The New School Choice/ option By Mary Lord [1] When a form letter from the school district arrived earlier this summer, Terri Wooten, PTA president at Parklane Elementary School in East Point, Ga., did what any busy, single mother of four might do. She set it aside after a quick glance. It wasn't until another parent asked about "this letter saying we have to send our kids" to another school that Wooten took a closer look. Not only was Parklane failing, she read; a new federal law gave her children the right to transfer to a school with better test scores. [2] Education reform is hitting home this summer. Early 2002, President Bush signed the mammoth No Child Left Behind Act, vowing to free "children trapped in schools that will not change and will not teach". Now, students in 8, 652 chronically low-performing schools announced by the U. S. Department of Education on July 1, 2002 must weigh whether to jump ship in the next few days—while school districts scramble (compete) to accommodate thousands of students eligible to seize that option. [3] School-choice advocates like Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform, a Washington, D. C. -based proponent of charter schools, call the reforms a " wake-up call " that will prod (urge) schools to improve . But the immediate impact for many principals, teachers, and students struggling in the educational trenches is bewilderment—and turmoil. The law, they contend (argue), sets lofty standards without telling school districts how to reach them. [4] In Chicago, the mandate—which Mayor Richard Daley recently called "ridiculous" —would allow nearly 125, 000 of the city's pupils to transfer from 179 low-performing schools, swamping the 3, 000 available seats. Last week, the school system didn't even know if it could muster enough buses, let alone pay the drivers. Other cities face similar squeezes: New York City's numbers could top 385, 000, while Baltimore's 30, 000 eligible students will row for 194 seats in 11 schools. (Although few families typically choose to transfer, school districts still need to be prepared.) [5] The turmoil (confusion) is hardly limited to troubled urban cores. Lovejoy Elementary, the lone grammar school in St. Clair, Illinois, landed on the list of low performers. So did La Costa Canyon High, a top-achieving school in Carlsbad, Calif., that sends 98 percent of its grads to college and won a federal Blue Ribbon award for excellence in May. It "failed" because test scores for its 170 low-income children sagged by 8 points over the past two years. And Hawaii, with 50, 000 eligible transferees, is looking at busing costs of $ 9, 000 per kid annually on the sparsely populated big island. "We need to be accountable(responsible) to our public, but we need to look at all the measurements," says La Costa Canyon Principal Margie Bulkin. So far, she reports, "Not one single parent has called to say they want to leave." [6] In many places, that may be because families don't know they can. Schools are deemed (seen) deficient if they fail to show "adequate yearly improvement" on state proficiency tests for two years in a row(continuously) . But there's no federal master list of poor performers that parents can consult. Instead, the government requires states to identify individual laggards and break out scores by race and income. Few have stampeded to publish user-friendly rosters, something the new law also mandates. [7] Part of the confusion stems from the lack of federal guidance for interpreting the new statute. Tests vary from state to state. So does the definition of improvement. Which may explain why Arkansas and Wyoming wound up with no failing schools, but Michigan, with rigorous standards and demanding assessments (evaluation) in science and writing, topped the charts with 1, 513—nearly a third of the state's schools. "Implementation is going to be messy," acknowledges Under Secretary of Education Eugene Hickok, the former Pennsylvania school chief, adding that states shouldn't profess surprise. Education Secretary Rod Paige has briefed superintendents and spoken nationwide about the reforms. And even if there's not "a whole lot of room (space) for a whole lot of choice" yet in cities like New York or Chicago, says Hickok, "the law's the law". [8] The good news. In the meantime, bad publicity is giving failing schools like Orlando's Mollie Ray Elementary, which is losing 175 of its 734 students, a jolt of support. After the school's "double F" status hit the media, businesses called to donate computers—and the technicians to wire and repair them. A home-builders association is organizing volunteers to help tutor kids and retrofit classrooms. "A lot of good things are going to come out of it," predicts Principal Joy Taylor. Among them: The exodus means small classes of 15 pupils this fall instead of the usual 20 or more, allowing more individualized instruction. [9] Terri Wooten hopes Parklane Elementary will benefit from similar efforts, since she's keeping her kids there. She says test scores don't reflect the school's many good teachers, its strong principal, or its accelerated reading program. "It's easy to bail out and hop on someone else's bandwagon," says Wooten. "But we have the potential to be great, just like everyone else in this nation. Why don't we create our own bandwagon?" (844 words)/ benefit sb./ benefit from sth. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mary Lord is a contemporary American freelance writer for newspapers and magazines such as U .S. News & World Report , Associated Press. She has written many articles about American education. port, Associated Press. She has written many articles about American education.