Last Saturday's Washington Post reported on two underperforming area schools, one on Virginia and one in Maryland. At Maury Elementary in Alexandria-the only school in the Virginia suburbs of D.C. to be identified as "needing improvement" under No Child Left Behind-13 percent of students have transferred to other area schools, private and public. The superintendent calls the transfers a "fresh start. The people who are there want to be there." Across the Potomac River in Prince George's County, by contrast, Seabrook Elementary was taken off Maryland's list of schools slated for state takeover after it showed two straight years of test gains. A tough-minded, detail-oriented, and innovative principal instituted a relentless focus on the basics at the mostly poor and minority Seabrook, as well as other reforms like school uniforms, while the state kicked in extra money for remedial and after-school programs. Both tales illustrate intervention at its best-giving parents options and forcing change.
"Triumphs, transfers at troubled schools," by Nancy Trejos, Washington Post, September 13, 2003
"Some parents opt to transfer children from struggling Alexandria school," by Elaine Rivera, Washington Post, September 13, 2003