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2 schools ordered to offer tutoring

Low-income students will get the help because of No Child Left Behind.

By EDDY RAMIREZ
Published July 16, 2006

INVERNESS -The Citrus school system is spending more than half a million dollars this year to hire outside companies to tutor students from two elementary schools. But not every child is getting extra help.

The federal government is ordering Citrus Springs Elementary and Pleasant Grove Elementary to offer free, private tutoring because both schools failed to make "adequate" academic progress last year under the No Child Left Behind law.

On the state's FCAT grading system, Citrus Springs Elementary earned an A and Pleasant Grove received a B this past year.

But the federal government uses different standards to grade schools - and both Citrus Springs and Pleasant Grove failed to measure.

Now, they must offer tutoring. However, it will be available only to low-income children. Students who don't qualify for free or reduced-price lunch are ineligible, even if they had poor grades and low test scores last year.

Citrus school officials are disappointed with the rule, but say they plan to comply. They hope all 480 eligible families will sign up their children for the free tutoring. The district is spending $1,070 for every student who qualifies from those two schools.

"I don't think the reasons Pleasant Grove Elementary and Citrus Springs Elementary didn't make adequate yearly progress were appropriate," said Kathy Pomposelli, the district's Title 1 program coordinator. At the same time, she added, "We would be foolish to refuse any help from the federal government."

Like other educators, Pomposelli was baffled when she learned last month that both schools faced additional federal sanctions.

"I'm very concerned that parents will get the wrong impression of a school that they should be very proud of," Pomposelli said. "Those schools have done phenomenally well."

Pomposelli said she's also concerned that some students who are struggling and borderline poor won't qualify for the extra help simply because they don't receive free or reduced rate lunches.

"I would imagine that some (parents) are going to be pretty annoyed," she said.

Under the federal system, all 10 elementary schools in Citrus can face sanctions for not making "adequate yearly progress" because they receive Title 1 funds. The money is offered to those schools with a high concentration of low-income students. The sanctions become more severe with each year of failure.

Since 2003, students from five elementary schools in Citrus, including Pleasant Grove and Citrus Springs, have been eligible to go to other schools because their schools didn't meet the federal standards.

This year, all the elementary schools in danger of having to bring in outside tutors in addition to busing students to other schools made "adequate" academic progress - except for Pleasant Grove and Citrus Springs.

Both schools would have been spared the additional expense, but this was the third year that writing scores dropped on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

Both the state and federal systems use FCAT results to evaluate schools.

The state system takes into account overall student performance, but also considers relative improvement among the lowest-performing students. A school with overall modest scores can still earn an A or a B as long as its struggling students are making gains.

The federal system looks at scores from a slew of subgroups, including minority, low-income and disabled students. A school's overall scores can be high, but if even one subgroup doesn't meet benchmarks for proficiency, it is deemed in need of improvement.

Citrus Springs Elementary and Pleasant Grove Elementary didn't meet the federal standard two years in a row but did last year. They needed to make the cut this year to avoid having to pay for private tutoring.

They didn't.

Citrus Springs Elementary, which earned an A from the state, landed on the list of schools in need of improvement because the percentage of low-income students writing at grade level or above this year dropped a point, down from 90 percent last year.

The writing scores also slid for Pleasant Grove Elementary this past year, down two percentage points to 89 percent. Under the federal system, the school was deemed in need of improvement for the third year. The state gave the school a B.

Other schools districts experienced the same disconnect.

Of the 2,074 Florida schools that earned As and Bs from the state this year, 1,233 failed to make adequate yearly progress under the federal system.

Pomposelli, the district's coordinator of Title 1 funds, is now scrambling to get information out to families about available tutors in the area.

The school district cannot hire its own teachers to serve as tutors. Only outside companies and nonprofit groups with state-certified tutors can contract with school districts.

Pomposelli said she has identified at least 20 private providers, although not all of them in Citrus. Several companies that have called Pomposelli, including one based in Gainesville and another in Tampa, said they would hire local tutors who would travel to the two school sites every day.

Ultimately, it will be parents who decide where to send their children. The district will be responsible for payment.

Pomposelli said the district has set aside $694,349 in federal money to hire tutors and provide transportation for those who choose to go to another school.

Of the 1,600 students at both Citrus Springs and Pleasant Grove, 740 students on free or reduced-price lunch are eligible for free tutoring. The rest can transfer to another school but won't have the option of tutors.

If history is any indication, many parents won't take advantage of either option.

In 2005, the district sent letters to 3,600 families saying they could move their children to a higher-achieving school. Only 83 took up the district's offer.

The number of families who sign up their children for free tutoring at schools that don't make adequate yearly progress is also low.

In Lake County, about 400 families had the option last year to send their kids to a private tutor, but less than half did, Pomposelli said.

Pomposelli thinks many working families don't have time to enroll their children or drive them to a tutoring site every day. Others simply aren't aware of the importance of giving their child extra one-on-one help that sometimes is not available in a regular classroom.

Pomposelli will send letters home in the coming weeks to all families who are eligible for free tutoring, explaining the enrollment process.

"If this service is available to a parent of a student who needs it, then I want them to take advantage of it," she said.

Eddy Ramirez can be reached at eramirez@sptimes.com or 860-7305.

[Last modified July 15, 2006, 22:45:20]