‘Failing’ Schools Are Often Mislabeled

Re “Few Parents Move Their Children Out of Failing Schools,” Nov. 8: Your article implies that many parents are not moving their children from failing schools because of late notice about their right to do so. Nonsense.

Many studies have shown that parents feel good about their own children’s school. This is especially true of parents who visit the school, meet the teachers and get involved in their child’s education. They realize that schools labeled as “failures” are often as good as or better than those that are not.

But the No Child Left Behind Act was never designed to make parents happy with their kids’ local school. Schools can earn the “failing” label because not enough students in a certain ethnic group take a test or because of special education students with learning disabilities. Likewise, non-English speakers have to take the test in English. These are three of 37 ways that a school can “fail” no matter how much its test scores improve.

James Hanley

Westlake Village