Our struggling schools

o7This week we asked our parent panelists: Should parents be worried

that three Newport-Mesa Unified School District schools were added to

a federal list of at-risk schools because of their poor performances

as part of the No Child Left Behind Act? Eight Newport-Mesa schools

now are on the list.

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Yes, I think that parents of kids in the eight schools in the

Newport-Mesa Unified School District that are currently on the list

should be concerned. Those eight schools are more than a quarter of

the total in the district. Parents have a right to expect better.

Last week’s upbeat press release from the district touted how many

highly qualified and credentialed teachers we have working with our

kids. Those were nice statistics, but these poor results show how

that was just so much window dressing.

These latest numbers are once again attributed to the large

proportion of students with limited English proficiency, as they

always are. I believe that’s now an old and increasingly tired story.

Did we just find out last year that we have lots of students whose

first language is not English? Does educating that demographic group

require some new techniques that have yet to be developed? Do all

other schools with similar demographics also fail to make the grade?

The answer to those questions is obviously “no,” so one can only

conclude that the district still isn’t doing enough or is not doing

things correctly.

The No Child Left Behind Act is mostly a lame cover for the Bush

administration’s woefully inadequate education efforts. It’s riddled

with holes and poorly conceived policies and, as usual, it dumps the

real responsibilities into someone else’s lap without backing up

policies with funding. I’m not a fan, but it is the law and it does

set standards that must be met. Standards such as the ability to

speak, read and write English and the ability to do basic math are

reasonable. They need to be met, and the district needs to stop

making excuses and start dealing with the reality at hand.

* MARK GLEASON is a Costa Mesa resident and parent.

In 2002 the president and a bipartisan Congress approved the No

Child Left Behind Act, much to the consternation of the liberal

teachers’ unions that liked the status quo because it meant job

security and control of methods, content and ideology.

Under the act’s scrutiny, students in all Newport-Mesa schools

will be affected because the parents of students in the eight

underperforming schools with poor and minority students have the

option to receive free tutoring or transfer to other schools,

including a public charter school. The district has to provide free

transportation.

Yes, the No Child Left Behind Act does expand the role of the

federal government. But it would not have been necessary for federal

officials to step in had there not been years of stubbornness among

educational elites who failed to plan for the educational success of

all children.

Although there are naysayers, recent test results prove the act is

working to raise the achievement of all students regardless of race

or family background. “The achievement gap that has persisted for

decades in the younger years between minorities and whites has shrunk

to its smallest size in history,” according to the website.

The act encourages local solutions for local problems, yet low

scores persist in eight Costa Mesa schools. Intense local

intervention is needed. Newport-Mesa is not the only district with

underperforming schools.

California education needs an extreme makeover. Closing the border

to immigrants and passing Propositions 74, 75, 76 and 77 on Nov. 8,

in combination with the No Child Left Behind Act, could bring about a

revolution and desperately needed reform so that no child anywhere is

left behind.

* WENDY LEECE is a Costa Mesa parent, former school board member

and member of the city’s parks and recreation commission.