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Central to California's school accountability system are programs to engage low-performing schools in improvement efforts. One of these is the High Priority Schools Program (HPSGP), created by Assembly Bill 961 (Chapter 747, "Statutes of 2001") to provide funds to the lowest performing schools in the state. To be eligible for funding, schools must rank in the bottom decile of the state's Academic Performance Index (API). This study seeks to answer the question whether some schools participating in the state intervention program were more successful than others in meeting student achievement goals. Did schools that met their API growth targets each year and by all subgroups share common characteristics? There was not a great deal of difference among schools in how they spent HPSGP funds. Predictably, the greatest proportion of funding went to personnel costs. These included literacy and mathematics coaches; counselors, and administrative personnel. The next largest spending category was professional development followed closely by collaboration and planning. (Contains 1 table, 1 figure and 40 footnotes.).
The federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires states to show that students in every subgroup, including minorities, low-income, and special education students are proficient in reading and math. In 2005, each subgroup in elementary and middle school had to have at least 24.4 percent of students proficient in reading and 26.5 percent proficient in math. In high school each subgroup needs 22.3 percent of students proficient in reading and 20.9 percent of students proficient in math. A total of 2,215 schools are listed as "needs improvement" under NCLB and have entered program improvement status in California. Of these, 355 have been chronically low-performing for more than five years. Process improvements such as class size reductions, bigger budgets, or threatened sanctions have failed to address the problem. Students need the right of exit from these low-performing schools. School funding needs to be put into the backpacks of children and follow them into the school of their choice. Offering parents and students "buying power" will help inspire excellence in low-performing schools if they have to compete for students in order to receive funding. The weighted student formula is a simple and equitable per-pupil funding system that allows money to follow each child. This reform wins out over other competitive reforms because it allows California to develop a stable school funding stream and would put every school provider--whether public, charter, or private--on a level playing field in California.