Indianapolis to “cluster” kids who have repeated grades twice
Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) will target its toughest academic cases next year: the more than 1,400 students who have been held back at least twice before eighth grade. Officials have started to assign all of them to separate classes at four sites for fifth- through seventh-graders and to more locations for struggling younger students. "We cannot reduce our dropouts in middle school and high school—we've got to start early," said Assistant Superintendent Li-Yen Johnson. "When they cross that second-grade threshold and they cannot read, they've already started on the downward trend of being a dropout." Getting these students caught up is critical to the district's success, said Superintendent Eugene White. Children are going to start with blank slates, he said, and teachers are going to provide basic instruction and build from there. The students in the program will be assigned to one school and will attend that school no matter where their family moves within the district. Older students would be together in the same classes. IPS hopes that will eliminate the shame of, for example, 13-year-old fifth-graders by moving them into a school with students their own age. Those students will have a teacher trained to work with struggling students and will have more staff to support them, including aides, therapists and counselors.
But there is a downside: Those schools where the struggling students are clustered will likely be unable to make adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. And it could cost $1 million to set up the program while IPS is trying to cut money from its budget to offer raises to staff. Another round of budget cuts is looming as property tax caps limit the district's revenue starting next year. The district plans to pay for portions of the program with federal Title I money, said Minetta Richardson. She is the district's director of Title I, a federal program that provides money to help struggling students. That money will be used to add about 90 minutes to the school day for the children, she said, so they could get additional instruction in the most important subjects. The district, School Board President Mary E. Busch said, will have to take the hit financially and in the annual ratings of failing schools because the students who are lagging deserve the help. "We'll do what we have to do," she said. "We've got to save our young people. We've got to save them."
Source: Indianapolis Star, 2/7/08, By Andy Gammill