This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.
Under the No Child Left Behind law, schools enter "Corrective Action" status when they fail to make "Adequate Yearly Progress" (AYP) for four years.
Schools that fail to make AYP for a fifth year move into "Corrective Action II," subjecting them to the most stringent remedies under the law.
How many schools are in Corrective Action II?
- Seventy Philadelphia schools are in Corrective Action II, accounting for half of the total in Pennsylvania. Of the 70, 19 are categorized by the state as Corrective Action II – Year 5; these schools have never made all their AYP targets, and have been in Corrective Action II since 2003.
- Five Philadelphia charter schools are also in Corrective Action II (Community Academy, Germantown Settlement, Hope, Leadership Learning Partners, and Wakisha).
- As many as 24 additional District schools could move into Corrective Action II status in 2008. These include nine schools in Corrective Action I and 15 schools classified as "Making Progress" that would revert to Corrective Action II status if they fail to make AYP next year.
What happens to schools in Corrective Action II?
- According to federal law, all schools in Corrective Action II must develop a plan with staff and parent input that includes major restructuring – either conversion to a charter, privatization, or reconstitution of staff. The law provides an "other restructuring" option that offers some flexibility, such as changing grade configuration or dividing a school into smaller autonomous learning communities. If they fail to make AYP again for a sixth year, schools move into Corrective Action II, Year 2, and the law says they must implement their restructuring plan.
- A school can get out of Corrective Action by making AYP in two consecutive years. Making AYP for one year gives the school a temporary "Making Progress" label. Schools make AYP only when they meet all their targets, both overall and for any subgroups: performance targets in reading and math, test participation targets, and an attendance or graduation rate target. Overall, 40 percent of District schools are making AYP.
- Schools move out of Corrective Action status once they go through an approved "restructuring." Olney and Kensington High Schools were Corrective Action schools that were restructured by dividing them into small schools.