NCLB: tall order for small districts: there are several steps that small, rural districts can take to address the consequences of the No Child Left Behind Act

Leadership, Sept-Oct, 2003 by Clifford E. Tyler

Will "No Child Left Behind" leave low-income children of small, rural school districts even further behind? What steps can these districts take to implement the policies of NCLB to enhance overall student achievement?

A small school district may be defined as a district of fewer than 2,500 students, often located in poor, rural communities and educating many low achieving, limited English proficient students. About 571 school districts, or 58 percent of all California districts, are small school districts, and about 300 of those districts have fewer than 500 students.

NCLB has many goals, but the foremost goal is to close the achievement gap between various racial and ethnic groups, poor and non-poor, those who have disabilities and those who do not, and English language learners and fluent English speakers (EdSource).

How can superintendents and principals of small, rural school districts creatively implement the requirements of NCLB? Although specific obstacles and suggestions for every component of NCLB are beyond the scope of this article, following is a brief discussion of some of the major titles?

Adequate Yearly Progress

NCLB requires assessment results to be broken out by poverty, race, ethnicity, disability and limited English proficiency to ensure that no group is left behind. School districts and schools that fail to make Adequate Yearly Progress toward statewide proficiency goals for two consecutive years will be subject to corrective action and restructuring measures aimed at getting them back on course. Schools that meet or exceed AYP objectives or close achievement gaps will be Awards (subject to availability of funds).

One shortcoming for small, rural schools in showing AYP is meeting state-defined standards, because there are frequently not enough students to make the AYP calculations statistically reliable.

A second shortcoming of AYP for small, rural districts, with their high percentages of limited English proficient students, is that any of the student sub-groups failing to meet this incremental bar each year will have that much further to catch up the following year. As a result of this gradual but incremental bar increase, CDE is predicting that 83 percent of Title I schools will be Program Improvement schools by 2004.

The pressure of improving student academic achievement to achieve AYP in small, rural schools has placed additional accountability pressure on superintendents, principals and teachers. Instructional emphasis has shifted to preparing students for high test performance, perhaps at the expense of educating the whole child.

To meet the requirements, districts should be working closely with CDE to determine proper alternatives for those districts with small student populations. Districts should be developing data systems accessible to all teachers and principals to allow to accurately address student data.

School choice

Under NCLB, students enrolled at schools identified for school improvement after the second year must provide the option for parents to transfer their students to another public school within the district. While the Act requires each district board to adopt a policy addressing a choice of more that one school that has not been identified as a school in need of improvement, it is unclear how students can be transferred in rural, one-school districts, or one-school-per-level rural unified school districts.

For students attending failing schools that have failed to meet state standards for at least three of the four preceding years, districts must permit low-income students to use Title I funds to obtain supplemental educational services from the public or private sector provider selected by the students and their parents (EdSource). Transportation costs for rural school districts, already horrendous, would be aggravated by the NCLB requirements of district payment for transportation. Under the Act, transportation costs can be paid out of 15 percent of their allocated Title I funds.

Since small rural districts do not have multiple school sites at the same grade levels that offer parents school choice, administrators can look at a couple of alternatives. One is developing partnerships with one or more neighboring districts. Another alternative is developing a distance learning or interactive television alternative with a group of school districts, a local community college or a university in the same county or region. Perhaps a virtual high school could even be developed, providing students with the opportunity to take Advanced Placement courses for college credit (NASBE, 2003).

Assessments

No Child Left Behind states that every child shall read by the end of third grade. Assessments measure what children know and learn in reading and math in grades 3-8. Student progress and achievement will be measured according to tests given to every child each year beginning in 2005-06. Science assessments will begin in 2007-08.

Statewide reports include disaggregated performance data according to race, gender, and other criteria to demonstrate how well students are achieving overall, and to demonstrate progress in closing the achievement gap between disadvantaged students and other groups of students.