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July 1, 2002

Contact: Dan Langan
Melinda Malico
(202) 401-1576

PAIGE RELEASES NUMBER OF SCHOOLS IN SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT IN EACH STATE

Public schools that fail to meet state standards for two years to offer children more choices

U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today announced that students in an estimated 8,600 schools nationwide, according to state reports, will have the option to choose and attend a higher-performing school in their school district if the school they currently attend has failed to meet state academic standards for two consecutive years.

The new options are available to parents of students in Title I-funded schools, and were established under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which was signed into law by President Bush on January 8, 2002. The new educational options must be provided at the start of the 2002-2003 school year.

"This is a new day in education and opportunity for the nation's neediest children," Paige said. "For the first time, school districts must tell, and parents will know, which schools are not making sufficient academic progress. Parents will now have new options to give their child a quality education. And new requirements for reporting on student and group progress will shine a light on achievement gaps that may have been masked in the past."

The data covers schools in which students have not made adequate yearly progress (AYP). AYP is a state's annual measure of school progress toward achieving state academic content standards.

Under the 1994 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the precursor to the No Child Left Behind Act, each state was responsible for developing state content standards, assessments and definitions of AYP. In each state, schools that failed to make state-defined AYP for two or more years were identified as in need of school improvement. States reported the numbers to the U.S. Department of Education this spring. Because of differences in the ways each state defines school progress, state comparisons are not valid.

Under NCLB, the data on school progress will be more meaningful. Unlike the 1994 law, there are consequences for schools that fail to improve and educational options for students who attend schools that are not improving under NCLB:

• States must have one accountability system for all students including academic standards, assessments and proficiency levels.
• All schools will be expected to reach 100 percent proficiency by the end of the 2013-14 school year.
• State test results must be broken out by major racial and ethnic groups, disadvantaged students, students with disabilities and limited English proficient students. Each group must show improvement.
• Information on student progress and school success must be shared annually with parents.

School districts are required to help cover the costs of transportation for students who exercise their choice option. To assist parents in obtaining supplemental services, states will prepare a list of approved service providers that can provide after-school, before-school, summer school or weekend help in reading and math. Providers are to provide high-quality, research-based instruction in line with state standards, and services can come from school districts, non-profit and for-profit organizations, faith-based groups and charity organizations.

Also, to help prepare states and districts to implement the new provisions, Paige recently hosted state and local education officials for a conference about the supplemental services requirements during which he shared a letter to states that included preliminary guidance, available at http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/06-2002/06142002.html

States and most high-poverty districts are receiving significant increases in Title I funding to help support activities to improve schools, Paige said. State Title I allocations can be viewed at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/Budget03/03StateTables/index.html.

The list of states and number of schools follows. The information in this list was provided by each state.

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