Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for September 28, 2005 STATE TAKEOVER IN EAST ST. LOUIS? WELL...

An editorial in yesterday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch takes aim at the State of Illinois for its failure to "pull the trigger" on East St. Louis schools failing to make AYP under NCLB guidelines...

EDUCATION: Left behind

Three Metro East schools - Manners Elementary and Clark Middle in East St. Louis and Madison Middle School in Madison - have failed to make adequate yearly progress on state reading and math tests. But Illinois still isn't taking the strong measures needed to get the schools back on track.

The federal No Child Left Behind law, enacted in 2002, gives chronically failing schools five years to shape up. If schools miss the targets two years in a row, students must be allowed to transfer to better schools. After that, they get free tutoring, after-school programs and summer school. If the schools still are failing after four years, districts are supposed to begin restructuring the failing school. After that, the state can take over.

The options should be clear: Replace or retrain bad teachers and beef up the curriculum. If that doesn't help, boot the principals and find competent replacements.

Unfortunately, the districts don't seem to be feeling much pressure to shape up. The state has the authority to apply the pressure by imposing the ultimate sanction of a state takeover of failing schools and districts. State school officials have ruled out the takeover option.

By contrast, Missouri school officials didn't shy away from that option. They stepped in and chose a competent team of educators to run the failing Wellston School District in St. Louis County after it failed to make adequate progress for several years.

Illinois officials should keep an eye on Missouri's unprecedented experiment and put the takeover option back on the table. Their decision to "continue tweaking restructuring plans" may be too-little, too-late for schools that have been getting away with miseducating children for too long.