AL Redux

The GCS Advanced Learner program is about to be audited…yet again. This time, according to today’s High Point Enterprise, to quell complaints that these students are not being challenged enough.

HPE Excerpt:

Guilford County Schools is reviewing the ad­vanced learning program, hoping to quell complaints that the district’s gifted students are not being chal­lenged enough. Jane Fleming, the executive direc­tor of the advanced learning depart­ment, said the review will help pro­vide consistency in the way schools follow AL guidelines. Part of the review includes revamping the dis­trict’s AL Web site and developing an aggressive parent and commu­nity outreach program to help the public understand more about the needs of gifted students.
Parents and school representa­tives have been lobbying the dis­trict to look closer at ways to im­prove options for high-performing students. Complaints have been surfacing that services for strong learners are being watered down to accommodate more underrepre­sented students. In contrast, school leaders say the district has strug­gled with “creating” AL classes of all-white students in schools that are predominantly black.

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Readers will recall the last time we had an extensive discussion on AL and VSN (Very Strong Needs), we listened to very choice words from Deena Hayes, who contributed nothing to the discussion.

I’m not hoping for a repeat of this. This time around, I’m hopeful for more intelligent dialogue.

E.C. 🙂

Bond Committee Forms

This, from the Guilford Education Alliance:

Grassroots Bond Committee                                                                                 

The grassroots committee works with the steering committee to carry out the campaign to approve the school bonds that will continue the improvement of the county schools. It is the third bond in a comprehensive effort to bring school facilities up to the level they need to be and to construct/expand schools to meet the needs of a growing enrollment. At the end of this campaign, 86 of the 115 schools will have had one or more projects. Activities of the committee include: yard signs, letters to the editor, speaking opportunities, organizing events and information sessions, poll work, or phone calling and behind the scenes work.  Interested individuals can contact the Grassroots Committee chair, Anita Bachmann at Anita_H_Bachmann@uhc.com.  She will be happy to answer questions and discuss ways that individual can be involved.

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They really need a wing and a prayer to get this thing passed. I wish them luck.

E.C. 🙂

Why High Point Can’t Read (YES! Weekly)

An alarming story in this week’s YES! Weekly focuses on the plight of the illiteracy issue in High Point and what’s being done to attack it.

An excerpt:

Nationally, one in five adults is functionally illiterate, meaning that they cannot perform reading tasks above the level of a first- or second-grader. In High Point, one quarter of the adult population cannot read the title of this article. More than half of adults would struggle with reading and comprehending the content, according to the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy.

High Point has more adults per capita who perform at the lowest literacy levels than Greensboro or Guilford County. The Herman Group, consultants hired to undertake a workforce preparedness study in 2005, coined the term “educational mediocrity,” to describe the standards to which generations of High Point students had grown accustomed.

“Adult literacy needs in High Point are alarmingly high,” investigators found.Will someone tell me whatever happened to the results of this study and how the recommendations are being addressed? Like all of the other “big money studies,” things just fizzle and die.

Once again, is Guilford County ready to attack the problems that need fixing, or are we going to wait until the next mega-dollar study that will only tell us the same thing?

E.C. 🙂

Thomasville hires from within

Thomasville City Schools just hired a new school chief…from within, imagine that. (Note to GCS…take notes!)

News & Record reports the new superintendent will be Keith Tobin, who previously was an assistant superintendent for the 2,600-student school system. Tobin replaces long-time chief Daniel Cockman, who is retiring.

More from Doug Clark.

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E.C. 🙂

Student to SRO: “don’t tase me, bro”

UPDATED… 

(N&R)

News & Record reports that a student was tasered and arrested at Northeast Guilford H.S. today by Guilford County Sheriff’s officers.

Here we go.

N&R:

A Guilford County sheriff’s deputy used a Taser today on a Northeast Guilford High School student, who was later arrested.

Jonathan Richardson, 17 and a senior at Northeast Guilford, was taken to the Guilford County jail on three charges, all misdemeanors. His bond has not yet been set.

The incident, which took place before 11 a.m. Wednesday, is the first time that a Guilford County sheriff’s deputy has used a stun gun inside a public school since the sheriff’s office issued them to school resource officers nearly two years ago.

Capt. Phil Byrd of the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office said the school resource officers from Northeast middle and high schools saw four high school students in the parking lot acting suspiciously. The deputies brought the students into the resource officer’s office in the high school. One student refused the deputy’s attempt to search him for weapons and stuck his hand in his pocket. Deputy C.T. Sluder, the school resource officer at the high school, then used the Taser on the student.

None of the four students was injured. Sluder suffered a bruise on his right arm.

Byrd said deputies can use a stun gun or pepper spray to gain control of a potentially dangerous situation. In this case, he added, it was impractical for the deputy to use pepper spray in his cramped, enclosed office.

“Pepper spray would have gotten everyone in the room,” Byrd said. “That wasn’t a good option.”

Richardson, of 4614 Mallard Creek Drive, Greensboro, faces three charges: assault on a law enforcement officer, obstruct and delay and misdemeanor possession of marijuana. The other three students will not be charged, Byrd said.

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More from Allen Johnson-N&R.

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UPDATE, 2/7/08: second day story in today’s N&R; click here.

E.C. 🙂