Pre K - 12 & PSRP Public Education Issues Platform

High Priority Schools

The Issue

Special efforts must be made to enhance high priority schools. While the state has taken steps to find and improve these schools, more can and should be done. State law provides that high priority schools, once identified, may receive technical assistance to help them improve. However, the state (as well as the federal government) is not providing the extra monetary assistance needed for quality technical assistance once a school has been identified as a high priority school.

Action Steps

Further reforms should be considered and modeled on what has worked in similar schools around the country. In several school districts in other states, for example, education unions and district management have been working together to:

• Identify: Identify high priority schools;



• Identify Needs: Analyze the schools' most pressing needs



• Programs: Provide school faculties with information about and access to effective, research-based improvement programs;



• School Improvement Plan: Develop procedures whereby an improvement program is selected by a super majority vote of the school faculty;



• Administration: Replace ineffective building or district administrators;



• Staff: Offer transfer opportunities, without stigma, to faculty members who differ with their colleagues' choice of improvement program;



• Assist & Support: Provide technical assistance and support as improvement plans are implemented.

These actions have resulted in significant student achievement gains in many schools. State leaders should encourage systematic, collaborative, focused improvement plans of this sort at the district level, as well as provide monetary and technical assistance to support them. The Elementary Secondary Education Act, better known as No Child Left Behind, purports to address the issue of high priority schools. However, the NCLB approach is significantly flawed.

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