Last year Murphy Elementary, a Northwest Side school whose test scores have been rising in the last few years, took in eight students from a neighboring school that had not met the standards of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Now, in a strange twist, it is parents at Murphy who will be given the option of transferring their children out of a school labeled by the state as “failing.”
Murphy was among the Chicago schools tripped up by a new wrinkle in the far-reaching education reform law, which for the first time this year requires schools to be judged not only by overall test scores but by those of 18 subgroups of students, including African-American, Hispanic, limited English proficiency, low-income and special ed.
Students at such schools might do well enough on reading and math tests to score above the annual pass rate, which was set at 40 percent this year. But if one or two of the subgroups fail to meet the same bar, they are labeled as failing and must offer all students the opportunity to move to a better school.
The effects of the law are especially dismaying for five elementary schools in particular–Murphy, Bateman, Gallistel, Budlong and Greeley–because they have been posting significant gains in standardized test scores for several years. This year, all of them scored above 50 percent on their state achievement exams in both reading and math.
Yet the limited English proficiency subgroups at each of the schools failed to meet standards in math or reading or both.
In Murphy’s case, it all came down to 5th-grade math. The school landed on the choice list because it was 0.5 percent below the benchmark for the limited-English subgroup.
“It’s devastating to us that we would do so well on [standardized tests] and then because of these 18 hurdles, we get placed on the choice list,” said Donna Nelson, principal of the school at 3539 W. Grace St. in the Irving Park neighborhood.
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“At the end of the year we were celebrating our gains. Isn’t it a shame that if maybe two or more students would have answered the questions right, we would have gotten the half percentage point that we needed?”
Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan said it does not make sense to label schools as struggling when the majority of the 365 schools tagged this year by the federal law have improved their test scores.
“A school like Murphy … where we are seeing continuous improvement and where the only problem is literally two or three students in one subcategory not making standards, to label that school as failing is absolutely ludicrous,” Duncan said. “It is the epitome of bad policy.”
Supporters of the law note that its purpose is to ensure that all children–not just the majority–get a good education in school. For that reason, they say, the subgroup provisions are beneficial because they point out where problems exist in the system.
Indeed, Chicago’s test scores indicate difficulty within the district in educating limited-English students. Depending on how long they have been in bilingual education, such students take either the IMAGE, a test that measures growth in the English language, or the Illinois Standards Achievement Test taken by most other students.
Of the 365 Chicago schools on the choice list, 91 had at least 40 limited-English students–the minimum number to be counted as a subgroup. Only four of those schools met or exceeded the 40 percent standard in reading for that subgroup. The numbers were slightly better for math, in which 21 schools reached the threshold.
Special education is another area of concern. State data show that out of the 50 schools on the choice list with a sufficient number of special education students, only one school met standards: Christopher Elementary at 5042 S. Artesian Ave. in Gage Park.
Duncan said the district would be looking into why certain populations did so poorly.
Starting this week, officials will send letters to parents to inform them they will be able transfer their child to another school. An estimated 285,000 students at the 365 schools are eligible for transfers, but the district has already acknowledged that fewer than 50 schools will be open to new students.
For Juan Rangel, executive director of the United Neighborhood Organization, the pain of getting placed on the choice list due to the subgroups is worth the gain.
Octavio Paz Charter School, whose charter is held by his organization, also landed on the list. Although the school performed well in teaching its bilingual students, it faltered with its African-American students.
“It gives a more true picture of where … students are at,” Rangel said of the new criteria.
Nobody should blame the students in the subgroups, he added. “I don’t think they should be viewed as the problem,” Rangel said. “I think we need to look at how we are teaching these students.”
Annette Held, a parent at Murphy School, worries about how the news that the school is on the choice list will come across.
“What is the message that we are sending to these families?” she asked. “`Your school is performing so poorly, you can choose to leave.’ What does that say to our parents?”
Officials at Budlong were surprised to learn that last year, when the school was enrolling students who fled other campuses under the federal law, the state belatedly had added Budlong and 39 other schools to the choice list without informing Chicago officials.
For that reason, Budlong should have been offering choice to its own students last year. It also means that this year, it will be required to offer not only transfers but tutoring services to students.
Budlong Principal Alvin Solomon is afraid some people will point fingers and say a certain group of students is bringing down his extremely diverse school, located at 2701 W. Foster Ave. in Lincoln Square.
The school, which has more than 352 limited English proficiency students registered for this fall, includes speakers of Spanish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Assyrian, Bosnian, Bulgarian and Arabic.
“It’s going to create more of a problem than a solution,” he said grimly. “What am I supposed to do, tell all the bilingual children don’t come to Budlong School? You’re hurting us.”
To add another complication, the law includes a “safe harbor” exemption that allows schools that have shown substantial progress over the previous year off the hook.
The problem with that, officials say, is that the school district will not know whether any of its schools qualify for safe harbor until the school year has already begun.
Unable to let the matter rest, Nelson is spending the weekend with her assistant principal analyzing their test scores and trying to find the glitch that will free them from this stigmatizing measure.
“We are looking through our statistics to find that half a percentage point,” she said late last week. “All I need is half a percentage point and I’m not on that list. I’m not a choice school.”
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