If your child’s school is a persistent low performer, and you have the ability to transfer to a better school at no cost, including transportation, you’d leap at the chance, right? You might think so, except more people are still in the seats at the bitter end of the latest ugly Knicks blowout than transfer their children out of failing NYC schools. According to the New York Daily News, less than 2% of the 181,000 children eligible to transfer to higher-performing schools under NCLB actually did this year.
“Only 9,200 students even applied to leave their failing schools, and of those just 3,090 ultimately enrolled in a different school,” the paper reports. And if you’re tempted to ascribe those low numbers to a quirk in New York’s implementation of NCLB, think again. Nationwide last year, 120,000 students out of 5 million eligible took transfers, meaning New York’s average mirrors the country’s.
“Some parents of kids in failing schools told the Daily News they weren’t even aware they could transfer out, and some were turned away from better schools that are already overcrowded. And still other parents like their children’s schools just fine, even if they are labeled as failing, or think transferring kids will only make the institutions worse.”
0 Responses to “The 2% Solution”