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Poor scores may mandate transfers

Thursday, August 29, 2002

By Carmen J. Lee, Post-Gazette Education Writer

It wasn't too long ago that Midland students were unwanted.

	Teacher Pam Swanson talks to her sixth-grade class at Aliquippa Middle School during their first day of school on Tuesday. The district's schools have been designated academically troubled under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The Midland School District has agreed to accept up to six pupils per grade from Aliquippa's elementary and middle schools. (Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette)

When the district struggled for stability after the collapse of the steel industry, one neighboring Beaver County district abruptly ended an agreement to accept Midland high school students, and others refused to take its children in.

So the district ended up sending students to East Liverpool, Ohio.

Not one to hold a grudge, however, Midland is the first Western Pennsylvania district to agree to accept children from neighboring Aliquippa, whose schools have been designated academically troubled under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

"There's room and in some cases there's plenty of room," said Midland Superintendent Nick Trombetta.

"This district has been about not closing doors to any student serious about education."

The district will accept up to six pupils per grade from Aliquippa's elementary and middle schools.

But other Western Pennsylvania districts with schools identified as poor performers under the No Child Left Behind Act say there's little they can do to comply with federal education requirements.

They don't have enough schools to offer parents alternative places to educate their children. And they doubt neighboring districts will help, or their requests already have been turned down.

The state also hasn't provided them with a federally required list of organizations that will offer tutoring services for their students.

And despite the fact that their schools are on a national list of poor-performers, some parents not only have opted to stick with them but also contend their children are learning.

	The Series: Day One: A late bloomer learns to read Day Two: Word is out on how schools can get funding for reading Day Three: A kinder, gentler phys ed Day Four: Law allows businesses to rack up tax breaks through gifts to schools Today: Troubled schools struggle with new transfer law Day Six: When students go wireless, colleges lose money Day Seven: In 2003, students in danger can request school transfer

"I never once thought about taking my children out of the schools," said Tamara Battles, president of the parent-teachers associations at Aliquippa elementary and middle schools. "They have a great reading program here. My daughter is on the honor roll. As long as my children are well-educated, I'm not having a problem."

More than 8,600 schools nationwide have been identified as so academically deficient that they must give families the option of sending their children to other schools this year.

In Pennsylvania, 256 schools were included on the list of poorly performing schools, more than 175 in Philadelphia alone.

All schools placed on what is being called the "school improvement" list receive federal money through the Title I program, which provides assistance to academically and financially disadvantaged students.

School officials are required to use their Title I funds to cover the cost of complying with the law's requirements, such as transporting students to better schools or providing tutoring.

Seventeen Western Pennsylvania schools were placed on the list. Twelve of the schools, in six districts, are required to give parents the choice to send their children to other schools. Those districts are Aliquippa in Beaver County; Albert Gallatin Area in Fayette County; and Clairton, Duquesne, Sto-Rox and Wilkinsburg in Allegheny County.

The remaining five schools -- two in Albert Gallatin, one in Frazier, Fayette County, one in Homer Center, Indiana County, and one in Southmoreland, Westmoreland County -- showed enough improvement during the 2000-01 school year to keep them from having to offer school choice. They must continue to show progress for another year before they can be taken off the list.

But ever since Pennsylvania school officials learned in July that the state had placed some of their schools on the federal list, many in this region have been wondering how they would be able to comply with the law.

For example, although Albert Gallatin Area was able to offer school choice to families of the two elementary schools on the list -- Friendship Hill and Masontown -- the options were limited.

Two other schools could not accept pupils because they were also on the federal list, though they did not have to offer choice.

One of the remaining two schools not on the list was crowded, leaving only one school available as an option, acting Superintendent Walter Vicinelly said.

So far, however, the parents of only three youngsters have expressed interest in transferring.

"Many of the parents are rallying behind the schools and the teachers and choosing to let their children stay in the schools," Vicinelly said.

In the Aliquippa, Clairton, Duquesne, Sto-Rox and Wilkinsburg school districts, all elementary or middle schools were placed on the improvement list, leaving them without any alternatives within their districts to offer parents.

Duquesne and Clairton school officials have contacted neighboring districts but have been unsuccessful in getting any of them to accept their students.

Sto-Rox and Wilkinsburg school officials have been skeptical about even trying.

Helping to fuel some of the school officials' reluctance have been questions about how their schools got on the list in the first place.

Sto-Rox Superintendent Anthony Skender wondered how his district's kindergarten center could be listed when "we have no test data on the kindergarten center."

Aliquippa officials had a similar complaint about the placement of their one elementary school which only goes up to fourth grade and would not have state test results for fifth-graders, the first group to start taking state exams.

State officials responded that they looked at school performance on other local and national tests as well as the state exam when making their selection.

Still, school officials in those districts said that they haven't had to field a lot of requests for transfers anyway. Several said they've had a few inquiries, but most were primarily from people who wanted to better understand what was going on.

Five or six students even enrolled at Aliquippa Middle School on Monday.

Michelle Gennaro, whose son is a sixth-grader at the school, said that "Aliquippa gets a bad rap. My boy makes A's. They get just as good an education here as anywhere else. I would never take my kid out of this school -- ever."

Not all parents are satisfied, however.

David Butts of Aliquippa had wanted to send his children to the Hopewell School District, but school officials there wouldn't accept tuition students.

"I'd much rather my children were out of Aliquippa," he said.

And Trombetta acknowledged that his district has received some calls from Aliquippa parents interested in sending their children Midland schools. No arrangements for any transfers have been made yet.

Another complaint has been that districts have not yet received a list of agencies to provide supplemental education services, such at tutoring, which their districts are also required to offer under No Child Left Behind.

A list of providers should be available in the next several weeks, said State Department of Education spokesman Jeff McCloud.

While the state has offered some guidance to districts on how to comply with the federal law, Fran Warkomski, director of the state bureau of special education, said federal education officials are still working on compliance rules.

Nationally, districts with schools identified as academically deficient under the federal law have had some difficulty offering school choice, particularly rural or small ones, said Mary Kusler, a legislative specialist with the American Association of School Administrators.

"Many larger districts had choice options before No Child Left Behind, so they had the capacity to do this without difficulty," she said. "But a lot of smaller districts do not have the capacity. Some rural districts have so much geographic distance between them that it's not feasible for them to send children out of their district when the closest one is 50 miles away."

Kusler said the problems will work themselves out during the school year. But the late notice some districts received and the lack of consistent information has made it difficult for many of them to begin the school year in compliance with the new law.

"It's a rush job right now," she said. "We'll have to wait to see how it unfolds."

Carmen Lee can be reached at clee@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1884.