Special Meeting this Wednesday

From GCS:

The Guilford County Board of Education will hold a Special Called meeting on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 11:30 a.m. to discuss hiring a new superintendent. The meeting will be held in the Board Room of the Administrative Offices, 712 N. Eugene St., Greensboro, N.C.

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E.C.

More on that math/science collaboration (N&R)

Today’s N&R has more on this proposed math/science collaboration effort between UNCG and GCS. And some striking quotes can be found here.

N&R:

Educator Ed Uprichard has a vision that Guilford County 20 years from now will be known for luring and keeping some of the most innovative and high-paying technical and engineering companies in the country.

That vision also includes Guilford County Schools students outperforming their international peers on math and science exams and pouring out of local universities with related degrees.

Uprichard, former provost and dean of the school of education at UNCG, hopes a research institute he is planning will help the county accomplish this.

UNCG this past January received an initial $75,000 grant from the local Joseph M. Bryan, Cemala and Weaver foundations to plan the Institute for the Advancement of Learning in Mathematics and Science.

Last month, Uprichard started discussing a partnership with Guilford County Schools, local colleges and universities and business leaders, he said.

“We see it as a potential economic development tool for the community,” said Ed Kitchen, vice president of the Bryan Foundation. “Hopefully, we could become a center for excellence and that in turn would draw businesses to this community.”

Uprichard, now a math professor at UNCG, said he wants to form a steering committee and working groups soon to flesh out the ideas and have a proposal to the foundations by early 2009.

“We know that math and science learning in K-12 public education is not where it needs to be, according to international studies,” Uprichard said. “We have a problem in this country that needs to be addressed.”

Possible projects could include piloting different teaching techniques in middle schools or drafting policies that would either change how students are tested or increase the amount of money spent on educating gifted students, he said.

Uprichard said he believes the institute is important during an era of globalization and advances in areas such as nanotechnology.

“I would bet that those communities well-grounded in math and science and technology will more than likely be on the cutting edge 30 years from now,” he said. “But it’s not a sure thing.”

Kitchen said business leaders have told him they must often hire employees from outside the region or country to meet their work force requirements.

hire? as in…we have jobs here? (just kidding) But seriously…you guys are the same ones that preach about the “brain-drain” we keep having; young professionals with families like me are looking for work in Raleigh and Charlotte because there are no jobs. There’s a contradiction somewhere.

More:

Martin Weissburg, president and chief executive officer of Volvo Financial Services in Greensboro, also acknowledged a gap between Guilford County’s work force and the technical skills needed by employers.

“It’s very expensive to hire outside the area and relocate his or her family,” said Weissburg, who also serves on an education-related task force with Action Greensboro.

So we have a workforce in this county that’s ill-prepared.

wow.

E.C.

This one hits a little too close to home

(via N&R)

This is Brandon Thompson. Brandon is 18 years old and is from High Point.

Today’s N&R ran his photo as part of this story:

HIGH POINT — An 18-year-old man faces three felony charges in connection with the Monday night assault of a woman.

Brandon Rishad Thompson of 2673 Hidden Pond Cove, High Point, has been charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, first degree burglary and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury. He is being held in the Guilford County jail in High Point on a $150,000 bond.

High Point police said they responded at 8:30 p.m. to 2648 Hidden Pond Cove. There police said they found Marcia Margarita Ramos, 50, sitting on the kitchen floor. Police said it was obvious she had been assaulted, though they did not detail her injuries. Ramos remains in intensive care at High Point Regional Hospital.

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Brandon was a student of mine when I taught 9th and 10th grade English at Andrews H.S. two years ago. I remember him being a good student for me. He would pay attention, he would come to class as much as possible, despite him being reprimanded in other classes and being in and out of suspension. I remember working very hard with him on his writing around the time of the 10th grade Writing Test. I remember him saying he had a challenged homelife, which was why I tried to work even harder to help him with his schoolwork. I even remember giving him lunch-money. Somedays, it would be the last dollar I had until payday, but I would never want to let a child go hungry.

It breaks my heart to see this report and to see this photo. It breaks my heart because we failed this child.

I’m actually angry. Because somewhere, somehow, something went wrong. And I’m not playing the blame game, nor am I trying to pass the buck somehow. And I honestly hope Ms. Ramos will be okay and my heart goes out to her and her family and I wish her a blessed and speedy recovery.

But there are a lot of “Brandons” out there winding up in a failed system. We MUST put a stop to this somehow. The rampant crime and robberies in our area is out of control, and much of the crime is being done by our teen population.

It has to stop. This one has hit a little too close to home.

E.C.

NCAE Grapples Over Personal Leave Pay (N&R)

Today’s N&R covers the ongoing struggle over teachers having to pay to use personal leave. The NCAE is behind a move to ask legislators to reverse this decades-old requirement to pay a $50 fee to reimburse substitutes to use their own personal days.

I never thought this requirement was fair, and I think the NCAE is right in supporting this change.

N&R:

North Carolina teachers have used personal days to attend funerals and court hearings, assist friends during medical procedures and participate in training — a privilege that costs them $50 a day.

Teachers are now asking legislators to end the decades-old requirement that they pay a fee for taking those days off.

The N.C. Association of Educators has circulated a petition requesting that the state waive the fee for up to two days per academic year.

“We’re not asking for the full five (days) because we thought getting something would be better than what we currently have,” said Eddie Davis , NCAE president.

The state provides personal leave days to allow for absences when neither sick time nor annual leave can be used. Teachers can accumulate up to five personal days per academic year.

Tammy Shaney , a Northeast Guilford Middle School teacher who has signed the petition, said she sees the fee as a disincentive for recruiting educators to the state.

NCAE found that 32 of 35 surveyed states do not require a fee for their teachers. North Carolina levies the fee even if a substitute is not hired but recently started allowing teachers to convert unused personal days to sick leave as an incentive to keep them in schools.

“I don’t know of any teacher who does not support this entire idea,” Shaney said about the petition request. “We’ve got to find ways to make North Carolina stand out from the states around us to reduce our teacher shortage.”

Some legislators also hope to revive House and Senate bills that were filed last year but didn’t survive budget negotiations. They estimate removing the fee would cost the state about $12 million per year if every teacher used two personal days.

Guilford County Schools estimates that it could cost the district roughly $200,000 in additional local money to hire substitutes.

Sen. Tony Rand said the bill he sponsored stalled because legislators were preoccupied with mental health and high school reform costs.

“It just got mixed up in the clutter at the end of the session and it just didn’t get done,” said Rand, who represents Bladen and Cumberland counties.

Michael Moser , a teacher at Kernodle Middle School, called the fee requirement contradictory. Moser, who last used two to three personal days in December 2006 to rebuild hurricane-damaged homes in Mississippi, said about 50 employees at his school have signed the petition.

“They say we earn personal leave, and then we have to pay to take the personal leave,” Moser said.

The Guilford County Board of Education discussed the fee briefly at its meeting last week but did not vote to support the concept of removing the fee. Member Dot Kearns cited local budget constraints as a concern.

“Everyone would like to provide more support for teachers,” Kearns said. “I think no one was willing to say we will take on the additional $200,000 at this point.”

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Is it me, or did it seem like Dot wimped out here? Take a stand. Will you or won’t you?

E.C.

Too many dropouts says Easley

 Outgoing Gov. Mike Easley told a group of business leaders yesterday that there are too many dropouts in the state.

Duh!

Not that he was in a position to do anything about it for his two terms, right?

Coverage from today’s High Point Enterprise:

  GUILFORD COUNTY – Dropout statistics show North Carolina high schools are not working and students know it, Gov. Mike Easley told a gathering of business leaders Wednesday.
This month, a new Alliance for Education report showed that 42,000 students didn’t graduate high school last year. “Many of these students know that high school will not get the job done for them,” Easley said during a North Carolina Chamber of Com­merce luncheon. “They know they need more.”
Easley agreed with business leaders par­ticipating in an earlier panel discussion that high school does not give students a link to high-tech jobs. Easley has sponsored Learn & Earn programs allowing high school graduates to earn a Community Col­lege associate’s degree if they stay in school a year longer.
“Then they can go to college on state and federal grants and get a degree debt free,” Easley said. “As these programs grow we may have the best prepared work force ever.” The state also has moved ahead to improve the business climate, Easley said, by shifting from traditional to diversified manufacturing.
“We are not nearly as stagnant as we were in 2000-02 when we had a $2.5 billion short­fall,” Easley said. “We could see a slight sur­plus.”
The business leaders also urged busi­nesses to support enrichment programs for students, teachers and school adminis­trators.
“We do have to have the superintendents committed to these programs,” Easley said. The state can win in economic develop­ment if it invests in knowledge, talent and skills, Easley said. “The winners will do that.”
The investments include boosted pre­school and literacy programs and increased teacher pay.

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E.C.

Groups seek new vision for schools (N&R)

More on Sunday’s town hall meeting at Gillespie Park, courtesy of today’s N&R:

Guilford County occasionally gets the chance with a turnover in leadership to craft a vision for the education of its youngest residents.

Teachers, school board members, parents and business leaders have been buzzing with ideas behind the scenes since Terry Grier, former Guilford County Schools superintendent, announced in January his plans to take a job overseeing public schools in San Diego.

Now, two groups are inviting the various stakeholders to contemplate the district’s future.

The Community Dialogue on Education and the Guilford County Council of PTAs will hold a town meeting at Gillespie Park Elementary School on Sunday.

The idea for the meeting was sparked by the search for Grier’s replacement, said organizer Ed Whitfield. Grier ended his eight-year tenure with Guilford County on March 14 and began with the San Diego Unified School District on Monday.

The meeting is “an extension of the concern we’ve had all along that there needs to be more community discussion about what the community wants in education,” Whitfield said.

The groups will hold a panel discussion with participants breaking out to brainstorm answers to the following questions: What kind of education are students getting now? What do residents want? And, what must change to accomplish that?

Organizers also plan to steer the conversation around educating students for democracy, employment, community and meaningful life.

The groups will then report to the Guilford County Board of Education, Whitfield said.

Members of the Community Dialogue on Education are particularly concerned about the district’s emphasis on standardized testing. They acknowledge that frustration among educators and parents over the federal No Child Left Behind law may need to lead to talk over whether Guilford County Schools should sacrifice federal funding to get around the law’s standardized testing requirements.

For example, legislators in Virginia approved a bill this month that would allow the State Board of Education to decide whether the state should pull out of the federal school accountability system that is up for reauthorization this year.

“If we were going to give up federal money the community would need to step up and support (the schools) financially,” said Charlotte LeHecka, an education consultant who is a member of the grass-roots advocacy group.

Organizers hope the town meeting draws enough participation and ideas to influence the superintendent selection.

The board also plans to seek input on desired qualities in a new leader, holding five meetings in the coming weeks.

What: Town meeting to start formulating a vision for public education in Guilford County

When: 3-5 p.m. Sunday

Where: Gillespie Park Elementary, 1900 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Greensboro

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E.C.

Pay for Grades (CNN)

CNN’s Lou Dobbs interviewed Supt. John Deasy, head of the Prince Georges County Public Schools on his show last night. Also in the hot seat was Donald Briscoe, with the Prince Georges County Education Association. They both discussed a new “mission possible”-like program P.G. County was implementing, with the blessing of the school system’s union. Titled County FIRST, they both waxed poetic on its advantages in helping highly-impacted schools in P.G. County, located just outside of Washington, DC.

Click here to watch.

E.C.

The Dems are a’comin

(Daryl Cagle-MSNBC)

Sen. Obama is coming tomorrow to the War Memorial, Sen. Clinton on Thursday (likely to Winston-Salem, according to the N&R).

Don’t let the drive-by’s sway your opinions and don’t listen to the rhetoric. Make your own decisions. Do your own research.

Listen carefully to both candidates for their opinions on public education, the economy, No Child Left Behind, and funding our public schools.

E.C.

2008 Teacher Working Conditions Survey

From DPI:

March 24, 2008

Dear Teachers:

As State Superintendent, I encourage your colleagues and you to complete the 2008 Teacher Working Conditions Survey available now online through April 21. Your completion of this survey will help policy makers, your schools and districts make important changes to improve teacher working conditions and student learning conditions. Several new features to the survey have been made in order to ensure all educators have the opportunity to participate and that more information is available to inform efforts to create supportive environments for all North Carolina educators.
All schools with 100 percent participation will be eligible for a weekly drawing of a $1,000 grant to improve teaching conditions. Additionally, names of educators from those schools submitted by school leaders will be drawn for a weekly cash prize of $1,000 and will be eligible for a grand prize drawing of a $2,500 plasma TV from AT&T at the end of the survey. A new, easier to navigate website has been created at http://www.ncteachingconditions.org. Survey results will be ready for release on June 1, 2008.
I appreciate the work that you do on behalf of the 1.4 million children and the economic
development of North Carolina.

Sincerely,
June St. Clair Atkinson

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So how are YOU going to respond?

E.C.

Speak into the mic

 I know this sounds weird, but to all of our school board members during meetings…could you guys start doing a better job of speaking into the microphones, please? During the most recent meeting, many of you could not be heard well. It would really help us all out a lot.

Thank you.

E.C.  

MOVE-ing forward (HPE)

SPECIAL | HPE
The Central High School group MOVE (Men of Valor Excelling) provides black, male students a “vehicle” to change negative stereo­types they face in the classroom, says organizer Richard McGoogan, a teacher at Central.

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Today’s HP Enterprise covers MOVE (Men of Valor Excelling), a program designed to address negative stereotypes black male students face in the classroom and community. Very good piece.

HPE excerpt:

 A new community group wants to encourage young, black male students to “fix” some of the most press­ing issues of their generation.
Central High School teacher Richard McGoogan, who created the MOVE (Men of Valor Excelling) program, said he dis­covered that the students simply needed a vehicle to help them address negative stereotypes they face in the classroom and community.
“A lot of them want to have a voice but didn’t have the vehicle. They know things are wrong or not right … and we have a lot of kids who are in agreement with the negativity that comes from violence, cursing and misbehavior (in school),” McGoogan said.
“Kids are afraid and not saying any­thing because they have so many things coming against them. But this group teaches them to be proud of being smart, making good grades and standing for what’s right,” he added.
McGoogan hopes to expand MOVE to other schools and community groups by partnering with the Greensboro-based nonprofit The Resurrection Project. The aim is to help youngsters be proactive in fighting against violence, crime and oth­er negative influences in their neighbor­hoods, communities and schools.

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E.C.

Burckley says don’t blog

Allen Johnson has a one-on-one with former GSO city councilman-turned political consultant Bill Burckley in yesterday’s N&R. And he has this take on blogging:

“I enjoy reading them but my advice to any potential candidate is don’t ever blog. … People get sloppy when they blog.”

I think the success of this campaign so far is because I blog. This blog has been the anchor of this campaign.

Joint coverage from John Robinson and Ed Cone.

E.C.

Peace & Blessings this Easter season

Here’s wishing you and yours a very peaceful and blessed Easter holiday, and wishing our children a great break.  Remember the reason for the season.

E.C.

Arts takes center stage in Roanoke (Roanoke Times)

Roanoke City Schools is the newest case study for how to buck the trend and restore arts/music education.

Roanoke Times:

 Virginia‘s Roanoke Times (3/21, Harrison) reports, “After years of slowly drifting toward neglect, the Roanoke school system is working to improve its instruction in art and music.” While NCLB is said to “put pressure on school systems to show improvements in English and mathematics, sometimes to the detriment of art and music programs,” New Supt. Rita Bishop announced last fall that “she would make the arts a priority” and “officials say that a strong background in art complements other subjects and gives students a cultural literacy that will help them beyond standardized tests.” The district plans to increase spending on its art and music program to “more than $3.5 million out of a $149 million proposed budget.” The district also hired a central coordinator as liaison between teachers and the central administration.

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E.C.

Schools see more holiday absences (N&R)

  Lots of Good Friday absences were reported across the district, according to today’s N&R.

N&R excerpt:

More students than usual were no-shows in some Guilford County Schools on Good Friday, getting a head start on the spring break that starts Monday.

Some administrators said they expected the absences because this was the first time in several years that district schools and offices were open on the holiday.

Good Friday typically falls within spring break, but the Board of Education took a different approach with the 2007-08 calendar after some teachers and parents said they preferred to start their weeklong vacation after Easter.

“We knew some people were going out of town,” said Denise Schroeder, principal of Reedy Fork Elementary. “We didn’t realize that many people were.”

Both Reedy Fork Elementary and Northwest High saw their student attendance rates drop from about 95 percent to 90 percent. Northwest Principal Angelo Kidd said there was a slight decrease in teacher attendance, and about 200 students signed out of class after lunch. Irving Park Elementary reported 90 student absences, about 85 more than usual.

“People in the past have had this day off,” Kidd said. “Many went ahead and scheduled family trips, and many are observing the religious holiday.”

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E.C.

Town Hall meeting to talk education

From the N&R Chalkboard:

The Community Dialogue on Education and the Guilford County Council of PTAs will co-sponsor a Town Meeting on a Community Agenda on Sunday, March 30, from 3-5 p.m. at Gillespie Park Elementary School, 1900 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, Greensboro. All Guilford County groups and individuals, who are concerned with local education, are invited to attend.

Following is the text from the invite: “With the transition that will occur following the exit of the School Superintendent, there is an opportunity now to engage the Guilford County community in a discussion of our goals for education in this county. Any search for a new superintendent needs to be informed by the highest hopes, dreams and aspirations of our friends, relatives and neighbors from the community and the young people who will be responsible for moving us into the future. Much of the current discussion of education policy includes the dire warnings about American competitiveness, but we must also include a sense of purpose and direction that is linked to the full realization of the humanity of our youth. Many of the current policies and procedures, while having the expressed intention of improving education for all young people, have had very different results. We, as a community, need to develop bold, creative and effective ways to resist the damage to our young people by any policies that we see which do not meet our standards for the full development of our youth. Any such dialogue would be incomplete if it did not include the voices of young people themselves in expressing their needs and desires.

“We encourage all who will participate to engage with their organizations and friends prior to the meeting to think through the most important things that should be included in setting forth the agenda for our schools’ future. We would ask them to think through what they consider to be the main problems, what might be solutions to those problems, and what ought to be the goal of education here in general. This discussion will be the basis of future discussions and an ongoing involvement of the community in guiding the work of any new superintendent. We look forward to seeing you on March 30.”

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E.C.

Public Schools Come In Plain Or Fancy (Rhino Times)

This week’s Rhino Times story of the week talks school construction…and the fact that a fully-functional school can cost $4.5 million…yes, it can. It may be utilitarian in nature and not offer the frills, but $4.5 million can be stomached a lot better than $88 million.

This has already generated a number of comments on other strands.

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Public Schools Come In Plain Or Fancy
by Paul Clark
Staff Writer

Two very different approaches to education are on display in Guilford County.

One results in expensive schools supporters claim support a host of innovative teaching techniques and are better equipped for the future; the other prides itself on “frankly utilitarian,” and much less expensive, schools that focus on the basics of education and is showing results today.

The futurist approach is typified by Guilford County Schools, which last week gathered 200 of its employees to draft educational specifications for the schools it will build if voters approve $457 million in school bonds in May. One of those schools is a $25 million, 700-student elementary school planned for north Greensboro.

The traditionalist approach is represented by Greensboro Academy, a 700-student charter school on Battleground Avenue built for $4.5 million in 2000. Unlike other Guilford County schools, it was built from its operating fund and required no capital budget.

Charter schools are public schools, funded by a per-pupil allotment of state tax dollars, but outside the control of the local Board of Education. They hire their own teachers outside the state personnel system and are free from many of the regulations that control other public schools. The North Carolina General Assembly has allowed 100 of them in the state.

In four days of workshops between Tuesday, March 11 and Friday, March 14, several hundred Guilford County Schools teachers, principals and administrators met to draft educational specifications – descriptions of how teachers will teach in new schools. In the next round of workshops, in April, they will use those descriptions to create design specifications to hand to architects designing those new schools.

The workshops started with a session run by Sue Robertson of the Planning Alliance, a New Orleans-based educational planning service. At the first workshop, Robertson spoke against the “factory model” of education – in other words, the traditional system of lining up students in rows in front of teachers. That model developed during the Industrial Revolution, when factories were seen as modern and progressive, she said.

“It was all about efficiency, lining people up,” Robertson said.

Robertson showed the educators plans of recently built schools, such as Eugene Ashley High School in Wilmington, North Carolina, designed around “learning clusters” – groups of flexible classrooms sharing project, study and audiovisual areas.

Such designs look for all the world like kindergarten classrooms, complete with desks arranged in circles and scattered patterns for different uses. Robertson, in fact, praised the flexible-space model for all grade levels.

“Think about a kindergarten classroom if you want to think about a high school classroom that works,” she said.

The futurist model does not plan on students remaining in one organized group to listen to a teacher, which Robertson derided as “stand and deliver” teaching. Instead, it assumes that the students will separate and combine to form, alternately, large and small groups for different projects.

Futurist teaching leans heavily on next-generation educational jargon such as students having “multiple intelligences” – each student having a different way of learning, such as linguistic learning, logical learning, spatial learning or interpersonal learning.

It also assumes that there will be more space for each student. It’s an assumption that results in larger, and more expensive, schools.

“If you put 30 kids in a 700-square-foot room, you’re not going to be able to do these things,” Robertson said.

Save for the opening session, the workshops were closed to the public – a fact that Robertson seemed not to know at that session. She asked how many present were teachers or principals. Most raised their hands. When she asked how many were parents or other concerned citizens, only a few Guilford County Board of Education members and Jeff Deal and Gary Paul Kane, members of the school board’s Construction Advisory Committee, raised their hands.

Robertson said the educational specifications that the group would write, once converted to design specifications, would be modified by specifications for each school site.

“Don’t feel like it’s about a cookie-cutter approach,” she said. “It’s not.”

Ironically, the adjective “cookie-cutter” is the exact one at-large school board candidate Alan Hawkes used, with pride, to describe Greensboro Academy.

Hawkes, who is on the board of Greensboro Academy, described the charter school, run by the 55-school, Michigan-based National Heritage Academies chain, as a cookie-cutter design based on typical post-and-beam construction, built for $3 million on a $1.5 million lot.

National Heritage Academies builds the same exact school over and over, Hawkes said. In fact, the picture on Greensboro Academy’s website is actually an identical school elsewhere, and no one has noticed.

Hawkes contrasted it with the construction style of new Guilford County schools like Northern Guilford High School and Northern Guilford Middle School.

“It’s not an ornate, environmentally friendly, portico-laced structure like the Northern schools,” said Hawkes, who bragged about the school’s “cheap vinyl siding.”

Despite Hawkes’ reverse pride, which makes the school sound like a log cabin, Greensboro Academy’s building feels neither cheap nor particularly spartan. It’s comfortable, attractive and surgically clean. The siding looks fine.

“As plain as what goes on the outside is, it’s what goes on the inside that makes a difference,” Hawkes said.

Greensboro Academy is a public school, publicly funded with its students chosen by lottery from a long waiting list. It has 80 open kindergarten seats a year, 40 of which are given to siblings of current students. About 250 families on the waiting list vie for the remaining 40 seats.

In addition to the strong demand for seats, parent satisfaction is high, if the school’s low attrition rate is any evidence. No parents withdrew their kindergarten students this year, according to Hawkes, leaving the first parent on the waiting list – the manager at the coffee shop Hawkes frequents – still waiting.

“I’m almost in jeopardy of losing my coffee privileges,” Hawkes joked.

During a visit to Greensboro Academy on Friday, March 14, Leslie Lane, the school’s parent ambassador, who gives tours to parents, didn’t talk much about the building, except to say it had little extra space.

“It’s very efficient,” she said. “There’s not a lot of waste. We fill up all of that school.”

The curriculum at Greensboro Academy is simple, focusing on math, reading and writing. It offers science, history and Latin.

The school requires students to wear uniforms, called standard dress, something not in evidence Friday, which was ACC Day; students, if they contributed a dollar to a charity, were allowed to wear jeans and ACC T-shirts.

At assembly in the school’s gym, the students were remarkably well behaved. They filed in with their hands in their pockets, a requirement when they travel in groups. They sat in rows on the gym floor, joking and laughing, but with little yelling or fidgeting and no punching. When a teacher or principal raised his or her hand, the students all raised theirs, as they are required to, and the large room quieted quickly.

Principal Rudy Swofford and various teachers led the students in reciting the introduction to the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The students also recited the Greensboro Academy student creed, which includes not only academic excellence but “high moral character.”

The ACC-themed day continued with cheers for various teams. One teacher, sang “This Land is My Land,” with the lyrics to altered to make it a University of North Carolina fight song. Swofford, clad in an NC State sweatshirt, called the song inappropriate.

“Anyone not wearing Wolfpack colors will be sentenced to extra homework,” Swofford said. “And anyone wearing a Carolina shirt will be sentenced to double the amount of homework.”

Students wearing colors other than Wolfpack red shouted Swofford down but, despite the briefly noisy rivalry, quieted down almost instantly when he raised his arm, raising theirs in response.

Assistant Principal Jeff Johnston said Greensboro Academy’s unabashed emphasis on “moral focus,” which is both a class and a behavior guide, sets it apart from other public schools. Moral focus classes teach a virtue of the month, such as friendship, discretion or responsibility, as well as topics like getting or long, or the dangers of bullying.

Johnston, who has worked at the school for seven years and for National Heritage Academies for 10, said the moral focus creates an environment in which teachers have control of the classroom and enjoy their work.

Johnston said teacher pay is merit based, and teachers have “a lot of liberty, but at the same time, a lot of accountability” compared to other public schools.

“The best teachers are going to make more money than the mediocre teachers,” Johnston said. “But the mediocre teachers don’t tend to stick around long.”

Teacher Courtney Evans said expectations are high for the students, too. In her classroom, as in all Greensboro Academy classrooms, there are lists of rules and expectations on the wall that all students must learn.

The rules include following directions, keeping your hands and feet to yourself, and being respectful in your words and actions. The expectations include completing your homework, always saying “thank you” when given something, following the dress code, greeting and welcoming visitors and, a final side-benefit of the Latin curriculum, “carpe diem,” or seize the day.

Students respond to the expectations, Evans said.

“I have boys who are set on getting all A’s this year,” Evans said. “You just don’t see that in 11-year-old boys.”

Whatever the precise cause, Greensboro Academy is showing results. State records show of the 2006-2007 school year, it had a 92.6 academic rating on a 100-point scale, the third-highest academic achievement of any public school in Guilford County, exceeded only by two schools: Oak Ridge Elementary, with a 93.1, and Summerfield Elementary, with a 92.9.

Hawkes, who is basing his campaign on the success of Greensboro Academy, acknowledged that there is a certain amount of self-selection in charter schools. Parents with students at the school are highly motivated, able to negotiate the waiting list and to transport their students to the school, he said. Greensboro Academy provides no bus transportation.

Lane said that parents are heavily involved in the school, but not at a rate that explains the academic results.

“The percentage of the parents involved doesn’t match the percentage of kids doing well,” she said.

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E.C.

Lost in the Middle (NCEA)

Kristen Blair, columnist for the NC Education Alliance (an arm of the Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation) inks yet again another stellar column on the benefits of reforming middle school curriculum (something I strongly support) and looking at K-8 schools.

Lost in the Middle

By Kristen Blair

March 20, 2008

Much has been said in recent years about reforming our high schools. Given widespread data documenting a worrisome dropout crisis, this makes good sense. But what about the critical school grades that bridge the gap between late childhood and full-blown adolescence? Do these middle school years impact a student’s determination to stay in school?

Researchers say they do. Middle school – that socially awkward and emotionally combustible phase of development – is also a pivotal, influential time of educational transition and learning. As early as the first year of middle school, students step onto academic trajectories that either point them toward or away from high school graduation.

Dr. Robert Balfanz of the Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University has conducted longitudinal research evaluating risk factors for dropping out. (Dr. Balfanz’s 2007 study on high school “dropout factories” was highlighted in a fall Alliance column.)

According to Dr. Balfanz, 40 percent of future dropouts can be identified in sixth grade. In a 2007 Educational Psychologist article with Liza Herzog and Douglas Mac Iver, Dr. Balfanz writes, “Many students in urban schools become disengaged at the start of the middle grades, which greatly reduces the odds that they will eventually graduate.” Attendance, behavior, and course failure – what Dr. Balfanz dubs the “ABCs” – are key variables predicting whether a student will ultimately drop out of school.

And far too many do. Lost in the middle years, these students eventually leave school in droves. Fortunately, some school districts are stepping up efforts to help kids find their place. This week’s issue of Education Week features an article by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo on “Motivating Students in the Middle Years.” Ms. Manzo references Dr. Balfanz’s data and profiles promising efforts undertaken in Durham County, North Carolina to stem the tide of dropouts. Durham’s attempts to crack down on truancy and “ensure consistent monitoring and support of students, particularly those in the middle grades,” notes Ms. Manzo, seem to be working. Data released last month from the state Department of Public Instruction show Durham’s dropout rate has fallen, even while the state dropout rate has increased.

Ms. Manzo also singles out Rogers-Herr Middle School – a Durham public school of choice – as a school that embodies the “mix of rigor, relevance, and responsiveness” essential for positive student outcomes. Rogers-Herr has been designated a 2008 “school to watch” by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform.

Rogers-Herr’s success is heartening. But many other middle schools aren’t making necessary academic strides. Why? Dr. Cheri Yecke, author of a 2005 Thomas B. Fordham Institute report, Mayhem in the Middle, blames a middle school philosophy that values “self-exploration, socialization, and group learning” above academic achievement.

What helps? Aside from the obvious – high expectations for academics and behavior – Dr. Yecke proposes returning to a K-8 configuration. A number of school districts are already doing this, either partially or completely. Dr. Yecke cites research in Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Baltimore showing students in K-8 schools outperformed their peers in middle schools. Data last year from Duke University and UC Berkeley researchers indicate school restructuring may provide behavioral benefits too, at least for sixth graders: North Carolina sixth graders attending K-6 elementary schools were less likely to exhibit discipline problems than their peers attending middle schools.

To reengage students, Dr. Balfanz advocates “comprehensive whole school reforms” (.pdf) that focus on transforming academics, school culture, teaching instruction, and other variables. Such reforms are currently underway through the Hopkins Talent Development programs for middle and high school.

Clearly, there’s no single remedy for our dropout malady, or for improving academic outcomes for early adolescents. But if the data show us anything, it’s this: educational discontent and disengagement take root years before high school. That knowledge ought to inform how and when we intervene with student behavior and academics, as well as our commitment to enforcing existing truancy laws.

We can’t wait until high school to act. It just might be too late.

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I agree.

E.C.

Upside down antics at last night’s meeting

I don’t get these people sometimes.

The top story from last night’s GCS Board meeting was not the two-hour discussion about Triangle Lake Montessori nor the discussion about the Super-search…it was the fact that Board members Deena Hayes and Walt Childs no longer favor busing your children. That’s the top story.

Deena and Walt saw the lightening flash.

Trouble is…why all of a sudden are they speaking out now against busing? It’s contrary to their previous votes when they supported busing children out of their neighborhoods…particularly High Point children.

Now how ironic is it that again, we’re talking about busing High Point children and Ms. Hayes says (according to today’s N&R):

“I think it’s time we stop using magnets to provide diversity and use magnets to provide choice…we’ve got to stop with all the busing.”

I don’t get it. Someone help me out here. Why was busing okay for some children in the past, but it is not a good thing now? (For the record, I support good neighborhood schools)

In the end, after several puzzling votes, the Board decided not to mix class methods at Triangle Lake.

N&R:

First, the school board voted to create a school within a school at Triangle Lake Montessori. Then, the board voted to assign 114 students opting out of the magnet to Colfax Elementary for another year.

After three substitute motions and an overturned vote, torn members of the Guilford County Board of Education sided Thursday with Triangle Lake parents who said they did not want to mix students taught by two different methods.

As a condition, the school board will require that students attending Colfax, which is about 17 miles away, be placed on a direct bus route to cut down on riding time, and receive additional bus monitors and a social worker.

“I hate to see a program that has worked this hard and become this successful be ruined,” said board member Dot Kearns, who supported keeping opt-out students at Colfax.

The board also voted to return several feeder schools to Triangle Lake that previously had been assigned to Washington Elementary to help fill its new Montessori program. That means 19 children in those attendance zones will be invited back to Triangle Lake.

The often confusing discussion took nearly two hours, requiring the board to postpone some agenda items.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Margaret Arbuckle, director of the Guilford Education Alliance, whispered from the audience at one point.

Margaret, why are you surprised? This is your elected school board.

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Your Board last night, during the 11pm hour, also voted to hire Ray & Associates to conduct the search for our next superintendent. The vote was 7-4.

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Moment before last night’s antics, it was reported that Page H.S. received IB status. This from GCS and the N&R Chalkboard.

But there’s always a story within a story.

Chalkboard:

May 2007 performance at the three high schools.

Grimsley had 34 IB diploma-eligible seniors at that time and by the end of the year, 27 had earned one. Also, 424 IB exams were taken and 327 earned a score of 4 or higher, which is needed to qualify the student for college credit.

At High Point Central, 9 of 34 eligible students earned IB diplomas; 143 of 221 exams earned scores of 4 or higher.

At Smith (the most recent school to get IB other than Page), 0 of 12 eligible students earned an IB diploma; 19 of 79 exams earned scores of 4 or higher.

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Did we read that right…”0″ at Smith? There’s your story…0 of 12 students earning an IB diploma. Is it me or is there a disconnect somewhere?

E.C.

Taxing authority gone wild

Caught this on Fox News’ Special Report with Brit Hume last night…for those of you that are concerned about taxing authority to fund local education, this report will make you cringe.

Click here to watch the video (look for the one marked “funding fight”)

E.C.

New blog to debut this weekend

I’m excited to announce the debut of a brand new sister blog this weekend:

Triad Job Watch

(http://triadjobwatch.wordpress.com/)

This will be a place to vent and rant and opine about the stagnant employment situation in our area and for citizens to lean on each other and help each other.

This will be separate from my school board/education blog and will be more personal and intimate and frank…because it is past time that we have a frank discussion about our local economy.

As someone who has been unemployed since September, I remain very concerned that many of our young people will be unable to find jobs should they decide to stay in this area after college-life.

The brain-drain we continue to have in this area is growing rapidly, and our so-called economic development professionals aren’t responding as quickly as we need them to be.

These big job announcements aren’t coming as quick as we would like them to, and they’re being drowned out by continuous announcements of layoffs and company shutdowns.

When you’re unemployed, with a college degree, with a family to support and the only jobs that are plentiful in the area are service jobs paying $9/hour, there’s a disconnect somewhere. Suddenly, you look at things from a whole-new perspective.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…there’s a reason why Raleigh and Charlotte continuously pass us by economically. We need to work a lot harder and a lot smarter to bring serious companies in to give our young professionals a chance to build a successful future here. It can’t be done on service jobs paying minimum wage with no benefits.

http://triadjobwatch.wordpress.com/

Coming this weekend…please add it to your RSS feeders and bookmarks!

E.C.

Meeting preview-3/20/08

N&R has this preview story for tonight’s GCS Board meeting.

Excerpt:

School board members remain divided on how to best fill empty seats at Triangle Lake Montessori next school year.

The decision to create a “school within a school” for opt-out students or send them 17 miles away to Colfax Elementary may come down to how well parents attending tonight’s meeting make their case.

“I don’t really know how I’m going to fall out in this,” said board member Anita Sharpe. “With overcrowding as it is in the district, we can’t have that many empty seats at that site.”

The board learned March 4 that 114 students live in the Triangle Lake attendance zone but either don’t want to enroll in the magnet school or don’t qualify.

District staff recommended adding traditional classes to Triangle Lake for those students instead of reassigning them to Colfax Elementary. Board members, divided between keeping opt-out students close to home and preserving the integrity of the Montessori program, tabled discussion until this week.

Ida Pittman, PTA president at Triangle Lake, said parents plan to tell the board tonight that they don’t want to mix traditional and Montessori students. A previous attempt in 2003-04 bred resentment among parents who saw predominantly black kids from the neighborhood taking classes in one wing and a diverse group of students in another, Pittman said.

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E.C.

Math/Science collaboration effort underway

From last week’s Business Journal:

Guilford County Schools and each of the colleges and universities in the county are working together to create a new joint educational research center, to be dubbed the “Institute for the Advancement of Learning in Mathematics and Science.”

Planning is taking place under a $75,000 grant from the Bryan, Cemala and Weaver foundations to UNC-Greensboro. Long-range funding requirements for the institute could be $2 million in private money over five years, plus potential federal and state money, organizers said.

The institute as envisioned would work to improve math and science education through four divisions, according to Ed Uprichard, the former provost and dean of the school of education at UNCG who is leading the organizational effort. One division would conduct research into student learning of math and science and another would study the best methods of evaluating that learning, be it through testing or other means. Other divisions will focus on professional development for educators and policy development at the state, local and national levels.

The U.S. lags other industrialized countries in math and science education, Uprichard said. That has been true for years, but the impact is catching up with us faster as globalization increases, he added.

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E.C.

States to get leeway on school sanctions (AP)

(AP)

More NCLB news today, courtesy of the AP.

An excerpt:

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Flanked by state Republican leaders, the nation’s top education official said increased flexibility for a select group of states under the No Child Left Behind law would help struggling students.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said up to 10 states will be able to dispense different sanctions to schools based on the degree to which they miss annual progress goals. She said the new method would give those states and their schools more power to target money to students having the most trouble keeping up.“We can’t afford to let struggling students and struggling schools slide further downhill,” Spellings told lawmakers, school administrators and others as she previewed the new approach in St. Paul. “We need triage, if you will, around those neediest students.”

The announcement Tuesday was the latest attempt to quell complaints about the law, which is up for renewal in Congress. So far, lawmakers trying to advance it haven’t gained much traction.

Under the law, schools that miss progress goals face escalating sanctions — including forced use of federal money for private tutoring, easing student transfers, and restructuring of school staff.

Spellings was joined Tuesday by state Republican leaders, including Sen. Norm Coleman, who faces a tough battle for re-election. The secretary said she chose Minnesota for the announcement because of its strong reputation for education accountability.

Minnesota’s education chief, Alice Seagren, said she doesn’t expect to apply for the pilot project because the program gives preference to states with longer lists of struggling schools.

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E.C.

Spellings’ recent NCLB Road-Show in NC (N&O)

US Education Secy. Margaret Spellings was in North Carolina recently touting the benefits of No Child Left Behind.

According to the News & Observer of Raleigh, she had choice words for her NCLB critics.

N&O excerpt:

Spellings touted North Carolina as among the pioneers in state testing programs that preceded No Child Left Behind’s requirements. No Child Left Behind was signed into federal law in 2002 as part of an effort to close the achievement gap.

“Absolutely, there’s more to praise about North Carolina than to criticize,” Spellings said during a meeting with the State Board of Education.

Spellings is touring the nation to talk about No Child Left Behind and to get feedback on how to improve the program.

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E.C.

Promethean boards debut in 8 MP schools

In its continuing partnership with GCS, Action Greensboro helped staff eight “Mission Possible” schools with new smartboard technology known as Promethean Boards.

Featured on AG’s new SpringBoard blog, these boards are huge, interactive computer screens that you can write on with an electronic stylus which interface with laptops that store teacher lesson plans and Powerpoints. They also have WiFi capability.

See this SpringBoard posting and video on how the Boards are being used by math teachers at Smith H.S.

It’s an example of what’s right in our schools and I’d love to see this technology at all of our schools.

E.C.

DPI Briefs for 3/18/08

From DPI:

*  Superintendent’s Task Force on Ethics and Licensure Schedules First Meeting

The first meeting of the Superintendent’s Task Force on Ethics and Licensure will be held this Thursday, March 20, beginning at 9:30 a.m., in Room 224, Education Building, 301 N. Wilmington Street, Raleigh. Comprised of local school administrators, deans of education schools, teachers, local school board attorneys, and representatives from the teacher organizations, the task force will be considering issues including: fingerprinting at the state level, the list of grounds for disciplinary actions, the range of available disciplinary actions, how to distribute the code of teacher ethics more effectively, whether to license substitutes and teacher assistants, when to require local school systems to report to the state regarding misconduct of teachers, and generally how to strengthen our system of teacher discipline. The task force also will examine the teacher discipline approach in other states as well as rules and procedures used to license other professionals in North Carolina. Ultimately, the task force will review whether changes to NC rules are advisable and perhaps the need for additional legislation. The end result will be a report with recommendations to the State Board of Education and State Superintendent. If you have any questions, please contact the NCDPI Communications division at 919.807.3450.

* March State Board Meeting Highlights Online

At the March Board meeting, members approved revision of the K-5 Mathematics Standard Course of Study, adoption of a Praxis II test for licensure in Latin, staff recommendations regarding program approval exemption requests under the Innovative Education Initiatives Act as well as school-based calendar waivers for educational purposes, and its 2008-09 Supplemental Budget request. Members discussed changes to the policy delineating the components of the ABCs accountability program including Adequate Yearly Progress for the 2007-08 school year, standards for school executive (principal) preparation programs, and the addition of elementary level (K-6) licensure areas in reading, English-as-a-Second language, and special education: cross-categorical. Complete Board highlights are available online at www.ncpublicschools.org/sbehighlights by clicking on the appropriate link.

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E.C.

Training Principals to Be Instructional Leaders (edWeek)

Another live chat from our friends at Education Week magazine:

Training Principals to Be Instructional Leaders
When: Wednesday, March 19, 3 p.m., Eastern time
Submit questions in advance.

Please join us for this online chat to discuss how principals can learn to team up with their teachers in a collegial quest to build top-notch instructional skills.

Nationwide, policymakers increasingly argue that shifting the principal’s role from building manager to instructional leader is a key part of improving students’ academic achievement. But relatively few districts have defined what instructional leadership looks like and tried to put it into practice.

The Norwalk-La Mirada school district, in suburban Los Angeles, is trying to be one of the few. It’s training all 29 of its principals as part of a partnership with the University of Washington‘s Center for Educational Leadership. With coaches from the Center, groups of principals visit classrooms, observe instruction, discuss its strong and weak points, and plan concrete feedback to help teachers improve.

For background, please read:
• “California District Makes Instructional Leadership A Priority,” March 12, 2008.

About the guests:

• Stephen Fink, the executive director of the Center on Educational Leadership at the University of Washington, is a former assistant superintendent, principal, and special education teacher in Washington state.

• Ginger Shattuck, the superintendent of the Norwalk-La Mirada school district, is a former elementary school teacher and principal, and director of elementary education in the district.

Submit questions in advance.

No special equipment other than Internet access is needed to participate in this text-based chat. A transcript will be posted shortly after the completion of the chat.

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E.C.

Melvin thanks Grier

Former GSO Mayor Jim Melvin “thanks” San Diego Supt. Terry Grier for his years of service to the Peoples Republic of Guilford County in a LTTE in today’s N&R.

And “The Liberal Conservative” has some choice words for a commenter.

Has anyone found out yet if “TLC” is allegedly former GCS Board member Marti Sykes (according to rumors)?

N&R:

Foundations thank Grier for school system progress

Four local foundations that work closely with the school administration on several improvement programs for Guilford County Schools thank Terry Grier for his energetic, innovative and dedicated performance on behalf of our children during the past eight years. Our schools have made progress in several major categories every year since Dr. Grier has been superintendent.These programs include reduction of the achievement gap, innovative programs, success in reducing dropout rates, greater retention of teachers, increased Advanced Placement and Baccalaureate programs, performance by our brightest students who outperform their peers nationwide and more.

When leadership challenges an organization to try the sometimes unknown and untested to make improvements, everything attempted does not always work but the overall results can be positive. We would like to thank Dr. Grier, the staff and all the teachers in Guilford County for their very productive work on behalf of our children. We all continue our commitment of working with the new superintendent and the staff toward helping make Guilford County public schools better each and every year.

Jim Melvin
Greensboro

The author is president of the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation. The letter was also signed by Susan Schwartz, Cemala Foundation; Cathy Levinson, Toleo Foundation; Skip Moore, Weaver Foundation.

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E.C.

CBS-2 plugs new Andrews Av Academy

I’m sure GCS appreciates the nice plug from CBS-2 on the new aviation magnet program Andrews H.S. is about to roll out. Check this recent report out:

High Point, NC — Some select students in Guilford County will receive a unique opportunity this coming fall. The district will open “The Andrews Aviation Academy” to ninth and tenth graders.

Ed Frye, Chairman of Transportation Systems at GTCC, can’t wait to get the Academy open.

“This is going to give these students something really cool. For the first time, there’s going to be a career path in the field of aviation that’s been around for a long time in the health field and automotive field and computers and all those kinds of things.”

Beginning in the ninth grade, students enrolled in the new aviation academy at Andrews High School will see potential high-paying careers take off.

Guilford County’s Director of Magnet and Choice Schools says it’s a great way to tie in with the notion Guilford County is an aerotropolis.

The students will continue taking core classes. But teachers will expose them to aviation-related lessons. After the first two years, the students will take classes at the GTCC facility at PTI.

“They’ll get a choice when they get out here of being in management programs, career pilot programs, aircraft mainetnence programs or structures programs.” Frye told WFMY News 2. “We can take them from interest in the eighth grade all the way to advanced degrees in a four year university just by staying right here in town.”

Burkes agrees.

“The most important thing to me is we have students who graduate from high school exposed to exciting career opportunities.”

The application deadline for the Andrews Aviation Academy is March 21 at 5:00pm. Click here to print the application.

Source: WFMY News 2

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E.C.