Student transfers still up in the air

May 22, 2005
RENA HAVNER

As students turn in textbooks and clean out lockers in anticipation of the last day of class -- Monday in Mobile County and Thursday in Baldwin -- it remains unclear how many of them will be able to transfer to other schools in August.

More schools than ever before could be placed on the state's "choice" list, meaning students would have the option of transferring into better-performing schools for 2005-06.

As part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, schools that receive Title One funding, which aids low-income students, must allow transfers when they fail to meet state standards two years in a row.

Mobile County already has 14 such schools. Up to 28 other schools that didn't meet the standards last year could be added if they're deemed this summer to be failing once again.

No Baldwin schools currently offer these transfers, but up to 14 schools could fall into that category in August.

Similar statewide numbers were not available last week, according to Rebecca Leigh White, spokeswoman for the State Department of Education.

But the number of transfer schools could be in the hundreds. Almost 80 percent of Alabama's 1,300 schools did not achieve standards last year, and roughly half of state schools receive Title One funds.

"I have no idea what the students will do," said Kathy Taylor, principal of Wilmer Elementary, one of the Mobile County campuses in limbo, "because the other schools in this area are having the same problems."

State schools Superintendent Joe Morton said recently that Alabama had no plan in place on how to handle a large number of student transfers. He said he was confident that most schools would meet the standards to remain in the state's good graces.

White said the Department of Education will publicly release test scores and a list of transfer schools on Aug. 11, two days after Baldwin classes resume and four days before the academic year begins in Mobile County.

"It's all wait-and-see right now," Mobile County schools Superintendent Harold Dodge said.

He hopes that superintendents will receive the data earlier than Aug. 11 so that they can prepare for any transfers, he said. No Child Left Behind, enacted in 2001, instructs systems to send letters to parents of students attending transfer schools before the academic year begins. The local systems must also provide transportation to the new schools that students choose.

Morton wrote a memorandum to local superintendents last fall, recommending that they not start their 2005-06 year until after Aug. 8, the day he plans to send the data to school systems.

Last year, Dodge and others criticized the Department of Education for releasing both the list and standardized test scores several days after most school sessions had started.

Once classes resume, some officials have said, parents are less likely to transfer their students. By then, parents have already bought school uniforms, and students have begun to settle in.

Mobile area superintendents and principals said they were caught off guard last summer when so many schools failed to meet state standards. The state used standardized reading and math test scores to rate schools, and stipulated that schools have an average daily attendance of 95 percent.

Most schools, though, fell short due to a new criteria known as "test participation," which mandates that 95 percent of students enrolled at a school show up to take standardized exams.

If students in any demographic group failed to meet any of these requirements -- whether in test scores, attendance or test participation -- the entire school was marked as "needs improvement."

Hundreds of schools protested their status. In Mobile County, 15 succeeded in their appeals by showing that the state had used incorrect information to calculate attendance and test participation.

All told, 51 of Mobile County's 94 evaluated schools and 21 of Baldwin County's 27 schools were rated as "needs improvement," according to the state.

But not all of those are also Title One schools.

Between both counties, only one high school, Gulf Shores, met the state performance standards. In Baldwin County, however, no high schools receive Title One funding, officials said, so none can be designated as transfer schools.

Three of Mobile County's 14 high schools already offer transfers, and up to five more could be required to do so next year.

Mobile County, the largest school system in the state, has 65,000 students. Baldwin has 24,000.

As the latest standardized exams were administered in April, school administrators statewide took creative measures to prepare students for the tests and make sure they were in class.

Schools held pep rallies, distributed bumper stickers announcing the test dates, offered pizza parties to classes with perfect attendance and even drove to absent students' homes to pick kids up.

"I can assure you that we have the participation," said Rosalyn Dean, principal at Booker T. Washington Middle School in Mobile's Toulminville community, which didn't meet state standards last year. "We're just waiting now to see how our flowers bloom."

Dean, whose students' test scores were just below state requirements, said her school has received transfers from other middle schools over the last few years. She said she's not too concerned about the fact that her school may be in the same situation in August because she thinks her students will decide to stay.

"Mobile County has standardized its curriculum. No matter where they transfer to, they're going to be on the same page, whether they're here, Grand Bay or Citronelle," Dean said.

Locally, few students who have been eligible for transfers have actually taken advantage of the option. Last year, 3 percent of the 8,500 students left their schools.

With the transfer option possibly making its first appearance in Baldwin County during 2005-06, officials there have said they plan to meet this summer to discuss how to handle the issue.

Cindy Chandler, Baldwin's elementary supervisor, who handles Title One schools, said that many times, a student is better off staying at his school than transferring. That's because Title One schools use the federal funding to provide after-school tutoring, hire reading specialists or purchase computers and extra books.

"It's not always in the best interest of a child to ride 45 minutes on a bus for a transfer," Chandler said.

At Wilmer Elementary in Mobile County, students in every demographic group passed the state's reading and mathematics tests last year. And 97 percent of them showed up on test days.

The school didn't meet state standards, though, because the average daily attendance at the school was 94.1 percent, rather than 95.

Principal Taylor said the school fell short of its attendance goal again this year, meaning transfers will be offered.

Taylor was quick to point out that Wilmer's students are doing fine academically. But no matter what the school has tried -- the Parent Teacher Association gave Wal-Mart gift certificates to students with good attendance -- that 95 percent is hard to reach, she said.