State rushing to start new school program
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
A federally mandated program that would allow struggling students to transfer out of bad schools and into better ones could be implemented as soon as Oct. 28, the state Department of Education announced yesterday.
• Aug. 30: Report on school vacancies completed • Sept. 11: Report distributed to principals • Sept. 30: Parent deadline to complete transfer request forms • Oct. 15: Principals to notify parents of acceptance • Oct. 28: Students begin classes at new school
The department released a timetable for the No Child Left Behind Act, which was recently signed into law by President Bush. Under the act, schools in high poverty areas must maintain adequate academic performance levels or foot the transportation bill for qualified students who choose to go to higher rated public schools.
Timeline for new program
Up to 85 of Hawai'i's more than 250 schools are likely to be judged academically inadequate based on federal standards. Students in fourth, sixth, ninth and 11th grades who score poorly on standardized tests and meet income guidelines could qualify for transfers from those schools.
None of the schools on Moloka'i meet the federal standards. However, Hawai'i is not required to pay commuting costs between islands.
The implementation schedule is tentative, said Greg Knudson, a Department of Education spokesman. Although the district is required to move ahead on the program, it lacks some of the information to implement it fully.
In Washington, officials continue to sort through complex legal issues and have delayed issuing specific guidelines on some matters, Knudson said. Some data that must be collected within the district won't be available until later.
Only low-income students who score lowest on standardized tests are qualified to transfer, and results from Hawai'i's new academic testing program won't be available until mid-August.
Only third-, fifth-, eighth- and 10th-graders were tested last year, Knudson said, so only those students will be assessed to determine whether they scored low enough to qualify.
The district also must determine which schools will have available space for students, Knudson said. Many of the state's best schools are already crowded.
The district also has not compiled all the requests for transfers already made under the state's "geographic exception" program. Knudson said students who were transferred to schools under this program will not be required to return to their old schools when the No Child Left Behind program begins.
Knudsen said that a statewide principals' meeting is scheduled for Aug. 9. The state is hoping to finish preparing information packets by then that can be passed on to parents.
A report on school vacancies is to be compiled by Aug. 30 and distributed to principals on Sept. 11, Knudsen said. Parents will have until Sept. 30 to complete transfer request forms.
On Oct. 15, principals at the new schools will notify parents that their children have been accepted.
Students will begin classes at their new schools on Oct. 28, the beginning of the second quarter for most schools in the district.
