Actually, the boundary change in the Grant/Madison catchment areas only affected the K-8 grades. The high school boundaries remain the same. Madison didn’t lose any of its attendance area. Rose City was a “split feeder” school, where some kids went on to Grant and others to Madison. Now the kids who go to Roseway Heights only feed into Madison. The remaining K-8 population from RCP was split into Alameda, Fernwood, and Laurelhurst and feed into Grant.

It probably doesn’t matter any more, anyway, because in the latest “reconfiguration,” a large chunk of the Madison attendance area was rezoned for Grant. So now the kids who would have applied for transfers don’t need to—they are already in Grant territory!

It will be interesting to see how the K-8 reconfiguration will effect transfers. In NE Portland the schools are full. The word on the street is that the easy transfer to Alameda, Laurelhurst or Beverly Cleary is no more. With Madison rejecting title I they are no longer on the NCLB list. Grant is packed full and the guaranteed transfer from Madison to Grant is gone. A guaranteed core curriculum and increased enrollment (not to mention gas prices) will impact transfers. I long for the day that drama, PE, music, etc. are funded publicly. Until then, I think the district will make few changes to the transfer policy.

That’s the only leverage the feds have, Zarwen. Since 1965, Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act has been about helping out poor kids.

It’s rewrite in 2002 –No Child Left Behind– takes full advantage of that leverage and attempts to make all public education look bad.

It’s time to take a local stand against NCLB.

Low income students and schools would be better off if they weren’t isoloated and segregated as a result of the transfer system. But, with the transfer system which buffers middle class kids from NCLB there isn’t a powerful enough incentive for the school board to address problems with NCLB, except to say all our school problems are due to NCLB and those low-income parents who don’t take advantage of the wonderful transfer system. PPS isn’t going to do anything to make the low income schools succeed as long as the current transfer policy is in place. NCLB makes it impossible so why even try.

As with the Jefferson redesign grant and the Ockley Green magnet grant from the feds, PPS uses low income schools to bring in money to the district, but doesn’t give a carp if the school improves as a result. They use it as an opportunity to shift more money to the general fund. Money that is intended to help low income schools ends up hurting those schools with badly planned reforms and increasing funds for the rest of the schools.

Closing of the opportunity gap will not happen without changes to the transfer policy.

That said — in 4 years, there’s no way in hell that 90% of all students in PPS are going to make AYP — we might be able to inform parents and voters and let them know for a fact that — under NCLB — PPS is being set up to fail. People will either get that the emperor has no clothes or the system will collapse. But sitting idly by and letting the feds determine the direction of our schools is NOT the way to go. (Sorry for the shouting, but I’m kinda pissed off about this mess . . .)

It seems bizarre to me to pass a law that affects only poor children. Perhaps our congressional representatives would do the sensible thing and repeal it if the reality were presented to them in that light.