Parents exploit U.S. law
for school transfers

The number of kids leaving
schools billed as underperforming
increases fivefold

In the annual jockeying for spots at Hawaii's best-performing public schools, highly regarded Kawananakoa Middle School in Nuuanu makes the wish lists of many students and parents.

But last year, Eddriene Lasconia increased her son's chances by playing a trump card, invoking a now 4-year-old federal option that puts students from lower-performing schools at the front of the line.

So instead of attending nearby Central Intermediate School -- which is undergoing restructuring after failing to meet federal test-score targets -- her son is now thriving at Kawananakoa.

"He was getting fair grades before (Kawananakoa), but now he's on the honor roll," she said proudly. "He's been really challenged there and prioritizes his homework more."

According to just-compiled Department of Education data, 693 students are in new schools for the current academic year after exercising the "school choice" option under the No Child Left Behind Act.

The option lets students transfer from schools that have failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress on standardized tests for at least two years running, known as "status" schools.

Though a relatively small portion of overall school transfers -- about 8,000 students gain geographic exceptions, or "GEs," from their home districts annually -- the 693 students who invoked No Child Left Behind school choice this year represent a nearly fivefold increase from last year, when 147 did so.

The exceptions predate the federal law in Hawaii by many years, and have been used by working parents both for academic reasons and to reduce transportation hassles by getting kids into schools closer to their workplace or to relatives who watch them after school.

It might be too early to tell whether No Child Left Behind school choice is serving its purpose of improving the lot of academic underperformers from poor backgrounds. But parents are learning to use it, whatever their reasons.

"They're becoming more aware that it's available, so the real smart ones are taking advantage of it as extra ammo, I guess. It's a definite advantage," said Karl Yoshida, director of the DOE's Information Resource Management Branch.

At some schools nearly half the students are there based on exceptions, and many parents view a spot in highly regarded schools such as Noelani Elementary in Manoa, Nuuanu's Maemae Elementary or Kawananakoa as the next best thing to a private-school education.

But competition is likely to stiffen for space in the 2005-06 school year, applications for which are now being accepted through March 1. Besides the growing awareness of school choice, the number of "status" schools also is jumping from 84 in the last application period to 138 schools this time around.

"This is the year we may see the numbers really go up. We may see quite a bit more competition," said Butch Adams, a DOE specialist who focuses on lower-income schools.

Top priority goes to the worst-performing students from the most economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and qualifying lower-income families are eligible for federal aid to defray transportation costs. In a school's second year of "status," students who have not obtained a geographic exception are eligible for supplemental tutoring at their home school.

But Adams questions whether the geographic exception option is helping those most in need.

He said data for the 2002-03 school year -- the first year of school choice, in which 21 students transferred -- indicated that nearly all of them were lower-priority students.

"It seems they're generally from families in higher socioeconomic levels, who may be doing it because they're thinking about entry into private school later on, or maybe just to be closer to work," he said.

However, that also means eligible families value "ownership of their home school community" and are opting for the tutoring rather than uproot their child, he said.

School principals seem split on whether the GEs are good or bad for the schools that receive the most of them.

Kawananakoa Middle School, with its well-regarded science and band programs and proximity to downtown offices, received the most incoming No Child Left Behind-related geographic exceptions of any school for the current year, with 111. However, 67 were from Central Intermediate School, whose large numbers of immigrant Chinese, Micronesian and Filipino students have greater English-instruction needs.

"The challenge is even greater now on raising our test-taking scores for AYP," said Kawananakoa Principal Sandra Ishihara-Shibata, referring to Adequate Yearly Progress. "That's what we're focusing on now, coming up with a plan for that. We'll have to keep adjusting and tightening."

Similar issues are affecting Kailua Intermediate School.

It typically gets many traditional geographic exceptions from lower-income Waimanalo, often because parents work closer to Kailua. The school, however, has fallen into "status" this year, and the large geographic exception population has created an "interesting clash" of students, says Principal Suzanne Mulcahy, in which local, military and wealthy Lanikai kids rub elbows and sometimes throw them. Tardiness and fights are common, and parents are often hard to track down, she said.

But the school's No Child Left Behind-related geographic exceptions, though requiring more time and resources academically, come with parents who are more involved, having made the effort to get their kids into a better school in the first place.

"They're usually more motivated to work with their kids and do what it takes. That's really important," Mulcahy said.

The state should do even more to encourage general exceptions, said Chuck Larson, executive director of Seagull Schools, which operates three preschools on Oahu and one on the Big Island.

Larson is a Waimanalo resident whose eighth-grade daughter, Kaimana, attends Kailua Intermediate on a general exception because he wanted "a better socioeconomic mix" for her.

"In poorer areas, kids are not held as accountable by their parents. That's how problems start. It's a good idea to mix socioeconomic areas, to bust kids out of those schools to avoid ghettoizing them. We need to mix kids better."

School Choice

Applications are being accepted for students who want to transfer out of their home districts under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

When and where do I apply?

Apply for a geographic exception at your home-district school, before March 1.

Who is eligible?

Students whose schools failed to hit performance targets on standardized tests for at least two straight years.

Who gets priority?

Low-income students with the lowest grades. If applicants exceed available space, a lottery is held April 2.

Where can I go?

Students can switch to any school in good NCLB standing on the same island, on a space-available basis.

What about non-NCLB transfers?

Students at any school can seek an exception to attend any other school, but these are considered only after NCLB transfers are processed.

Resources

Information on the academic performance of each Hawaii public school can be found at arch.k12.hi.us/school/ NCLB/default.html.

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School Transfers

The following schools saw the most requests for geographic exceptions leading up to the current school year.

Transfers Out
Central Middle School	86
Waimanalo Elementary/Intermediate	50
Waipahu Intermediate	38
Transfers In
Kawananakoa Middle	111
Highlands Intermediate	47
Kailua Intermediate	34