Under-performing
schools scramble to make the grade
67 must raise their test scores
or undergo major changes
Wednesday, March 15, 2006 • BY JOHN MOONEY •
Star-Ledger Staff
In Trenton, one school has been closed
altogether and a second may also. In Elizabeth, school
officials are replacing many of the principals and vice
principals in eight of its middle schools.
Paterson officials have set up a new
system of oversight -- with an intense focus on student data
-- to help its six schools on the list improve.
Deadline day is fast approaching for
nearly 70 New Jersey schools that have not met the
requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, and
now must get their test scores up or change the way they do
business.
Most of the schools that have failed to
measure up are in the cities, like Newark and Elizabeth, and
many are middle schools. All failed to meet the requirements
for five straight years.
The districts must raise test scores this
year or find a way to "restructure" the schools.
As two dozen districts develop their
final plans with the state, due in early May, the term
"restructure" means different things in different
schools.
Newark has 13 schools on the list, the
most in the state. They are places like Morton Street
School, where just a third of its eighth-graders passed the
language arts test last year and less than a fifth passed
math.
The full-court press is already under way
in many of these schools, including intensive state-led
evaluations over the last year that dissected how teachers
teach and administrators lead.
The state has pressed many of the 13
schools to develop better teacher and administrator training
and to pay closer attention to different student
needs.
"It really becomes a matter of strong
monitoring and following up what we have started," said
Newark Superintendent Marion Bolden. "It's not an overnight
fix."
The goal of the No Child Left Behind Act,
signed by President Bush in 2002, was to implement radical
changes in schools that are failing to meet basic
benchmarks.
The law demands all public schools meet
certain achievement levels each year in all categories of
students -- including minority, special education and
low-income. The law's ambitious goal is 100 percent
proficiency in reading and math by 2014.
Those schools falling short in any one
category face sanctions. In the first few years, nearly
1,000 New Jersey schools missed the mark in one category or
another and faced relatively mild consequences.
But after the fifth consecutive year of
under-performance, the law gets tougher. It dictates that
these so-called "Year Five schools" undergo major changes,
or "restructuring," and offers six options that range from
replacing staff to turning the school over to a private
operator.
In New Jersey, 67 schools are on the
list, with potentially hundreds more making the list in the
next two years. So far, most schools on the list are urban
and poor and have been struggling for years.
The state Department of Education has
some discretion in which of the six options it can offer
schools, and it chose three that officials said are in
keeping with state law:
- Allow a school to convert to an
independent charter school;
- Replace all or most of "relevant"
staff, or
- Restructure" how the school
operates.
No schools have yet stepped forward to
propose a charter conversion, state officials said, which
would require approval of at least half of the school's
parents and teachers.
And officials said few are making major
staff overhauls, as many face the reality of union
protection and recruitment challenges. And there's the
question of where to transfer these teachers,
anyway.
"Right now we are trying to raise the
skill level of (the teachers) we have," said Brenda
Patterson, an assistant superintendent in Paterson. "Taking
a teacher out of a Year Five school and putting it in a
school in year two, what do you accomplish with
that?"
Paterson has six schools on the list,
including School No. 10, where fewer than half of the
elementary school students pass the state's exams. The
district has implemented daily 90-minute blocks of reading
and math instruction, along with more frequent
assessments.
The six schools are also more closely
tracking each student's progress.
"A child may know her letters, but maybe
can't recite them in a minute and a half. What do you do?"
Patterson said. "I'm not sure we have had those kinds of
conversations before."
It's an approach that should extend to
all schools, she added, but must start now with those most
under the gun.
State officials said such targeted
efforts are common in many of the districts facing the
restructuring edict. Most agreed the law and the state
evaluations are a good impetus to take a look at what's
working.
"It's looking at things in differentiated
ways, drilling down to see what's going on," said Suzanne
Ochse, director of the state Title I office that oversees
the No Child Left Behind compliance. "You won't see it all
happen right away, but districts are using this as an
opportunity to reshuffle the deck, if you will."
In Trenton, school officials closed the
Holland School last year and may merge the Martin Luther
King Middle School into another.
The school superintendent said the
district is looking beyond training and programs for
existing staff.
"It's one thing to have a year or two of
flat performance, but another to have five years," said
Superintendent James Lytle. "It's hard to claim after five
years that the same faculty and administration will turn it
around."
In Elizabeth, school officials are taking
a similar approach. Officials have replaced the principals
or vice principals in five of the eight Year Five schools,
and are looking for more staff changes as well.
"Basically, our approach is to go hard at
the administration, and with the rest of the staff, we're
taking a hard look at renewals," said Superintendent Pablo
Munoz. "It is difficult to find replacements (for teachers),
but we're not going to keep them on if they are not
effective."
John Mooney covers education. He may be reached at
jmooney@starledger.com, or (973) 392-1548.
© 2006 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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