Restructuring path not all uphill for failing schools

Fire the staff, perhaps even the principal.

Reopen as a charter school.

Hire a private firm to operate your public school or find another way to otherwise significantly restructure.

Those are the options a number of DuPage County high schools are staring in the face this year: They're the penalties for failing to meet No Child Left Behind criteria a fifth consecutive time.

While they are admittedly ominous solutions, at least one school that's already met with the state says officials are willing to make them more reasonable.

The restructuring reality isn't nearly as punitive as it first appears, they contend.

Glenbard East High School Principal Bob McBride said he got two important messages from the Lombard school's first restructuring meeting.

First, the Illinois State Board of Education doesn't "have the desire to come and take over the schools, and they don't have the means." Next, the state wants to act as an intermediary between the schools and the heavy-handed federal sanctions.

In a meeting with media earlier this month, Carol Diedrichsen of the ISBE acknowledged as much.

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"This is the first year we've been (at this point, and the sanctions are really severe)," said Diedrichsen, of the board's Federal Grants and Programs department. "I'm not saying that we would not choose to do that (replace staff, completely overhaul schools, etc), but we would really want to be careful before we do that, and not second-guess districts, because we believe that, most often, districts have the best solution."

Nonetheless, significant changes could be in store for those schools on the restructuring list: Fenton High School, Glenbard East, Lake Park High School, Willowbrook High School, Waubonsie Valley High School, Wheaton North High School, Wheaton Warrenville South High School and Downers Grove South High School.

Anyone falling into the category of "restructuring" for failing to make Adequate Yearly Progress on the Prairie State Achievement Exam for the fifth consecutive year in 2007 needs to start planning.

Districts have the next six months to come up with a plan that meets the state's approval, addresses federal penalties and continues working on failing categories.

So far, nearly all the schools appear to be leaning toward that fourth option, the one leaving the door open for some other significant type of restructuring, said Lenore Johnson, school improvement consultant for the Regional System of Support.

"I'm not having any conversations where staff is being eliminated or they're looking at a charter school," she said.

Johnson is working with districts as the intermediary between them and the state in understanding and fulfilling the restructuring criteria.

Officials at Lake Park High School are targeting their coursework, starting with next year's freshman class.

"These are deep curriculum reforms," said Lynne Panega, Lake Park assistant superintendent for curriculum.

So far, the district has yet to meet with the state about its plans. What officials plan, though, is increasing graduation requirements, focusing more on college readiness skills and emphasizing skills-based rather than content-based curriculum, she said.

"We're looking at beginning this with our incoming freshman," she said.

The next year, Lake Park would revamp the sophomore curriculum, which affects the same group of students. Essentially, it tackles the issue one year at a time.

"Lake Park is choosing to look at it from a big picture," Panega said. "We were moving in this direction -- but the forced timeline isn't necessarily of our choosing."

Not all schools are as far along in the planning process. Though Waubonsie Valley failed to meet standards for its fifth year, it hasn't been notified officially of being placed on restructuring status, said Patrick Nolten, director of research and evaluation in Indian Prairie Unit District 204.

"In collaboration with administration of the building and (district administration) we'll have to look at restructuring options based on the regulations and pick which options we'll engage or use," he said.

Glenbard East was one of the first schools in the area to meet with the state about restructuring.

McBride said the state recognizes the district has already been moving on the path toward restructuring over the past few years..

Three years ago, Glenbard East revamped its freshman class structure. Last year, it changed the school day to accommodate professional learning for teachers, and it increased the number of classes co-taught by regular and special education teachers.

"They said we're already out ahead of ourselves," McBride said.

Among the things Glenbard East is considering is building tutorial time into the day.

"One of the challenges we face is our students step off the bus at 7:20 a.m. and have to catch the bus at 2:40 p.m.," he said.

That leaves only 20 minutes of free time.

Fenton High School in Bensenville is another of those whose existing changes might count toward its restructuring. They've already had a lot of leadership changes this past year: a new superintendent, principal and five department heads.

State officials said that was appropriate. But not enough. What the school plans to focus on now is special education instruction, said Anne Roloff, Fenton's director of curriculum.

They want to make sure the special education instruction matches the state standards, and where it's different they have to provide substantial information about how they plan to correct the shortfall.

Schools do have the opportunity to get off the restructuring list, but only after they meet standards in math and reading for two years.

That's something these schools haven't been able to do for five years, and each year brings tougher criteria.

Panega said Lake Park officials aren't even looking at the "what if" options of passing next year. They will continue on the current path regardless of the next year's PSAE results -- because should they fail the subsequent year, they'll be right back in the same penalty boat.

And that's the scary part for officials -- not knowing exactly how far the federal sanctions will really be applied by the state, regardless of what they're saying now.

"We definitely feel threatened by it, because we feel we could eventually lose autonomy," Panega said. "Lake Park feels we know our students best; give us a chance to work on this."