Districts begin efforts to 'reconstitute' underperforming schools

By Ellie Ashford

7/13/04 -- Faced with the prospect of mandated corrective actions under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), some districts have begun efforts to "reconstitute" poorly performing schools.

In Columbus, Ohio, school officials expect that three schools that have been struggling with low test scores will face corrective action this fall.

"We're going to look at alternative governance," says Deputy Superintendent Marvenia Bosley. "An outside expert could be brought in to run the schools, they could reopen as public charter schools, or another alternative corrective action could be taken."

Of Columbus' 143 schools, 28 are not making adequate yearly progress (AYP), as required by NCLB, Bosley says, but the district will concentrate on the three lowest-performing schools -- East Linden and Livingston elementary schools and Brentnell Alternative.

Brentnell Alternative is actually showing a decline in fourth graders' math scores, she notes, from a 30 percent passing rate last year to 27 percent this year. The school needs a passing rate of 37.8 percent to make AYP in that category.

Those three schools, as well as other struggling schools, will come before a review panel made up of district and union leaders. School officials will report on what they are doing to ensure that students will get the help they need to pass the state tests, what kind of supplemental services are being provided, and whether the services are aligned to state standards.

Under NCLB, a Title I school that does not make AYP for five years must develop an "alternative governance plan" that calls for the school to become a public charter school, replace all or most of the staff responsible for the lack of progress, or turn over operation and management of the school to the state.

If the school still fails to make AYP after six years, the plan must be implemented.

Staff "reconstituted"

The DeKalb school district in suburban Atlanta is "reconstituting" Ronald McNair Sr. Middle School, even though it is not required to do so. Every staff member -- custodians, cafeteria workers, and librarians, as well as teachers and administrators -- have been asked to reapply for their jobs.

"All of a school's employees are part of the teaching team. Everyone contributes to the education of students," says district spokesperson Spencer Ragsdale.

The 1,118-student school has been plagued by low test scores over the past few years.

Unless test scores rise, district officials expect they might have to take some sort of corrective action under NCLB -- such as an alternative governance system, reconstitution, or private management arrangement -- at the beginning of the 2005 school year.

But with a new principal hired at the end of this school year, district leaders felt it was a good time to take some drastic action to turn around one of the district's lowest-performing schools. Although test scores for the current year are not out yet, McNair, a Title I school, has not made AYP in multiple categories for four years in a row.

"We've been struggling with McNair for years with student achievement, parental satisfaction, and teacher turnover," says Tim Freeman, an area executive director, a position that is equivalent to an assistant superintendent.

"A piecemeal approach is not good enough," he says. "What is needed is a top-to-bottom inventory" to look at the school's whole operation.

Of the school's 120 employees, about 85 will remain, Freeman says. About 35 opted to transfer or were selected to transfer. Ragsdale stresses no one will be fired.

All employees have contracts with the district, so those who are not retained at McNair will be reassigned to another school. With 141 schools in the district, Freeman says, there are plenty of openings.

"McNair had a good faculty," Freeman says, but many teachers were frustrated with their jobs.

"The community didn't feel that we had a work force that wanted to be there," he says. The community was displeased with the lack of academic progress and the way discipline was handled, and "teachers didn't feel they were connecting with students." As a result, McNair kept losing teachers to surrounding districts with growing enrollments.

Freeman hopes the school climate at McNair will improve when the school has "teachers who want to be there."

He views the reconstitution at McNair as a learning process that will be helpful if other schools need corrective action next year.

To other districts thinking about reconstitution, Freeman says: "communication has to be very precise. . . . Be sure it's something that addresses the school's problems. Change just to change is a wasteful process." And because the school climate is crucial, "make sure the community is supportive."

A better school climate

The Bridgeport, Conn., school system is carrying out a similar process at Columbus School, which serves 900 students in prekindergarten though sixth grade.

District leaders have agreed to support Principal Manuel Rocha, who had just completed his first year at Columbus, and approve his recommendation to reconstitute the school, says Bridgeport Superintendent Sonia Diaz Salcedo.

Aside from the principal, all teachers and other staff members must reapply to return to their jobs this fall.

A number of teachers left the profession voluntarily, and about a quarter to a third of the teachers will be new, Salcedo says. Those who were not rehired but wanted to continue teaching were promised other positions in the district.

Columbus had been identified as a poorly performing school under state criteria before NCLB was enacted and has failed to make AYP for the past few years. But the district didn't want to wait another year.

"We wanted to be proactive where there is a clear opportunity for success," Salcedo says. The goal of reconstitution is to raise student achievement, improve the culture of the school, and "create a collaborative environment where all the teachers on board support the superintendent's vision," she says.

"We also want to create a culture where there is consensus and a focus on children," Salcedo says. Turning around Columbus "needs to be a collective effort," she says, and "everyone has to buy into the principal's vision."

The old teachers were not necessarily bad teachers, Salcedo says. "Some were just not a good match for the school and some were more resistant to change than others."

Rocha says the staff is being trained this summer on teaching literacy and a new student discipline model, the schedule has been revised to incorporate common planning time for teachers, and a new tutoring program is being established using retired teachers.

Various options

In Chicago, 22 schools are entering the fifth consecutive year of not making AYP, and the district is exploring various plans for corrective action for them, says Xavier Botana, the district administrator in charge of implementing NCLB.

The schools -- 11 high schools and 11 elementaries -- are failing to show progress "in multiple areas across the board," he says. "It's not just a matter of being one point away from making AYP or just one subgroup underperforming."

Options include converting the schools into charter schools, having them taken over by the district or state, replacing the staffs with new teachers and administrators, or turning them into contract schools. A corrective action plan for each of the 22 schools must be implemented by the start of the 2005-06 school year.

The district has already taken some steps to address low student achievement at these schools. All 22 are on the district's probation system for lack of academic achievement. That means they already lost some internal discretionary control, and the local school council has lost the authority to hire the principal and control the budget.

The board of education replaced the principals at two-preK-8 schools, Bethune and Cather. Three schools -- Collins and Richards high schools and Medill Elementary School -- have new curricula and are operating under a shared governance system with the Chicago Teachers Union.

According to Botana, 360 of Chicago's 600 public schools failed to make AYP, and of that number 78 percent showed test score gains. "We are satisfied with the progress," he says. "Is it enough to make AYP? Probably not."

By the 2005-06 school year, Botana expects as many as 200 additional schools will face corrective action.

Many schools to close

In a related development, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley announced June 24 that 100 public schools will be closed over the next six years and reopened in different configurations. The first 40 are already under construction or being planned.

The effort also includes the conversion of 20 large high schools into 40 to 60 small specialized schools.

All of the schools to be closed have not yet been identified, but could include some or all of the 22 facing corrective action. A third of the schools would reopen as contract schools, a third will be charter schools, and a third will remain under district control.

Many of the targeted schools are underperforming, but it's also an issue of demographics, Botana says. Many are in the mid-South and West Side areas where large public housing projects are being torn down and new mixed-use projects are being developed.

Many schools in those areas have declining enrollments, and the district wants students to be able to attend schools closer to their homes, he says.

The district reports that business leaders and foundations have committed to raising $50 million to help fund the initiative, known as Renaissance 2010, and more than half the money is already in hand.