In a move aimed at bringing the Big Apple into compliance with NCLB, Chancellor Joel Klein announced this week that students may transfer from continually failing schools to better ones anywhere in the city instead of being limited to choices within their local districts. The city will investigate ways to increase capacity at its best schools, including expanding class sizes and opening "more innovative schools in every neighborhood." (Klein yesterday announced another smart idea: the creation of a training institute for new principals that may recruit candidates from business and other non-traditional backgrounds. For details, see http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/11/education/11UNIO.html.) Meanwhile, the screws are tightening on school transfers in the nation's capital. According to a Washington Times editorial, a task force has recommended that the DC Board of Education toughen transfer requirements by "restricting the number of students in all public schools and establishing lotteries for transfer students instead of the first-come, first-accepted open policy" now in place. The task force also recommends allowing public - yes, public - school principals to reject would-be transfer students based on their academic achievement. "Policy Eases the Way Out of Bad Schools," by Abby Goodnough, The New York Times, December 9, 2002, and "Free D.C. schoolchildren," The Washington Times, December 8, 2002.
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The Department of Education this week offered draft non-regulatory guidance on the school-choice provisions of No Child Left Behind. Says the department's press release, "The guidance provides general information and answers questions about how to implement the choice provisions, who is eligible to take advantage of the new options, how, when and what to tell parents about their choice options, and what types of schools should be involved." The guide also addresses issues surrounding special education, desegregation plans, general funding and transportation funding. See http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/12-2002/12092002.html.