States not reporting violent schools
U.S. states reportedly fear the effects of a provision of the No Child Left Behind Act requiring identification of "persistently dangerous schools."
Congress advises states to use the "persistently dangerous" label to identify schools with high levels of violence in the past year, but leaves it to the states to define the criteria for schools labeled persistently dangerous, The Washington Post reported Sunday.
More than half the states use criteria tallying three years of consecutive violence. In Maryland, for example, a proposal using the single year benchmark did not pass because too many schools met the violent threshold.
"States fear the political, social, and economic consequences of having schools designated as PDS, and school administrators view the label as detrimental to their careers," an August audit by the Department of Education said.
Critics say Congress should change the plan when the No Child Left Behind Act is reauthorized because low violent designations indicate the provision is ineffective, the Post said.
The PDS label applied to only 46 of the nation's roughly 94,000 schools last year. // Copyright 2007 by United Press International
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