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Is there a pattern at work here?

One New Hampshire father says the NCLB school transfer option has been terrific:

It’s been two years since Bill Chisholm chose to take his son Bobby out of Amherst Street School after he attended kindergarten there. Chisholm said he’s been pleased with the education his son has received at Charlotte Avenue School, where he will finish up the second grade this week.

“Since we’ve made that decision, we have not regretted it in the least,” said Chisholm, a parent of two.

That’s not to say, however, that Chisholm believes his son wouldn’t have gotten an equally good education at Amherst Street. But Chisholm, who moved to the city in 1998, said he and his wife, Lori, made the decision based on Amherst Street School’s status as a “school in need of improvement,” a result of the school’s insufficient test scores.

Oddly enough, few parents have taken advantage of the option.  And once you drill down into the article, it becomes kind of obvious why:

As required by law, the school district sends out a letter in the summer, informing parents that they have a choice to pull their children out of their current schools and switch them to one of the schools selected by the district.

The letters, however, take a while to get to the point, something Chisholm said he noticed right away. The letter sent home to Amherst Street parents last summer doesn’t tell them they can change their child’s school until the second page.

Chisholm said some of the parents he talked to didn’t even know they had that option.

(snip)

The letter arrived in mid-August, meaning he had to scramble in time for the start of school. Chisholm said one of the first things he noticed at Charlotte Avenue was the increased level of parent participation.

“They have parent nights that are packed at Charlotte Ave.,” he said, compared to Amherst Street, where Chisholm said parent involvement was lower.

Educationally, however, Chisholm said he wouldn’t be able to really compare the two schools until his daughter, Danielle, enters kindergarten next year. Chisholm said he doesn’t believe his son was shortchanged at Amherst Street, educationally or otherwise.

“I live next door to a teacher at Amherst Street,” he said. “There’s no questioning the dedication of the folks over there.”

Chisholm said he didn’t feel like he got any interference when he expressed his interest about switching schools. The staff at Amherst Street “could not have been more helpful,” he said.

District administrators, on the other hand, made their feelings clear that they didn’t approve of school choice, said Chisholm, but they worked with him to make it happen. (emphasis added)

So the district waited to send out the letter, buried the transfer option information deep in the letter, and dug in their heels when he tried to exercise his rights?  Wow, that sounds just like LAUSD and Compton! 

What’s interesting is that principals (er, these principals) seem far less opposed (or at least more neutral) to the transfer option than district administrators.  In any event, it sounds like what has happened in Los Angeles and Compton is hardly contained to those two districts.