A New York, 16.000 studenti chiedono il trasferimento da scuole che non raggiungono gli standard di legge.
Non appena insediato alla Casa Bianca, nel gennaio 2001, Bush varò la riforma federale della scuola, meglio conosciuta come Education Act-No child left behind (nessun bambino lasciato dietro). Detta legge prevede la possibilità per le famiglie di trasferire i propri figli da scuole di scadente qualità di studi ad altre con performance più elevate. Lo scopo evidente della riforma è di costringere dirigenti ed insegnanti di istituti “a rischio” ad attivarsi per migliorare l’offerta formativa. Pena la perdita degli iscritti, con conseguente inevitabile licenziamento degli insegnanti, del personale, dei dirigenti, e, nei casi più gravi, con provvedimenti di chiusura della scuola stessa. L’articolo, di seguito riportato, riferisce della richiesta di trasferimento, per il prossimo anno scolastico, di 16 mila studenti di New York in altre scuole, su 228 mila aventi diritto.
Il rischio (ma questa è una nostra opinione) è notevole: per migliorare gli standard occorrono tempi tecnici e denaro. Se i fondi per potenziare la didattica non arrivano e, nel frattempo, gli studenti più preparati, o quelli che provengono da famiglie sensibili al problema dell’istruzione, si trasferiscono altrove, come possono gli insegnanti, lavorando con gli studenti che rimangono, i più difficili, vincere la sfida della qualità? ( Santi Coniglio)
New York Times
March 27, 2003
Over 16,000 Seek Transfers From Failing City Schools
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
More than 16,000 New York City children have demanded transfers out of failing public schools under a federal law that gives parents the right to request that their child be moved to a better-performing school, the city's Department of Education said yesterday.
A spokesman for Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein said that the department had received 50,000 responses as of yesterday out of at least 228,000 students who are eligible to transfer under the law, called the No Child Left Behind Act.
The spokesman, David Chai, said that a third of the respondents had requested transfer applications. The deadline for requesting an application is Monday. Under the law, parents can request free tutoring instead of a transfer.
Last year, the first year that transfers became a federal right, 6,400 students requested them and about 1,500 were moved. Officials said they did not know how many transfers would be granted this year. The figure depends on available seats.
The rising number of transfer requests seemed to reflect growing awareness about the program and deepening frustration among parents over failing schools.
The department released the figures on transfer requests yesterday after City Councilwoman Eva S. Moskowitz and other lawmakers criticized the department for not doing a better job of informing parents about their rights.
City education officials said they sent letters to parents by first-class mail, sent a reminder letter home with students and followed up with phone calls of a taped message from Chancellor Klein.
"We have received close to 50,000 forms from parents," Mr. Chai said. "We have made over 175,000 phone calls directly to the parents, coupled with half a million first-class letters to parents in 10 languages."
A spot-check of schools in Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx yesterday found a majority of parents had received one or more notices about their transfer rights, though they had mixed reactions.
At Public School 27 in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, Sabrina Holmes, 37, said she had received both a letter in the mail and a notice sent home with her daughter, Shawnea, a first-grader. Ms. Holmes, a vice president of the P.T.A., said she did not want a transfer. "I am not going to bail out because the school is failing a little," she said. "I am going to work to make it better." Ms Holmes said she did request free tutoring.
At Public School 289 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Tenisha Bernard said she received a letter on Tuesday and would request a transfer for her daughter, Cheyenne, who is in kindergarten.
At the Adolph S. Ochs School, on West 53rd Street in Manhattan, some parents said they had not read or did not understand the notice they received. "Is that what that was about?" said Evelyn Naeem, whose daughter is repeating first grade at the school. "I have to check it out. I would have liked to transfer my daughter."
Another parent, Katherine Cardona, whose son, Angel, is repeating third grade at the school, said she was bothered by the paperwork required. "It was an application for an application," she said.