Photo by Hans Gerwitz

Photograph by Hans Gerwitz

Several dozen elementary schools with scores higher than the state's target for academic success have been placed on a list of 1,000 "low-achieving schools." Existence on the listing gives parents the right to remove their children and enroll them in higher-performing schools anywhere in the state.

The designation of these schools as "depression achieving" is the unintended issue of the Open Enrollment Deed, which was meant to give parents at some of the country'south lowest-performing schools greater selection equally to where to enroll their children. Until passage of the law, transferring to schools in another district was exceedingly difficult for about children, doable only through a hard-to-get inter-district transfer.

This law, which went into effect in April 2010, requires districts to transport messages to parents notifying them of the right to transfer to a higher-performing school in another commune, based on its Bookish Performance Index (API). The state'south target for success is an API score of 800 or college.

Some 59 elementary schools with an API at or above 800 are on the recently released "open up enrollment" listing, created for the 2012-13 school year. Another 253 schools on the list have scores of 750 or more.

Each year, the California Section of Education drafts a new list of 1,000 schools. The initial listing created for the 2010-11 school yr had only six schools on it with an API score of 800 or 801 — and none college.

Not surprisingly, principals at many of the schools on the newly-released list are unhappy with the "depression-achieving" designation.

With an API of 812, Oakhurst Elementary, a M–5 schoolhouse in Bass Lake Articulation Matrimony Simple district most Yosemite National Park, has the highest score on the list. "I share the sentiment of other principals who have this new designation — that it's non indicative of the school program," said Principal Kathleen Irish potato.

At Oakhurst, almost lxx pct of fifth graders scored advanced or practiced in English language arts and math on the recent state test. "That speaks volumes for our overall plan," Murphy said. "Is that a failing schoolhouse?"

Schools with loftier API scores can end up on the listing partly considering no single district can have more than 10% of its schools designated as a "depression-achieving" schoolhouse. So some schools with low API scores escape the designation because they are in a commune with schools with fifty-fifty lower ones — typically districts like Los Angeles Unified or San Diego Unified.

Kevin Monsma, superintendent for Pollack Pines Unproblematic commune in El Dorado County, which has 700 students, is non pleased with this approach, maxim that the police force in issue protects large school districts and penalizes pocket-size ones. His district has two schools, including Pinewood Simple, which is on the list with an API score of 811.

"Y'all get to the point where yous're non identifying depression-performing schools," he said. "Information technology's kind of an odd message."

Higher-scoring unproblematic schools, in particular, are more likely to exist on the listing because by constabulary elementary schools must brand upwardly more than two-thirds of the schools on it. In fact, nearly 400 schools with the highest scores on the list of one,000 are simple schools, with API scores of 737 or higher. Many are schools in small districts.

The Legislature attempted to fix this trouble past passing Assembly Beak (AB) 47, introduced past Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael. The bill would take excluded schools with an API score above 700 for ii years in a row as well as schools that showed an comeback of 50 points in a year.

"Something is wrong with our open enrollment arrangement when high-performing schools go labeled as low performers and grouped together with schools that truly need to improve bookish performance," Huffman said in a printing release.

But Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed the bill last month, saying that, if enacted, the bill would have imposed so many restrictions that only 150 schools would qualify as "low achieving" on the  list mandated by AB 47.

"I believe that the proposed changes go also far and would undermine the intent of the original constabulary," he said in his veto bulletin. He also added that the State Board of Educational activity tin can exempt schools that testify strong educatee academic achievement. Since the first list was published, 103 schools have sought to be excluded from the list past applying for a waiver from the State Board of Education.

Many more superintendents, including Monsma, with schools on the new list are expected to seek waivers.

Based on by experience, it seems unlikely that many parents volition have advantage of the law to transfer their children to other schools, even though they have the right to do then. And receiving schools can turn down transfers for limited reasons, including if the new educatee would cause overcrowding or damage the school financially.

Kelly Avants, communications ambassador for Clovis Unified in Fresno County, which had one school on the "Open Enrollment" list concluding year, said only one student applied for a transfer under the new law.

When parents are assessing the merits of a schoolhouse, she said, "we take found that our families are more than likely to rely on their personal experience than a federal or state label."

In Alameda Unified, in the San Francisco Bay Area, only 19 students out of 277 transferred from Washington Elementary final year, despite the fact that the commune sent multiple letters to parents explaining the new police force, said Kirsten Zazo, director of Student Services for the district. Already, iii have returned.

"Many parents are confused and upset by the law," Zazo said. "They beloved their school and don't empathize why the state is encouraging them to leave."

Some other Alameda Unified elementary schoolhouse, Scarlet Bridges, with an API of 811, was designated a "depression-achieving" school on the new list. Among its challenges is a high turnover rate because its student body includes many homeless students and Coast Guard families.

In a letter to parents, Principal January Goodman pointed out that students who have been at the school for several years exercise far better than more transient pupils. She compared the exam results of students who had been at Ruby Bridges for i twelvemonth versus five years. For example, the percent of students scoring skilful or in a higher place in English arts nigh doubled from 39% later on one twelvemonth at the school to 74% after v years there.

After receiving the letter, only ii students transferred out of more than 600 at the school, Goodman said. The parents, she added, "were really happy to learn that the kids who stay hither exercise well. They don't call up it is off-white that the school has these labels."

To find out if a particular school is on the list of "open enrollment schools" check out the listing here . See the complete list here.

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