Money Left Behind
Lincoln Elementary is among a small number of U.S. schools turning down Title I funds — and gaining independence.
LINDSAY — Last fall, one little elementary school in this poor farm town did something startling: it said no to nearly $250,000 in federal funds.
In exchange, Lincoln Elementary gained something its teachers considered even more valuable: more independence.
“We want to do a better job than we’ve been able to do and we want to do that by being flexible,” Principal Pam Canby said.
Lincoln is among a small number of U.S. schools — no one can say how many for sure — that have gained flexibility in following federal education mandates by turning down Title I funds.
In rare cases, whole school districts have rejected Title I as a way to opt out of the federal academic accountability system set up by the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. But most heed the warnings of state and federal educators who caution that the cost of giving up Title I can be steep.
The federal dollars are distributed to state education departments, which then give the money to school districts based on poverty and low test scores. Districts then decide which schools receive Title I funding, with priority given to schools with 75% or more low-income students. Funds can be used for staff development, supplemental materials and literacy and math coaches.
In return, schools receiving the money must show test results demonstrating that an ever-escalating share of their student bodies meet proficiency standards in English and math.
No Child Left Behind has met strong opposition since it became law. Some educators and parents say the program is under-funded and forces teachers to follow a standard script, rather than adapt to the needs of their students.
“Many teachers no longer can be innovative in their teaching,” said Mike Green, a California Teachers Association representative and Lindsay Unified teacher. “A lot of that has to do with the fact that you are required to teach to the test.”
Some local and national educators share Green’s frustrations. Canby said Lincoln educators have been “diligent in marching to the tune of Title I.” The school worked with a board of education experts who evaluated and monitored the campus’ academic progress under the federal program.
The school also saw a major shift in staffing. Canby was brought in about five years ago after Lincoln failed to reach annual academic targets, Lindsay Unified Superintendent Janet Kliegl said. More than half the teaching staff is new.
District officials took the unusual step of giving up $243,000 — out of its budget of $4 million — to free the school from Title I mandates because too much time was spent on paperwork, when time could be better spent on more innovative teaching efforts.
Kliegl said Lincoln was a good candidate for the change because overall it is a high-achieving school, but there are groups of students, such as English learners, who miss federal targets. This calls for a more flexible approach, she said.
Tom Rooney, Lindsay Unified’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said No Child Left Behind requires a great deal of staff time on paperwork.
“That is necessary for some schools and it’s necessary for some districts,” Rooney said. “We’ve made the decision that that’s not a necessary burden to put on [Lincoln].”
In past years officials spent Title I money on computers, learning programs and literacy and math coaches to try to meet the standards.
Now, Lincoln’s staff will use creative student programs that teachers would not have had time for under provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. These include teaching via the Internet, far-ranging field trips and a renewed focus on science and the arts.
“We want our kids to go out on the road, go to the ocean, go to the mountains,” Canby said. She wants students to appreciate music and art, which often were dropped from classrooms in order to focus entirely on improving test scores under the No Child Left Behind Act.
“An effective citizen is a person who is fluent in the arts. It’s not just about reading and writing,” she said.
Canby said she also wants to see a strong focus on science, which previously took a back seat to English and math.
Although the school no longer is obligated to meet federal mandates, the campus still must meet the state’s Academic Performance Index benchmarks, which measure annual academic growth. Index scores range from 200 to 1,000, with all schools working toward 800 or better.
Lincoln is still far from the state goal. Last August, test results from the California Department of Education showed Lincoln dipped 38 points from its previous score of 691.
It’s unclear how many other schools nationwide have followed the same path, but Lincoln is not alone.
Thousands of miles away, the Community Consolidated School District 21 board in Wheeling, Ill. has rejected about $250,000 in Title I for the past three years, said Kate Hyland, an assistant superintendent. She said consultants were assigned to underperforming schools, which resulted in several meetings, but little progress.
“It’s a very punitive law. … Our board really took a stand in saying, ‘We are philosophically opposed to the law,’ ” Hyland said.
Other California educators have inquired about refusing the federal dollars as a way to gain more local control, but it’s difficult to track how many schools, if any, followed through, said Jerry Cummings, who works for the state’s Title I policy office.
While rejecting Title I isn’t yet a trend, “it’s potentially the front end of what could be a wider movement,” said Jeffrey Henig, a professor of political science and education at Columbia University Teachers’ College in New York City.
Janie Castro, Lincoln Elementary’s Parent Teacher Organization president, said she supports the new vision for her school. She noted Canby prepared the school to do without Title I, partly because she used previous Title I money to buy long-term resources, such as computers and software. Said Castro: “We know that she’s going to make this work.”
While the school can do without Title I this year, next year could bring some changes. Nancy Frank, the school’s math coach, said the lack of money may mean returning as a classroom teacher. Frank said that means she may not have time to go into several classrooms each day to teach students or offer one-on-one teaching sessions with new staff members.
To help make up the difference, the school has asked for financial help — and some is already trickling in. A citrus company provided Lincoln a $20,000 grant to help the campus be a model for rural school reform, Canby said.
Mike Wood, a science consultant who was on Lincoln’s alternative governance board, said it isn’t easy for the school to give up more than $240,000. But he said it’s important for local educators to dictate what is best for students.
Said Wood: “Let’s make learning fun again.”
The reporter can be reached at svang@fresnobee.com
© 2008 The Fresno Bee
How lucky those kids are.
Oh how you understate the position of the teachers! No Child Left Behind is an Orwellian misnomer, which, being translated correctly, means “No Child Shall Get Ahead”. Those with money are so insecure (because no amount of money is enough, ref Bill Gates) that they are affirmatively attempting to remove children other than their own from getting ahead. They will be happy only when only their children can afford to go to their private schools, and the public school system is utterly reduced to a dilapidated warehouse.
Bob, Would you please tell me how these insecure parents with money keep other people’s children from getting ahead.
They keep taxes from being allocated in such a way as to prevent excellence in public schools. They demand that books and records reflect teacher’s salaries as “liabilities” but school buildings as “assets”, limiting the use of bond money. We can figure out a way to show good teachers as assets, which of course they are, and without good teachers the buildings are, at best, merely monuments of propaganda. No PE, no music, no art? Teachers who can double their salary by entering the “private” sector?
I’m sure you’ve heard all the arguments, but the bottom line is that taxes are the only way we have to add to our common wealth. Our infra structure is failing because we are not requiring those who benefit from the system to pay for it. We’ve had all these years of tax cuts, and where is our economy? In the sewer. Democracy requires maximizing the potential of the populace, and this creepy miserly disproportionate tax system is taking the guts of the system away and as a result, democracy is waning. A rising tide raises all the ships. We no longer have that, nor it’s benefits.
If schools continue to be disembowled, only private schools will have what children (some, those with money) need to make the greatest contribution they can. Sub-par contributions generally will lead to our collapse.
Is that so hard to understand?
arghhh! They keep taxes from being allocated in such a way as to promote excellence in public schools. See, I can neither spell nor compose an intelligible sentence.
What a courageous community! It recognizes the No Child Left Untested law as being counterproductive to a school environment that actually fosters and encourages learning and the ability to learn. This misguided law is destroying our schools, and undermining our children’s ability to grow into adults who have the ability to draw intelligent and logical conclusions, to objectively and logically scrutinize situations and statements, and to perceive intricacies and complexities. In other words, NCLB is further undermining our democracy, while pretending that it’s essential to our ability to compete with developing nations. What a lie it is! I wish more communities would stand up to it.
Bobpomerroy,
I think I know what you are saying.
The problem with this “solution” to NCLB is that it is that this school is basically falling for the trap set for them. The trap being the creeping privatization of public education.
I’m sure someone like Naomi Klein can explain it better, but the basic strategy for the neoliberal, capitalist privatizers is for the public resource to be administered in a deliberately incompetent or otherwise screwed up way resulting in the public thinking “we can do this better ourself”!. Thus seamless public transportation that formerly served everyone gets replaces with a sleazily-operated private jitney system, and good quality public school gets replaced by an “as goods the parent can afford” system.
“Canby said she also wants to see a strong focus on science, which previously took a back seat to English and math.”
Who was the idiot-educator that arbitrarily separated them initially : Sir Isaac Newton was a keen observer , an inovator ( he invented calculus )and a writer.
Take the shell of a nautilus : Its shape is that of ever-widening spiral whose owner belongs to a phylum that has survived for hundreds of millions of years.The spiral conforms to an precise mathematical formula and its Greek name gives us English words like nautical , navigation , navy.
Observe , measure , postulate and describe . The trick is : don’t try to separate them ; Sir Isaac didn’t
As a (science) teacher in a Title one school in Florida I can tell you we are experiencing exactly what Bob describes. When our 3rd grade scored the 3rd highest math scores in our large district last year we had a small sub set of low income and special education children who did not make the percent passes required by NCLB. Subsequently the entire 3rd grade has been subjected to an “approved” (read friend of someone with political power here) math program which replaces the program that has been highly successful for most of the students. Instead of focusing a program on the subgroups, the entire grade has been “punished” by having money and time taken away from all 3rd grade classrooms. We are also suffering from the Testing and retesting syndrome where many teachers spend most of their time administering tests rather than actually teaching to see what students know - cutting out time needed to teach and also time for music, art, PE, field trips, etc.. Some of our middle school failing students never go to pe or vocational classes because they are being re-mediated in scripted reading programs and math computer labs - a great way to encourage our lowest performing students to stay in school. we also have had money taken from us to bus children to town from our rural school to schools with lower overall scores but with fewer minority groups who can fail NCLB. We also have private tutoring programs offered to students at our school because we have “failed to teach them” so they can all pass these tests. The companies get thousands of tax dollars for 10 tutoring sessions - often taught by teachers from the “failing” school and one offered kids a free laptop if they finished 10 sessions. There is no accountability here. They are not tested to see progress, they do not have to hire certified teachers and sometimes use college students or high school graduates. If our school got that kind of money to educate a child we would be receiving tens of thousands of dollars per student. This really is about privatizing our tax dollars for education. Testing companies, tutoring businesses and educational product companies and consultants are making billions on the money that should go to students and their teachers and classrooms.
PJD
I’m not a teacher or school administrator, so I am not aware of all the subtle twists and turns which funnel tax money into the hands of cronies. I don’t have a problem understanding the significance of replacing planning time and teaching time with endless testing, the pressure to teach to the test rather than reach individual needs, or the dropping of programs which serve the vital purpose of maintaining student interest and teaching them something of the richness of civilization rather than rotely just the 3 R’s. I was a bright student and bored by the rote presentation of the obvious after about the 4th grade and until I encountered law school. The next 8 years under a system like NCLB would have been even worse and probably not have found me present except in front of a video game.
It’s more about a general policy of limiting and short-changing education, replacing the idea of education with easy measurements, focussing on that, and appearing to intentionally disregard those things which are simply a part of cultural richness and necessary to a life aside from preparing for some sort of low skill employment, such that all of those important things can only be obtained at a high-cost private school. A kind of segregation based on class rather than something like the rising tide which raises all ships.
In order for a democracy to prosper, it must maximize the potential of all it’s members, including the brightest, the not so bright, and those with special needs. The philosphy of NCLB to me seems to be “make them all come out the same”, and at a baser level and lower cost, rendering students less prepared and less competitive by a quantum of magnitude compared to those who can afford a “full and complete” education.
I so want to ditto the comments of kmlisle. Indeed.
A teacher at the High School where I teach English refers to NCLB as “No Teacher Left Standing.”
Last summer, I spent a month in Chile, much of it in its capital city, Santiago. I took language courses there and learned from my teachers who had been in the system that teachers who teach in the public high schools in Santiago have about seven classes of some 50+ students per class. As an Enlish teacher, I see little opportunity to teach writing with a load of, what, 350+ students? Who is going to read and give feedback on papers when having to deal with 350 papers per writing assignment? And that is only one aspect of what English teachers teach.
As I was told by teachers I met in the school where I studied in Chile, little learning took place in public schools there. Students who went to university generally earned their credentials at private schools.
So education is essentially privatized in Chile.
This is the future for our public school system in the United States, a system that has long been lauded as the means to the American dream… that a nobody could have access to training that once sent the nobody to somebody-land if that body had talent and a work ethic.
So sad that we have let our best values go with little more than a wimper.
Elisabeth
Excellent comments, all.
I’m not sure where my perspective fits, but I’d like to add it to the discussion. I teach English at a “cram school” in Taiwan. I was not trained as a teacher before coming here, though I can say that I was mightily inspired by several teachers back in the U.S. who took a creative and passionate approach to teaching, at times regardless of what was expected. I came away with the sense that: a teacher teaches by inspiring a student to learn. Without that inspiration, a teacher’s job is basically to run the machinery of educational policy, slowing it down until the “defect rate” is low enough to be acceptable. As much as I’d love to use my experience here to come back and become a teacher in the U.S., I dread the prospect of becoming such an automaton.
And yet here things aren’t perfect, either. A few basic premises: there are trade high schools, language/PoliSci high schools, art high schools, and “academic” high schools. You get in to one or another based on your test scores in junior high school. There is stratification in junior high schools as well, though, and your admission to the “best” junior high school will depend, naturally, on your test performance in elementary school. Now, if you get the best scores all the way through, you can go to the prestigious National Taiwan University–the best in the nation. And be a doctor. Or a scientist. Or a lawyer. Free.
Can you imagine the kind of pressure parents put on their pre-teen children still in elementary school to get on and stay on this track to success? This potential ticket-out-of-middle-class, which is ruefully difficult by any other means in Taiwan’s economy, is a major carrot-on-a-stick. But it’s not the only stick for these children. Every parent pushes (sometimes in a disturbingly un-parentlike physical sense, by the way) their child to be the top student. They send them to cram schools in math, Chinese, music, and yes, English, expecting miracles.
When a 12-year old girl who wakes at 7am to be at school at 8 (tardiness, dirty school uniforms, and misbehavior can drastically affect your grade) and then to various cram schools until 10pm seems sleepy in my class, I can totally understand. And I know the municipal testing schedules…I know when to be prepared to see bruises on kids’ faces when the scores come back. Not only do these young kids have to make some very serious choices that will affect the rest of their lives at such an age, but they must do so under the stress of constant exhaustion (Saturdays too, by the way) and the duress of punishment for less-than-perfect grades.
It’s no surprise at all how emotionally messed-up so many of Taiwan’s youth are today, almost like the oppressive ghost of Chiang Kai Shek still haunts the nation. (It really does…let’s all hope the ghost of GWB fades much more quickly after the dictatorship crumbles!)
Privatization, extreme nationalization, mechanization…teaching should be left to teachers. Well-paid teachers, I might add: salaries in America in public schools are grossly undercut. We have perhaps the most immoral, scientifically-illiterate, compassionless federal administration of my or my parents’ lifetimes, destroying everything they touch. Kudos to Lincoln Elementary. But NCLB must be dismantled: it’s a punitive beast for those who adhere, and a jealous predator, set to starve the good schools who eschew it back into submission.
The triumph of the human spirit, once more prevails. “Where there’s a will; there’s a way.” “No child Left Behind is an actual punishment. The Neocons make me sick. They have effectively urinated on every aspect of American society. No group “out there,” is safe from these people.
bobpomeroy,
My point is that NCLB is so bad because it is was deliberately conceived to be bad, in order to undermine the very concept of public education as a human right.
The best education book I’ve read is “The Schools our Children Deserve” by Alfie Kohn. Check it out from your local library and compare it to the kind of schooling that you, your parents, and now your children and grandchildren got / are getting.
The autocratic, teacher-knows-all, constant testing and evaluating that we were all subject to has done all of us more harm than good. (And we like to think that we are well-educated). Unfortunately, it’s worse now.
For any parent, the book is a MUST READ.
Here are some other books to read:
1) Many Children Left Behind: How the No Child Left Behind Act Is Damaging Our Children and Our Schools by Deborah Meier and George Wood
2)The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America by Jonathan Kozol
3) Leaving Children Behind: How “Texas-style” Accountability Fails Latino Youth (Suny Series, the Social Context of Education) by Angela Valenzuela
As a teacher educator who happens to agree most with Edwards, I am least hopeful with the news that Obama is being advised by Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford. Linda has been one of the most prolific writers and a real activist in the professionalization of teaching. We are not asking that accountability be pulled off the table. What we are asking for, as a profession, is that the type of accountability for schools and students make sense. Additionally, that teachers be treated as professionals and expected to act as such. Most, if not all, of my students are in this program for the right reasons: they really care about students and they want to “make a difference” in students’ lives. The sad part is that many of them will become jaded by the overemphasis on testing, lack of adequate financial remuneration, as well as a lack of perceived support by school administrators and parents. Many of them will leave the profession in the next 10 years. We have to change these policies to work for students and teachers rather than against them. The neocon and neolib agendas are joined at the hip here — we have to change our focus from a market approach to a humanistic one. Kids are not commodities in the “free” market. Their lives are not products to be bought and sold. Every child deserves a school with people who are committed to educating him/her and caring for her/him. If you read nothing else from the list above — read Kozol; he’s written a book that will change the way most people view NCLB and its attendant policies.
This is the Britification of the American school system. While it has long existed on the coasts harvard and stanford. It is working it’s way into the center of the country as well. It is the development of two parrellel tracks. one for the rich and one for the rest, and never the twain shall meet. It is the last nail in the coffin of the ideas of this country.