Indiana school districts facing NCLB sanctions

 Since its inception, the federal No Child Left Behind education initiative has included the threat of consequences for schools not living up to academic standards. Now, some local districts and individual schools in Indiana are in the midst of dealing with those consequences as they fail to meet the government’s established progress goals year after year. While school officials are not ready to give details, local officials have hinted that changes at some schools are imminent.

The Indiana Department of Education made public Tuesday which districts and schools are making the necessary progress and which schools are not. Changes on the horizon include redesigning the way federal funds are handled and delivered to struggling schools in Fort Wayne Community Schools and staffing reorganization and changes in East Allen County Schools. But those alterations are nothing compared to what the state could do to the districts. After a school district fails to achieve the federal progress goals for four years, the Indiana Department of Education has the right to take over the district. That happens by reducing funding, replacing staff or abolishing the system altogether. Read more in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette online.