237 schools fail to meet standards

State education officials said more than 230 Indiana schools have failed to meet national standards for improving the academic achievement of low-income students.\nAs a result of those schools' failings, parents whose children attend one of the schools will be allowed to transfer to higher-performing ones beginning this fall under a new federal mandate.\nStill, officials do not think large numbers of parents will seek to have their children transferred under the new mandate, which builds on the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act.\n"With this new law ... there's a huge consequence that didn't exist before," said Linda Miller, assistant superintendent of special populations for the Indiana Department of Education.\nThe mandate, passed by Congress last year as part of President Bush's "No Child Left Behind Act," makes major changes in state testing, school accountability and teacher quality.\nIt also authorizes allocating grant money to 45 Grade K-12 education programs, the largest of which is Title 1 -- a program intended to help keep at-risk children from failing.\nOf the state's 824 Title 1 schools, 237 have been flagged for their failure to improve based on student scores on the ISTEP-Plus exam.\nThe mandate places all schools under tougher accountability measures tied to federal funding. While some educators believe those aims may be worthy, they believe the sweeping reform law is flawed.\n"That every single child will meet the standards they've established is exactly as likely as George Bush eradicating every terrorist from the earth," said H. Douglas Williams, superintendent of Perry Township Schools in Marion County.\nSchools receive federal education grants based on the percentage of low-income children enrolled. Indiana will receive $834 million in 2003, including $170.2 million for Title I grants for 287 eligible school districts serving 110,434 children.\nDuncan Pat Pritchett, superintendent of one of those districts -- Indianapolis Public Schools -- worries that the new law will create inequities.\n"We need to make all schools better, not just the schools receiving Title I funds," he said.\nOther school districts are struggling to comply, including South Bend Community Schools, which has eight of its 24 elementary schools labeled for improvement. The 21,603-student St. Joseph County district is under a federal desegregation order and needs to close two schools.\n"That has really complicated the issue," said district official Janet Carey, adding that parental school choices are limited.