Berkeley schools to offer transfersDistrict prepares letters to parents The Post and Courier
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Students attending at least 13 Berkeley County schools will have the option to transfer to higher-performing schools next year through the federal No Child Left Behind law. Berkeley student transfer optionsStudents at eligible Berkeley County schools are given specific options of where they can transfer. Most students at sending schools have between five to eight choices of receiving schools for the 2008-09 school year: Transfer request forms are due by July 18. For more information, contact Sheldon Etheridge, the district's executive director of federal programs, at 899-8668 or e-mail here. BERKELEY SENDING SCHOOLS AND GRADE LEVELS FROM WHICH STUDENTS CAN TRANSFER: Berkeley Elementary, K-2; Berkeley Intermediate, 3-5; Boulder Bluff Elementary, K-5; Cainhoy Elementary/Middle, K-8; College Park Elementary, K-5; Devon Forest Elementary, K-5; Goose Creek Primary, K-2; H.E. Bonner Elementary, K-4; J.K. Gourdin Elementary, K-5; Sangaree Elementary, K-2; Sedgefield Intermediate, 3-5; St. Stephen Middle, 6-8; and Whitesville Elementary, K-5. BERKELEY RECEIVING SCHOOLS AND GRADE LEVELS TO WHICH STUDENTS CAN TRANSFER: Westview Primary, K-2; Hanahan Elementary, K-4; Daniel Island School, K-8; Sangaree Intermediate, 3-5; Westview Elementary, 4-5; Hanahan Middle, 5-8; Macedonia Middle, 5-8; Berkeley Middle, 6-8; College Park Middle, 6-8; Sangaree Middle, 6-8; Sedgefield Middle, 6-8; and Westview Middle, 6-8. The school district will send roughly 7,100 letters to parents of children who attend those 13 schools beginning on Monday. The letter informs parents that their child's school fell short of meeting Adequate Yearly Progress for the same reason in two consecutive years. Those schools therefore are required to offer transfers as a sanction associated with the law. All choice transfer requests must be made by July 18. Twelve schools offered transfers during the current school year, and only 291 students requested new transfers. But 653 students who requested transfers in prior years remained at their choice school. Students have not yet taken this year's batch of standardized tests, so district officials had to project which schools would be on next year's transfer list in some cases, said Sheldon Etheridge, Berkeley's director of federal programs. J.K. Gourdin Elementary, a rural school with an enrollment of 200 students in the Pineville area, is projected to offer transfers this year after falling short of achieving its testing targets after several years of making Adequate Yearly Progress. Boulder Bluff Elementary in Goose Creek also is on the transfer list, even though the school made Adequate Yearly Progress last year. A school has to meet the marks for two years in a row to remove itself from the list, and Berkeley district officials believe that will be a hard task to accomplish as proficiency levels on the tests continue to rise. "If Boulder Bluff makes it again, they won't be a sending school," Etheridge said. "But we don't anticipate anybody making it." He said district officials do have confidence in J.K. Gourdin, Boulder Bluff and other schools, but administrators also want to assist parents in making decisions about their children's school options as soon as possible. "If there's any possibility that a school might not make it, we feel there's no need to make parents wait until the summer to know that," he said. "We want to help them go ahead and make their plans now." At the high school level, standards on the High School Assessment Program (HSAP) tests won't change from last year to this year. Cross High School, which missed Adequate Yearly Progress in one subgroup last year, isn't on the list of schools required to offer transfers because officials hope the school can meet all of its targets. The district will look at preliminary test score data this summer to determine Cross High's results, Etheridge said. If the scores show that the school did not meet standards for all subgroups, it will be added to the list and letters will be sent out to Cross parents informing them of their children's transfer options, Etheridge said. The Charleston County School District took a different approach than Berkeley to its list of transfer schools this year. Charleston released a list of 18 schools that must grant transfers, but officials are waiting for preliminary test data to know whether students at 14 additional schools will be eligible. Dorchester District 2 also is waiting for initial testing data before devising its list of choice transfer schools, public information officer Pat Raynor said. Parents at eligible schools should expect to receive letters listing their choices this summer, she said. |
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Comments
This article has 13 comment(s)
Posted by Zod on May 3, 2008 at 11:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
You want to know the difference between a failing school and a passing school? Follow the money.....Follow the money to see the gross income of the household. Compare the failing school to the "failing home". Compare the passing school to the "passing home". It's not the schools. It is the home. AYP is a stupid measurement of a schools progress.
The article above should be important to everyone. This law wastes taxpayer money. Go into every one of the schools that do not meet AYP. Ask to speak to the busing coordinator. Yes, there is such a job. It takes one employee per school and hundreds of buses criss crossing the county to get the kids into a school away from their neighborhood.
Posted by carolinadude on May 3, 2008 at 11:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)
If Steve Spurrier or Tommy Bowden were in Chester Floyd's shoes as far as failing in their jobs after the number of years that C. Floyd has been w/the Berkeley Schools, they'd be gone for sure. It's too bad that education in our state is still not as important as football.
Posted by carolinadude on May 3, 2008 at 11:36 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Zod's comments above are "educrat rhetoric". He's probably the "public information officer" for the schools. If the public buys that rhetoric, SC will remain 50th in education forever.
Posted by Gullah on May 3, 2008 at 1 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Honestly, I believe the reason for the failing schools has nothing to do with Chester Floyd. The reasoning behind the failing of schools is because the Department of Education - or whoever it was that set the Academic Standards has placed the bar at an unbelievably high level that it is almost impossible for schools to make AYP. There are National Standards for each content area and then the states take and make their own standards. Honestly, the standards for the state of South Carolina are some of the hardest. I know that there are many MANY hard working teachers in Berkeley County and there are some students that do their best, but they cannot meet AYP on the PACT testing. I also agree with Zod because it is very true. Berkeley County has many very poor areas. Students cannot help where they come from and at times parents are doing all that they can. The standards are set far too high for this area.
Posted by Zod on May 3, 2008 at 6:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Carolinadude, I do not work in anywhere near the field of education. I just know stupid when I see stupid.
The issue of crime statistics in one of these neighborhoods was raised at one of our local town council meetings. The Mayor told the audience bluntly that "When a neighborhood is dominated by 80% rental housing, you will never ELIMINATE crime in that neighborhood." His comments have nothing to do with education but they have everything to do with education. The neighborhood that he mentioned has a school that failed to meet AYP.
What do I know about the children, parents, and education as it pertains to AYP? What is my interest? I volunteer in a local community group. I have seen the parents who take no part in raising their children. They drop the kids off at "whatever" activity and go on about their lives. The same parents are late dropping the kids off and picking their children up from said activities. I can't kill these parents though. They are not the AYP transfers. These parents do not pay attention long enough to even transfer their kids. Their kids just sit at that school and learn whatever the teachers can cram into their litte heads..
Here is your AYP transfer. I had this kid in my group. He lacked confidence so much that he mumbled when he did speak up. He was totally incapable of excercise. It seemed like he was born, sat on the couch for 10 years, and then arrived at my activity. For six months I did all I could for this young fellow. His progress was tremendous. He went from a vegetable to normal. I couldn't call him an athlete yet, he was too far gone. The kid and the parents promised that he would be doing something active before I saw him next. I never saw him (at my activity) again. The next year I went to his house. I sat in the living and asked the parents and the kid what he was doing. "Nothing". He had sat in the house and he was going to continue to sit in the house. The crazy thing is that the parents (yes there were two) actually looked to me to scold him and challenge him to do more. I walked out of that house and never walked back in. I knew there was nothing I could do for this kid as parenting was nonexistent. This kid lived in "protective custody". He didn't have a life outside of the house and he did what he wanted while he was in the house. Just before leaving I learned that he wasn't attending the local school. He was transfered because the local school didn't meet AYP. The parents seemed happy with their actions. It seemed that somehow this signified that they cared. I wasn't impressed at all.
Posted by carolinadude on May 3, 2008 at 8:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
After schools fail to teach students to read in the early grades, give them good grades and promote them year after year they feel cheated when they are denied diplomas. But it's the liberal's contention that it's the parent's fault and also the community's for not taxing themselves more for education. It's always insufficient funding and lack of parental responsibility but never insufficient accountability. I say "put parents in charge", give them vouchers or tax credits to choose the school that they feel is best for their children and to hell with the teachers union and their monopoly over government compulsory education. THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN AND WILL NEVER BE FIXED BY THE EDUCRATS, THE TEACHERS UNIONS OR THE LEGISLATURES. PUT PARENTS IN CHARGE.
Posted by Zod on May 3, 2008 at 9:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Right......You are so informed that you do not realize that there is not a teachers union in South Carolina. This state does not negotiate with unions.
You can place every one of statements in capital letters. For that matter, you can shout neo-conservative nonsense all that you would like. The fact remains that the parents ARE IN CHARGE....and they are failing. I give you a real life example. You give me spin.
Not knowing you nor your motives, I'll make the following statements about the MOVEMENT behind vouchers and tax credits. The statements are deceptive in nature. You care nothing about education of masses. You care about your childs education. You care so much that you pay out of your wallet (after taxes) for that education. You tire of paying for the education of others and your childs education. You feel ripped off. You feel like you are paying twice for one education. I cannot argue with the thought process. You are entitled to spend your money where you wish and have thoughts and express them about the matter.
The thing that you MUST ignore in your argument is that of the masses. Without public education, we would not have an educated society. I have traveled this state from side to side, corner to corner. Go to Hopkins, South Carolina and tell me the private school that will open there. Go to Jamestown, SC and tell me the private school that will open there. Go to Allendale County and tell me who will change the entirety of that area. What you care about is your local issue. Your minute issue. You do not wish to educate Allendale County. You don't care about Hopkins nor Jamestown. Those people should move if they can't get an education there, you say. What I say is that public education DOES educate the children of that area. Your tax dollar subsidizes that education. If you do not like those facts, take their representation away from them. Just remember that when you choose that route, you have added more criminals to the street. They will not be stealing from Hopkins or Jamestown though. There is nothing to steal in those communities. No, the uneducated are coming to YOUR town, YOUR street, and they are coming with guns.
Educrat that away.........
Posted by fjms on May 3, 2008 at 9:29 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Well done Zod!
Posted by Zod on May 3, 2008 at 10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Let's look at the schools in the headline:
One school subsidizes 70% of student meals. Do you know what that means? It means 70% of the kids at the school are POOR.
Hey, what do you know? The other school subsidizes 100% of their student meals. That means every child in attendance at the school is POOR.
This school should feel special though as only 9% of their total population is disabled. The other school is far more different on this measure. 25% of students attending the other school are disabled. 70 percent of that 25% disabled students scored "below basic" on the PACT test.
How many Private Schools even admit disabled students? When your voucher and tax credit program kicks in, will they then admit disabled students? What about the hispanic population? Will the private schools begin to admit 13 year olds that do not speak ONE WORD of english?
The facts are attainable. They are one click away......
http://ed.sc.gov/topics/researchandstats...
Posted by carolinadude on May 3, 2008 at 10:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The SCEA is an affilliate of the NEA, one of the largest if not the largest union's in America. Why is it so difficult to fire a bad teacher?
Posted by GG on May 3, 2008 at 10:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The SCEA is an organization of educators; it is not a union by any stretch of the imagination.
I know because I was a member for 35 years. Basically the only benefits of membership were a publication with current research articles, a yearly conference at teacher's cost, and "possible" legal representation for educators who may need it.
The SCEA has never and probably will never have any clout with the state educational decisions, and South Carolina will probably never have a teacher's union.
Posted by moonpie on May 3, 2008 at 11:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree it's not always the teachers. Overwhelmingly its parents or lack of... One parent house holds don't work either because of many reasons. We are reaping what has been sown for years. Our school systems just want to build new schools. They cannot fix this. I don't know if moving kids around to passing schools is the answer. How about recognize more gifted and talented kids and put efforts there so they don't move and the schools fail even worst.
Posted by jk_newhard on May 3, 2008 at 11:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Vouchers would never happen - the legislature would make them tax credits. If you can afford to pay up front, good for you. If not, oh well.
Parental involvement is the best factor in making sure children learn. My son's school regularly holds classes and workshops that teach effective parenting and how to support/supplement kids' classroom education at home. The attendance is PATHETIC!
Also, I have been in many homes where there are no books. How will the kids read if the parents don't?