Early Look at Restructuring in California
WrestlingDetails.pdf (application/pdf Object)
WASHINGTON -- February 9, 2006 -- The vast majority of California districts with schools facing restructuring -- the No Child Left Behind Act's ultimate sanction for struggling schools -- are forgoing the law's more radical options, such as converting these schools into charter schools or turning the operation of the schools over to an outside entity.
Instead, districts are engaging in internal reforms that improve the schools, according to a new report from the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Education Policy (CEP).
The study, Wrestling the Devil in the Details: An Early Look at Restructuring in California, tracks the initial steps of 271 schools in mostly urban areas in California that have missed Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) toward state achievement targets for five or more consecutive years, placing them in restructuring and subjecting them to a variety of major, school-wide reform strategies intended to revive failing schools.
While it is too early to say whether the processes for restructuring are effective in California, it is clear that the most popular improvement strategies for districts and schools stop short of dissolving a school or turning it into a charter school.
The report, along with additional information on CEP, its publications and its work, is available on the web at www.cep-dc.org.
