According to an NPR report, Beach High School, Savannah, Georgia’s only Title I high school has shown marked improvement in the three-year tenure of Principal, Dr. Deonn Bostic Stone. Scores on state assessments have risen steadily and graduation rates have increased from 49% to 66%.

Apparently, the progress made by the school is not enough and not fast enough to keep it off Georgia’s list of schools in need of improvement. However, in order to qualify for School Improvement Grant (SIG) funding, the school will replace Dr. Stone and a minimum of 50% of the faculty.

Jack Jennings of the Center for Education Policy indicates that, if there is a bright side to the current reform efforts, it is hard to find. Jennings warns that the belief that closing schools and replacing staff will improve achievement and close the achievement gap has no basis in reality. In fact, the record is so skimpy that reform seems to be more about cash-strapped school districts chasing federal dollars than it does about actually improving schools. “It is less about improvement and more about money,” Jennings points out.

In other words, the focus is no longer on students and is now on desperate school districts willing to sacrifice the good name and tradition of a historic school as well as the careers of the staff for federal dollars regardless of whether those dollars will help improve student achievement.

Students interviewed believe that the school will get worse before it gets better. “Trust is gone,” said one student. Other students point out that many of the teachers who will be replaced built trust and quality teacher-student relationships that defined their experience at the school. “It will hurt relationships,” said one student.

Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, reiterated his desire to have funds reach the neediest schools, but acknowledged that it is the individual states who make up the lists of schools needing improvement.