GILROY
– Unsatisfied parents can pull their children out of Glen View
Elementary School to attend better-performing Gilroy public schools
next year thanks to President Bush’s new education standards
impacting schools that don’t improve test scores two consecutive
years.
GILROY – Unsatisfied parents can pull their children out of Glen View Elementary School to attend better-performing Gilroy public schools next year thanks to President Bush’s new education standards impacting schools that don’t improve test scores two consecutive years.
Glen View’s failure to make adequate improvement on standardized tests triggers a Washington mandate allowing parents to transfer their kids out of under-performing schools. Glen View upped its Academic Performance Index (API) score from 594 to 597 in 2001-02, but failed to meet a state improvement target and did not improve its scores two years in a row.
“Official notification will come from the state department between now and December,” GUSD Assistant Superintendent Dom Galu said. “At that point we will notify parents that they will have a choice of schools according to our board policy.”
Choice will begin next school year. In the spring, the district will process requests to move out of Glen View.
The south-end school has a lower API score than all Gilroy public schools but one, Las Animas. Las Animas surpassed its improvement target by 12 points.
“It’s very interesting that (Glen View) had met their API target the year before this one with 60 points of growth. That’s four times their target,” Galu said.
API scores range from 200 to 1,000 points and are based on student performance on more than one standardized exam. California wants all its schools to eventually score 800.
The Gilroy Unified School District now begins an analysis of how much desire there is to move out of Glen View. It’s unclear if Glen View would see much of an exodus next year as Glen View Principal Marilyn Ayala was unavailable for comment before press time.
Galu said he was “not aware of a lot of parents” wanting to move their kids.
“We, as a district, need to assess our space available,” Galu said. “We don’t have unlimited capacity at any of our elementary schools. We have to determine how much room we have.”
Priority for transfers would be given to the lowest performing low-income students at Glen View. Low-income students receive preference because the federal funds earmarked for Glen View provide programs and services to economically disadvantaged children.
The federal guidelines are part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The district described it as the most sweeping changes to elementary and secondary education since the 1960s.
