By Elizabeth Ling, DFER NY State Director
The federal No Child Left Behind law gave children in failing public schools the right to transfer into better schools. But, for Buffalo schoolchildren, in practice that option means very little.
The situation in Buffalo is so bad that students in 23 of its schools — representing more than 40% of the district’s total schools — now qualify for a transfer. The high school scenario is particularly egregious. Seven high schools in Buffalo are considered bad enough that their students must be given the option to move to a better school. However, the district offers only one high school for these students to transfer into.
On top of this, the Buffalo school district still has not submitted a teacher evaluation plan that passes muster with the State Education Department. They need to do this in order to reclaim $5.6 million in federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) funding targeted for its lowest-performing schools.