The Lynwood 'State Takeover' Fable

MSD Decatur Township Superintendent, Don Stinson, is trying to sell the closing of Lynwood as an elementary school by blaming No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Indiana Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) school improvement programs. Often we are told that school choice forced on Decatur is just too hard to achieve. We are told that redistricting won't work, even though numbers supplied by the District show that less than 10% of students opt for choice. And, we are told that Lynwood is poised to be taken over by the State.

So, what happens when a school does not meet the State standards? Well, it all depends on whether that school gets money from the Federal Government under Title 1 to help schools in low income areas. In the Decatur District, only Lynwood and Stephen Decatur schools get these funds. If I am reading the State Department of Education information on AYP correctly - there is no penalty, other than the requirement that the AYP information be made public, for schools that are not Title 1 monetary recipients. Schools and School Districts that receive Title 1 money do face 'Interventions' according to how long they have failed to meet the AYP goals (click here for IN DOE information). I'll get to the District interventions later.

In the case of Lynwood and Stephen Decatur, they both have had to offer school choice, offer tutoring, create an improvement plan, use 10% of their Title 1 money for professional development, and accept advice from the District as well as the State Department of Education on how to improve, since 2005. Since 2004, Lynwood did achieve the AYP goals one year, and Stephen Decatur two non-consecutive years. Stephen Decatur met the AYP goals last school year and has a reprieve from moving forward in the 'intervention' schedule. Since Lynwood did not meet the goals for 4 years, they also had to offer their faculty online courses which are sponsored by the State DOE, and send a school team to a State sponsored 'Supporting Student Learning Conference'. Should they fail to meet the AYP goals this year, Lynwood will have to draft a plan to carry out in the 2011-2012 school year that includes one of the following:
"1) replace relevant school staff
2) sufficiently extend school day or year
3) hire full-time literacy or math coach
4) hire English language learner specialist."

Even if Lynwood failed to meet the AYP goals through 2014 and beyond - the harshest intervention is that they must 'receive a State Support Team' and use state-provided reading/math diagnostic assessment tools. Never is there a mention of a state takeover of the school.

Meeting AYP goals has been a target since 2002. So how are all of the Decatur schools doing on that front?

Lynwood met the goals in 2002, 2003, and 2006 - and did not meet the goals in 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2008 school years.
Stephen Decatur met the goals in 2002, 2003, 2006, and 2008 - and did not meet the goals in 2004, 2005, and 2007.
Valley Mills met the goals in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008 - and did not meet the goals in 2005.
West Newton met the goals in 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, and 2008 - and did not meet the goals in 2004 and 2005.
The Gold Academy has not met the goals since opening - 2006, 2007, and 2008.
The Blue Academy has not met the goals since opening - 2006, 2007, and 2008.
Decatur Middle School met the goals in 2004 - and did not meet the goals in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008.
Decatur Central High School has not met the goals since AYP began - 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008.
The District as a whole met the goals in 2004 - and did not meet the goals in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Now, there are interventions for School Districts who receive Title 1 money. Prior to this year, they had to notify the community about their status, develop an improvement plan, and spend 10% of Title 1 money on professional development. This school year, they also had to "under the state's direction, the corporation must review and analyze curricula and instructional practices within the corporation and make changes based upon the findings". But, here is where things get interesting. I'll just quote the DOE's information.

"Corrective Action - State maintains the option to implement any of the following additional corrective actions if previous interventions do not result in progress:
1) Defer programmatic funds or reduce administrative funds.
2) Replace corporation staff relevant to the district's inability to make AYP.
3) Remove individual schools from the corporation's jurisdiction and arrange public governance/supervision of these schools
4) Appoint a receiver/trustee to assume the administrative duties of the corporation's superintendent and school board.
5) Abolish or restructure the school corporation."

It is the District's failure to meet the AYP goals that could cause Lynwood to be removed from the District (item #3). Of course, other districts have done worse on the AYP than Decatur - and none of the possible actions have been taken by the State DOE. But, I find myself a bit partial to number 4 right about now.

All of this is a long way around to the conclusion that the closing of Lynwood as an elementary school is being blamed on NCLB and AYP, but it just isn't true.

[edited on Feb 11, 2010 to add : I have made a mistake. The school board minutes on 7-10-07 show approval of a new contract that gave a 3.5% raise in 2007-2008 and a 4.5% raise in 2008-2009. I slipped the dates by mistake.
I apologize for the error and I thank the teachers for sending me back to my notes to double-check the information.]