If You Want to Transfer Your Child under NCLB, Get that Request In

I was reading the Spokane newspaper and it was stated that for Spokane's school district, the deadline to request a transfer to a new school under NCLB is August 26th.  So I wrote to SPS to ask what their deadline is.  Here's the answer I received:

Parents have to request a transfer by the first day of school by 4 pm. They will then be sent an application with their PSC options.

That PSC is "Public School Options" and here is the form you must submit to ask for it.  Understand, this form I'm linking is a request for the PSC form, NOT the actual form. 

Note - only via mail or fax (which seems not-so-helpful); I would suppose you could also submit it in person.


Transportation would be provided but:
- your new school may not have services your old school did and the district does not have to provide them
- transportation would end if that new school did not meet AYP (annual yearly progress) under NCLB

For more information about Public School Choice, please call 206-252-0852.

Comments

SeattleMom said…
Can you transfer to another school that also didn't make AYP? If not, are there any schools in Seattle/Bellevue area that did make AYP? How do I find the list?
Anonymous said…
So,

ALL high schools failed? Every single one? I somehow thought center school might have made it.

And, ALL middles schools failed? Every single one??

And, all k8s failed? Every single one??

But, at the elementary school level, 3% 'didn't fail? Does translate into basically 2 out of the 60 or so k5s?

So, one has to be Lincoln APP, which is a program not a school.... so that leaves ONE SINGLE school, a K5, that everyone is eligible to transfer to WITH transportation?

.... Is it North Beach? West Woodland? Schmitz Park?

Please, will someone find out THE school and post? Then everyone can transfer!

--LET'S GO!
Anonymous said…
At our NE schools meeting, Wedgwood was the stand-out high-ranking school that district staff were raving about. My guess is it is Wedgwood (and APP@Lincoln).

- North-end Mom
Anonymous said…
Can you transfer to a school that is already over capacity? How could that even work?

-confused
Anonymous said…
Well, Northgate is awfully close to Wedgwood. NG is a wonderful school, but still, if some of those families were thinking about going to a different school, with higher student achievement across the board--- file 'dem papers pronto!

Rules are rules; let's not let the District use the 'diffuse and confuse' tactic sprinkled with the 'let's hide the facts and run out the clock' strategy.

Everyone, if you are so inclined, transfer away to THE passing school, whatever it is. Put the needs of your child first and act accordingly.

Please, someone confirm which are the passing schools, then, parents shall be free to exercise their choice.

LET'S GO
Patrick said…
It sounds like something out of Joseph Heller. Every school fails, except ones that are too new to be counted, or one single K-5. Even though they're doing better than the schools in states that got waivers.
Seattle Mom, you'd have to call SPS for that info. (But I don't think you can transfer to any other school deemed "failing.")

Confused, the letter does say "should a school be available." So there could be a school or two that isn't failing, that doesn't mean they can/will put everyone into them.
Anonymous said…
SeattleMom et al, my understanding is that the district will only provide transportation for students in Title I schools that did not make AYP to a school IN THE DISTRICT that made AYP. In other words, the district will not provide transportation from one "failing" school to another "failing" school.

Also, Title I schools that made AYP but are at capacity do not have to accept additional students. [FYI - This is per NCLB and state policy. SPS may have different policy in this regard.]

Also, high schools do not typically receive Title I dollars from the district; therefore, they are not Title I schools and are not held to the NCLB consequences. NCLB sanctions, etc. only apply to those schools that receive Title I dollars. Non-Title I schools are still identified as making AYP or not --- they just don't have to deal with the sanctions, etc.

--- swk
Eric B said…
The larger the school is, the more likely it is that they are "failing." The metric is whether 100% of students passed all exams at grade level. That means that the "passing" school is probably relatively small and relatively wealthy with a very small SpEd population. I don't know what school fits that bill. Wedgewood is almost certainly too large. Loyal Heights "failed" despite winning a national Blue Ribbon School award a couple of years ago.
Lynn said…
OSPI has a Parents/Guardians Guide on Public School Choice. In it they say:

If there are no schools in your child's district, or in surrounding districts able to accept your PSC students, the district must notify
parents that:
• There are no alternative schools.
• The school and district are taking specific measures designed to address the problem of struggling
learners.


And here's here's an explanation of why we're receiving such late notice. (Randy Dorn requested a waiver of the usual requirement that parents be notified 14 days before the start of the school year.)
Anonymous said…
NCLB is a complete farce, designed to destroy public school systems and divert dollars to private schools, testing and tutoring companies. It's judgment that a school has "failed" is completely arbitrary and false.

By NCLB's logic, the Seahawks "failed" as a football team last year, not just because they didn't win every game, but because they didn't score a touchdown on every drive. That's NCLB in a nutshell folks.

WSDWG
Eric B said…
What WSDWG said.
Anonymous said…
I don't support NCLB more than anyone else but I am still troubled by the letter I received from our elementary school. It says the school is making AYP in only one out of twenty-one indicators. Our school is in step one of improvement. Can it get any worse? What are the indicators? How are other schools doing by comparison? Where is the data? Is this based on 2013-14 MSP scores?

Chicago
Watching said…

"NCLB is a complete farce, designed to destroy public school systems and divert dollars to private schools, testing and tutoring companies. It's judgment that a school has "failed" is completely arbitrary and false."

I agree. REALLY hate that my kids are caught-up in the public ed. system during this time.

Now, we can all watch our children take a brand new test- Smarter Balanced.

My HS student came home upset because they "tested" a final exam. My child stated that test material wasn't covered in class. I checked-in with the teacher and the teacher wanted to get a "look" at the test. So, our children took a final exam so the teacher could get an advance look at the test. The teacher ended up grading on a curve. My child that received a 64% on the final ended up with a 93%. There is SOOOOO much wrong with this.

I'm really feeling sick.
Watching said…
BTW...I'm not blaming the teacher for the above situation. I'm blaming a system that wants to profit from curriculum and tests, and a system that wants to hold teachers accountable by promoting VAM, merit pay and linking teacher competence to test scores.
dan dempsey said…
The way Common Core and NCLB are working, what is needed is an option out of this country and away from Arne Duncan et al.
Anonymous said…
Uhhh. State test results still aren't out yet. Ergo, AYP hasn't been determined. Ergo, request for sanction implementation isn't valid. WTF. Why did we get the phone message?

Btw. SPS website says you can indeed tranfer to another failing school.

Ergo
Anonymous said…
Ergo, although individual student score reports may not have been delivered to families, districts already know the scores and know which schools made AYP.

And, the use of the term "failing" - which I regret having used above and which I have avoided using for years - does not appear in NCLB. There are two distinctions in regard to which students have Public School Choice. First, there is the determination of whether a school made AYP. Second, there is a determination regarding whether a school is in a Step of Improvement. A school needs to not have made AYP for two consecutive years to get into a Step of Improvement.

So, all students in a Title I school that is in a Step of Improvement may transfer with free transportation to a school in the district that is not in a Step of Improvement. There might be a school that did not make AYP in 2013-14 that is not in a Step of Improvement because this is the first year they did not make AYP. Students would be eligible to transfer to this school (assuming they have capacity, etc.).

--- swk
Anonymous said…
Swk. Ospi is releasing ayp results today. Not last week. Not last month. Not secretly. Districts know squat until then. Also, yes indeed district has indeed offered families other failing options for transfer. That seems good, and is choice for families. Hope they do it again. Their website indicates they will.

Ergo
Anonymous said…
Ergo, districts received preliminary results some time ago. There is a process called "record reconciliation" between the districts, vendor, and OSPI to correct any errors in the score data. The corrected data then goes through a second round of record reconciliation. Once that's done, OSPI runs the AYP calculations for all districts and schools and shares those with the districts. The districts have an opportunity to correct any errors in those calculations before OSPI shares the final AYP results with the districts.

What occurred this morning was the public release of the scores and AYP calculations. Districts had those scores and AYP calculations prior to this morning.

--- swk
Unknown said…
Wedgwood, Sand Point and John Stanford International are the only schools who made AYP this past year.
Anonymous said…
Since our neighborhood school is title 1 and not passing Adequate Yearly Progress AYP each year, I'm wondering if they are required to give us other options for better performing schools to transfer to? The federal law says they are, but the Highline website says they don't have to since all schools in the area are "in progress" and there are no passing schools of AYP to transfer to... But there certainly are some schools which are struggling more than others and some which are performing much better in the district!

I've heard that letters are being sent out to parents to transfer (like only 2 weeks before school starts to decide!) but the transfer options really aren't any better than the school their child is already assigned to so what's the point? Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks!
Samantha
Northender said…
I believe they just rewrote the NCLB law and the AYP/public school choice part was not included in the new version.

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