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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (51742)	6/21/2002 8:40:01 PM
From: goldworldnet	Respond to of 82486

The 60s were the birth of an era conceived in the 50s. Current culture has its roots there. Change is accelerating though. You probably remember the book "Future Shock". * * *

To: epicure who wrote (51742)	6/22/2002 9:44:05 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 82486

Few Families Seek School Switch in Montgomery By Susan Levine Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, June 22, 2002; Page B01 Barely 100 of the 6,000 students eligible to transfer out of struggling Montgomery County elementary schools have opted to do so, and only five of them are the type of low-income student the new program is designed to benefit most. The "enrollment option" program is the county's response to President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, which requires that jurisdictions allow students to move out of schools with poor test scores and high concentrations of children living in poverty. Montgomery paired 10 targeted schools with more successful and affluent schools and set aside several hundred thousand dollars in federal funds to provide the bus transportation between them. Parents' response shows that the law's provision may not be the remedy intended. Virtually all of the 102 applications received by the June 10 deadline involved middle- and upper-income families, not the "priority one" population of low-income, low-achievement boys and girls. In fact, at Broad Acres Elementary -- for several years the county's worst-performing school -- as well as at four other campuses in Silver Spring and Gaithersburg, none of those priority children signed up for transfers. "That is something that the people who framed the law need to think about," Superintendent Jerry D. Weast said yesterday afternoon. School board member Nancy J. King (Upcounty) agreed, "The president's plan was well intentioned, but this is just how it pans out." More than 6,000 children attend the 10 schools and could have vied for 800 transfers that officials said were plausible based on space available at the receiving campuses. While community meetings about the process were well attended, the fact that only a fraction of families applied indicates "growing confidence in what's going on in those schools," said Weast, who has pushed hard during the past three years to reduce class sizes in early grades, add staff and expand all-day kindergarten. The exceptions to community confidence would seem to be Rosemont Elementary in Gaithersburg, where 32 children want to move to Cold Spring Elementary in Potomac; and Wheaton Woods Elementary, which may cede 23 students to Belmont Elementary in Olney. "That's enough kiddies that it would affect staffing issues," the superintendent said. But there and elsewhere, when compared with total enrollment, the feared drain of schools' strongest students did not materialize. "I hate to lose anybody. They're all our kids and always will be," Kemp Mill Elementary Principal Nancy Evans said of the 10 children who asked to move to Westover, another Silver Spring elementary school. Still, "I can't say this will impact the school in any way." Numerous factors may have played into the decisions to leave the home schools. "Some are looking for something different. Some are looking for something smaller," said Evans, whose school has twice as many students as Westover. Myriad reasons may also explain why families decided not to go. Some who don't drive and walk their children to school may not want them far away during the day. "And that's very understandable," King said. Montgomery's experience mirrors that of surrounding systems. In Howard County, 2,300 students had the option of switching from six struggling schools, but only a tiny fraction chose to do so, a spokesperson said. In Prince George's County, officials said they are just now sending out letters to families in the 10 schools identified as eligible. The 2001 federal law allows students in certain schools that receive Title 1 funding -- money aimed at helping impoverished children -- to enroll in another designated school if their own has not shown two years of improvement in academic performance. In Maryland, that was measured by scores on the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program. "Priority one" applicants automatically get to move. Others may move as space permits. A Montgomery spokesman said all 102 requests likely will be granted. Families will be notified by July 17. The law requires that transportation be provided to the new school. At Wheaton Woods, PTA President Christine Mizelle never considered switching her son for first grade this fall and doesn't believe the 23 parents who decided otherwise to be a significant number. She wonders if they truly understood what will happen with the transfer to Belmont. Given the schools' demographic differences, she fears their children will "stick out like a sore thumb." "There's absolutely no way I'm going to move," said Mizelle, whose daughter just graduated from the fifth grade. "We've taken advantage of every program they have here . . . and I think they're only going to bring better programs in." In Potomac, Cold Spring PTA President Abbey Alpern Bern hopes that staff members get the resources to meet the needs of the large group coming from Rosemont. Despite initial concerns over how test scores might be affected, she said, everyone is committed to making the program as successful as possible. "We're going to welcome whoever comes," she said. Staff writers Nurith C. Aizenman and Nancy Trejos contributed to this report. © 2002 The Washington Post Company