How Bellevue will handle students who transfer from ‘failing’ schools

Bellevue has a reputation for excellent schools, a place where residents consistently approve tax levies and school bond measures. Still, several schools are judged as failing and many students are transferring to new buildings on the first day of the new school year.

It’s happening all over the state, not just in Bellevue. When the federal government withheld the state’s waiver for student progress under the No Child Left Behind law, school districts that receive Title I federal funding for low income students, were required to send out a letter to parents. The letter declared that their child’s school had received a failing grade under federal guidelines.

State schools superintendent Randy Dorn last week called that “ridiculous,” “stupid.”

“We just gave out a couple hundred awards for very effective schools and then we turn around and we call them failing.” In Bellevue, “thirteen of our schools received Washington Achievement Awards, including our Title I schools, for showing student growth, so for our parents it’s a mixed message,” said district spokeswoman Elizabeth Sytman.

No Child Left Behind gives students at failing schools the option to transfer to another building, designated by the district, that meets federal standards. Sytman said by last Friday, 127 students had asked to move.

Forty students from Ardmore Elementary are transferring to Bennett Elementary, about two and-a-half miles to the south. It’s not considered a failing school and it’s located in a nice neighborhood, next to a golf course and near Lake Sammamish. There’s enough space in existing classrooms so that the district won’t have to use portables. Students transferring from other “failing” schools, including Sherwood Forest, Lake Hills and Stevenson will be sent to vacant classrooms in the former Bellewood Elementary.

Parents of students from poorer, failing schools, arriving at Bennett Elementary, might think they’ve hit the jackpot. A banner hanging above the main entrance reads: “2013 Washington Achievement Award Winner.”

Are parents playing the system to get their kids into a better school in a wealthier neighborhood?

“It’s really hard to say,” said Sytman. “No Child Left Behind doesn’t require families to give you a reason as to why they’re choosing Public School Choice.”

Districts with failing schools must now spend a portion of their federal funds to bus kids to different schools or pay for tutoring. Bellevue’s superintendent and 27 of his counterparts have sent a separate letter to parents calling No Child Left Behind “regressive and punitive” and assuring parents that their kids are still getting “high quality instruction” despite the failing label.