The Sun-Times reports that Chicago students who used the school-choice provision of No Child Left Behind to transfer from weak to stronger schools showed gains in reading and math. Further, the transfers didn't harm either the schools they left or the schools they entered, according to a study performed by the Chicago Board of Education at the paper's request. More such studies are needed in other cities, and scholars have some quibbles with this one, but the news is certainly welcome for choice and NCLB supporters - in particular, for those who wished NCLB contained more choice and that fewer bureaucratic and capacity hurdles confronted kids hoping to exercise it. Chicago is not without blame on the latter point, having allowed just 2,500 of its 120,000 eligible students to transfer (this figure will drop to 457 students in the coming school year). One might hope this news would cause the school system to widen the transfer option, but Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan says otherwise: "We refused to overwhelm schools. That's why this worked well." Maybe. But we suspect that the threshold for "overwhelming" a district of 400,000 students is a bit higher than 457.
"Early results on 'No Child': progress," by Rosalind Rossi, Chicago Sun-Times, April 25, 2004