School Children Left Behind

The Daily News reports that only 20% of the 11,000 public school students that applied to move from failing schools under the No Child Left Behind law were able to be placed in better schools. Last year, many of 5,000 students that applied to transfer were able to. While the Department of Education is calling this a "much more informed choice process," noting that they are giving out "achievement" data for schools for the first time, Gothamist wonders if No Child Left Behind has a chance of really working, because, as the News points out, most of the transfers are for high school students, and high schools are where city schools suffer the most crowding or have entrance requirements. The students who were not able to transfer to new schools will get another chance to transfer later this year, but critics are still skeptical if the city's school system will be able to make it work.