No Child Left Behind statistics revealed struggling students

Since the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2001, much has been reported on how average students -- particularly students of color -- are fairing in the educational system. Although students, parents and teachers tend to be in agreement with the statistics generated through mandatory testing, there is less agreement on how to respond to the information.

Through Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Supplemental Education Services (SES), the Area Learning Center (ALC) and hundreds of community partners, the district attempts to provide services for each child in need.

Area Learning Center

Lorraine Rhodes-Dix is the coordinator for MPS's ALC program, a state-funded academic support system that existed long before NCLB. She explains that within the first six weeks of the school year, teachers are completing classroom assessments for each child looking for deficiencies in reading and math and matching students with intervention services.

The ALC program is designed for students who are performing below the 40th percentile according to their standardized test scores. There are about a dozen program qualifiers, including English Language Learners (ELL) and students living in homeless or highly mobile situations. ALC services are also available for students outside the MPS district.

"[This is] the academic side of the after-school program," explains Rhodes-Dix, "so that [students] can get additional time on task [and] additional instruction time for that grade level." The programs begin right after the regular school day ends.

Because of information provided by the previous year's teacher, Rhodes-Dix says, "A lot of times students hit the ground running and are able to move into the after-school program pretty seamlessly at the beginning of the year."

Although a few ALC facilitators are retired teachers, most are regular daytime teachers, so for many students their daytime teacher and ALC teacher are one and the same. The downside to this is that "Teachers have a lot to do during the regular day," Rhodes-Dix explains, "and it's very difficult to add one-and-a-half…to three hours per day, two-to-four days a week in with their regular duties."

No students are turned away from ALC, but resources are limited. Classrooms require a minimum of 20 students, but since there are a limited number of teachers, class size may be too large for each student to receive adequate individual attention.

Still, "We service 10,000-plus kids," Rhodes-Dix explains, "and Minneapolis is a district that services over 35,000 kids, so you're looking at…close to one-third of the kids [who] are getting services.

"We would love to service more students," she continues. "If we could, [we would] have every classroom filled with the students that need services, but …ACL is not mandatory…it's a voluntary service."

Supplemental Education
Services

Supplemental Education Services, or SES, is a federally funded NCLB program. SES is specifically a one-on-one tutoring program with one qualifier: The student must qualify for free and reduced lunch. Academic standing has almost no bearing on whether or not a student can receive services.

According to NCLB guidelines, if a school is unable to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) for two consecutive years the school is put on a "needs improvement" list and become eligible for SES.

"[Families from] every school in the district get that original letter [in August] telling them of their school status," explains Kristen Schroeder, administrator of compliance for NCLB for MPS. "Then we send out a follow-up letter only for schools that are eligible for SES."

In an effort to ensure that qualifying students get necessary tutoring, Schroeder says, "When we first started and we had about 18 schools or so on the list, we were able to do parent fairs at every school, and that was really effective because parents were willing to come to their child's school." But she explains that as the list of SES-eligible schools grew the district was unable to do fairs at each school, so they started doing them regionally. This proved to be less effective.

Last year the SES program had a booth at the back-to-school rally at Boom Island, which Schroeder says was even less effective than regional school fairs. Also, last year, the district TV channel, available through cable TV, local TV stations, radio and the district website, was used. "We [also] put advertisements at every check-out…in five Cubs in the [Minneapolis and surrounding area] cities." Schroeder explains.

Still in the 2004-2005 school year, the SES funds assigned to MPS would cover tutoring for 2,103 students. A large majority, 2,002 of those students, actually received services. However, in the 2007-2008 school year, SES funds assigned to the Minneapolis school district covered the cost of tutoring 3,043 students, but less that half of the students, 1,324, were actually served.

ALC requires that only licensed teachers can run their programs. However, because of NCLB restrictions, though licensed teachers are preferred, Rhodes-Dix says, "You must make AYP as a district in order to provide [SES] services as a district." There will be approximately 17 SES providers serving the Minneapolis school district this year. Providers are approved by applying through the state of Minnesota's Department of Education.

Typically providers use libraries or other community buildings to conduct services, but there are online providers who supply students with computers and allow them online access during the time that they provide tutoring services for the child.

Many providers have their own facilities or do in-home tutoring. "The one-on-one, in-the-home program is quite effective," according to anecdotal evidence, Schroeder says. "I don't have any data on that, but they seem to do quite well."

Unused funds for SES are rolled over for the next year.

Because of the way NCLB laws are designed, Schroeder says, "School districts are prohibited from requiring [services], and tutoring must focus on parent choice. The most that [we] can do is steer students in need of tutoring toward the programs that best suit their needs."

Of SES, Schreoder says, "I would like to see it be focused on students who actually need the assistance, versus students who simply are eligible by nature of their poverty status." SES as it currently stands only allows consideration of academic standing if there are more students enrolled than the district can serve. Then, lower achieving students are given first priority.

Additional academic support

ALC and SES are not the only academic support systems that MPS students can choose from. Community Education, the YM/WCA, and Boys and Girls Club collaborate with ALC for students who do not qualify for either service.

"On the website for MPS under ‘Community Ed,' there's a drop-down menu [for] CPO [Community Partners Online]…[that contains] a huge list of all [who] partners with MPS," Rhodes-Dix explains. "At last count, I think I would be safe to say anywhere from 200-300 community partners are certified to work with our students."

Though Rhodes-Dix says that she is confident that all of these services working together provide adequate support for all students in need, she says, "It would probably [be] a lot more accessible if there was a hard copy of all of the services that we have -- say a first-call-for-help kind of a booklet -- that Minneapolis would give to their parents."

She also says, "Parents might not know exactly what it is that they need or exactly who puts [the] services out there… There [are a] plethora of schools that have lots of services, but it would be up to that parent to kind of figure out which one of those services or which combination of those services would best help [his or her] child."

For additional information on MPS academic support services, call 612-668-0000 or go to www.mpls.k12.mn.us.

The Minnesota Spokesman Recorder would like to hear from parents and students who have had successes or less-than-favorable experiences while using or trying to locate supplemental education services like those mentioned in this article. Please contact us at 612-827-4021 with your stories.

Vickie Evans-Nash welcomes reader responses to vnash@spokesman-recorder.com.