Oakland Tribune, a loophole has emerged.
It turns out, the reforms were tied to the acceptance of federal School Improvement Grants. Backed by federal stimulus dollars, the U.S. Department of Education offered up to $4 billion in SIG funding to turn around schools deemed consistently low performers. But here's the rub: the program is voluntary. So, if a school district decides to turn down the grant money, the state can't make them adhere to the reforms.
"At this point in time, there is not an enforcement mechanism other than public opinion," Hilary McLean, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education, told the Times.
Oakland Unified School District, which had five middle schools on the list, is a prime example of what could happen at most of the 188 schools on the list. According to the Tribune:
At first, Oakland school administrators had assumed the district would be required to make one of four drastic interventions at schools on the state's "persistently lowest-achieving" list: Alliance Academy, Elmhurst Community Prep, Explore Middle School, ROOTS International and United for Success Academy … At a town-hall meeting March 24, Superintendent Tony Smith called the process "unfair" and "unacceptable" — and then suggested that there was no good way around it. That changed last week, [district spokesman Tony] Flint said, when state Department of Education officials confirmed that "there's no mechanism for enforcement. In other words, if schools don't apply for the School Improvement Grant money – the carrot — there is no stick, other than foregoing the cash. Flint said this information has opened the door for submitting an alternative improvement plan at some of the schools, such as directing staff to continue and/or refocus their strategy without starting from scratch again. "That definitely changed the perspective of the people at the central office," he said. A list of the schools eligible for the School Improvement Grants can be found here.
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