Only 68% of NC H.S. Students Graduate: DPI

See this News 14 Carolina story on the state’s cohort graduation rate at around 68%. DPI says not to assume that the remaining 32% dropped out. “Our rate is not where we want it to be,” DPI Board Chairman Howard Lee said today.
GCS’s rate is even lower…at 63%.  
Duh!
This is frightening, folks. This blog continues [...]

Decentralization Comes at a Price

See this story from News 14 Carolina regarding the continuing efforts to decentralize CLT-Mecklenburg Schools into six regional learning communities. Approximately 135 jobs will be lost as a result of their central office being shrunk, at the same time, 110 new positions will be created. Again folks, it will pay to continue monitoring this developing [...]

Parental Participation in Wake Co.

See this story from News 14 Carolina. Wake Co. is progressive enough to have a citizens advisory committee that consults their school board on facilities management and construction projects. They met yesterday to discuss how schools in the capitol county can be built cheaper. They will compile public statements and bring them to their school board as [...]

Kids Are Bored In School

Apparently, many of our high school children across America are bored in school, according to a new survey released today by Indiana University researchers. Click here to read the AP story. Many of these students feel either the courses are irrelevant or teachers don’t care about them, thus making them wanting to drop out.
See my [...]

Educated Workforce Now!

N&R’s Doug Clark comments on his blog yesterday about the Las Vegas Market marking an official ”bulls-eye” on the High Point Market. At the same time, the “Heart of the Triad” committee, the folks aiming to recreate a “research triangle Park” between GSO and W-S right through Kernersville, are meeting today to strategize.
With the potential hit [...]

The “Loot”ery

I feel hoodwinked. Have you felt hoodwinked lately?
I actually supported the new NC state lottery. Yes, I was sold on the idea of lottery revenues for education. Now that I’ve seen the back-and-forth with lottery revenues contributing (or really, not contributing) to fund GCS construction projects and Gov. Easley doing the “Texas-two-step” flip-flop on reducing [...]

“Grier-isms”

Welcome to this installment of “Grier-isms,” where we will feature and highlight the not-so-witty, half-cocked, and the just-plain-unreal and downright insensitive comments of our illustrious superintendent of schools, Terrence Grier.
You already saw the example of Grier’s comments made to Kiser Middle School principal Sharon McCants, telling her that she was inheriting a staff who doesn’t think [...]

Kiser Middle School Concerns–Part 4

An insider familiar with the deteriorating behavioral/discipline situation at Kiser Middle School comments:
“The climate has deteriorated so much that students are now putting their hands on teachers (shoving them, moving arms that are placed to block entrance/exit) and no disciplinary action is taken. The usual response given by the administration is ‘it was not brought [...]

CPS Kids Make the Grade, So Why Can’t GCS?

Yet another example of kids scoring high on state tests OUTSIDE of North Carolina…see this article from today’s Chicago Sun-Times. Illinois students made gains on state achivement tests for the first time since 1999. And at least half of the students from Chicago Public Schools passed every Illinois Standards Achivement Test taken last year.
It’s uncanny.
E.C. [...]

New Discipline Problems at Page

When students openly assault school staff, there is a problem somewhere. It’s not supposed to happen and if and when it does, there should be immediate consequences. This was how it was when I was in school 20 years ago. If I ever put my hand on a teacher when I was in school, it [...]

Wishing Cooke Well

Eastern Guilford H.S. principal Dr. Lisa Cooke took medical leave for the rest of the year, and we wish her the very best. She’s been through a lot, leading staff and students through the toughest time in the school’s history with the November 2006 fire. I honestly hope she got what she needed from GCS [...]

More on Grier–More on Kiser

Another source familiar with the situation within Kiser Middle School (and Grier’s “statement”) comments herein:
“Decisions (or lack of) concerning lack of discipline has led to low teacher morale, frustration, and a disconnect between staff and administration. It is demoralizing enough that Dr. Grier has called us racist–the administration micromanages and treats us as if we [...]

Grier Stumbles Again

I told you I was going to break some news this week.
Supt. Grier really should not be in charge of running schools.
Multiple and reliable sources familiar with the chaotic discipline situation at Kiser Middle School tell us that Dr. Grier made some rather disparaging remarks at the beginning of this school year as he announced the [...]

Concerns at Kiser

Kiser Middle School in Greensboro is a school that is experiencing a transition. Because it is an “opt-out” school from other area middle schools that aren’t making federal and state benchmarks, Kiser is taking on other students from out of district and that has created a unique set of problems. Multiple sources familiar with the [...]

A Dark Anniversary

One year ago, our High Point children were taken hostage in a tragic case of political tyranny. And for the third time in six years, these children have been allowed to suffer unfairly. One year ago, this board voted again to redistrict these children away from their neighborhood schools, thus sending them to schools way [...]

School Board, County Board Meet

The two boards will meet this afternoon prior to the 6pm School Board meeting this evening. See HP Enterprise story here for more. Undoubtedly, they both will confer on budgets and more likely than not, the two will confer on the proposed scholarships for high school seniors. See me previous Board comments here on this [...]

Regional Meeting on new HS Grad Requirements

See Asheboro Courier-Tribune article here for details about a regional meeting to be held Thursday, Feb. 22 from 6:30-8:30pm at Randleman H.S. on the state’s new H.S. graduation requirements. This meeting is probably worth attending if you’re as concerned as I am about the future of our children’s education in this Brave New NCLB World.
E.C.

21st Century School Board/Superintendent Leadership

Here is a report published by the New England School Development Council’s Educational Research Service, titled “Thinking Differently: Recommendations for 21st Century School Board/Superintendent Leadership, Governance, and Teamwork for High Student Achievement.” I fully endorse this report. (DOWNLOAD HERE)
E.C.

Anti-CMS Site?

Here’s an anti-Charlotte-Mecklenburg School site aimed at gathering ideas on how to reform CMS? See previous post for more info. Could a similar anti-GCS site be around the corner?
E.C.

CMS Makes Major Reforms

Supt. Peter Gorman, who heads the Char-Meck Schools, is no Terry Grier. In fact, he is spearheading several reform efforts. Full coverage of the “100-day plan” on the CLT Observer website. And I mean big big BIG reforms. Bold steps, my friends. I think what they’re doing 100 miles to the south of us is definately [...]

Middle School Reform Strategies

From today’s Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch…teachers are spending unusual amounts of time remediating students who were not taught basic elementary school math. So maybe it is at the elementary school level that major reforms need to be made so that students can be ready for middle school.
See also this article from the NEA about a Florida [...]

71 Visitors on the First Day

Apparently someone out there wants to know what I have to say next (or have the guts to say next).
On the first day of this new “Express” blog, we logged 71 visitors. And BTW, we have logged our 1,700th visitor to hueyforguilfordschoolboard.org.
Thank you.
Please keep visiting. Please participate in our discussions here. As it says on [...]

Michigan…Almost like NC

Seems that the state of Michigan is going through many of the same issues that NC is going through. See this article from the Detroit News. The whole notion of high school reform, I’m starting to think, is becoming its own industry. And things will get awfully tricky if NCLB is reauthorized.
 E.C.

NCLB Reauthorization Recommendations

In an article in today’s Washington Post, a bipartisan commission dealing with the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind law released a series of recommendations that require…yes, more testing.
Here we go again folks…
Recommendations include creating new national standards and national exams. Teachers would be subject to sanctions with poorly performing students. H.S. seniors would [...]

It’s a Child…Not a Test Score

Here’s an op-ed piece I found in the Cincinnati Enquirer from a professor at Xavier University who believes education should be more than about test scores. As preliminary EOC data begins trickling in from block high schools statewide, this should begin to put it in perspective.
He writes: “…these tests are built upon standards which have [...]

EOCs Hit the Fan

Is it fair that EOC teachers continue to be held accountable for students who don’t do well on EOGs/EOCs? I would particularly love to hear comments from GCAE’s Mark Jewell on this. Many teachers across the system, especially rookie teachers, wind up teaching EOC classes and because they are not tenured, their contract renewals are [...]

Neighborhood Schools & Magnets

A gentleman named Jim Langer over on the N&R Chalkboard Blog site wants to discuss neighborhood schools and magnets. Okay. Let’s discuss. In my opinion, GCS is not doing magnets right. There are too many, they are scattered all over the county, there are too many magnets within schools and too many of them are [...]

Welcome to the New & Improved Campaign Weblog

It had to happen eventually. We became a victim of our own success. So we’ve now created a separate standalone campaign Web Blog site. To come to this site directly, the site is http://erikhuey.wordpress.com. A link has been established off of my main website. As you now know, my web blog is that only one [...]

Intervention Teams are Going to Intervene…aren’t they?

See today’s N&R article for continuing coverage on the Intervention Teams into our high-impact schools. And there now seems to be a question as to what their role is. Did I call this one or what? And what I’m also uneasy about is the fact that the schools that need curriculum facilitators are being stripped [...]

SROs Safe For Now?

NOTE…this was the blog entry prior to the blog switchover. This is being rewritten to maintain continuity.

THE SROs ARE SAFE FOR NOW

Good reactions to the speech at the Feb. 8 Board meeting where we attempted to save our school resource officers, and it may have paid off via an unlikely source. Deena Hayes suggested [...]