News-Record.com

Whew! The Guilford County Board of Education has three, count 'em, three, meetings on Thursday. Here is the lowdown on a hectic day of meetings.

What: Panel discussion on school discipline with New York University sociologist Pedro Noguera, author Crystal Kuykendall and Harvard University researcher Daniel Losen. The discussion is open to the public. Noguera's research has focused on urban schools. Kuykendall's books include "Improving Black Student Achievement Through Enhancing Self-Image" and "From Rage to Hope: Reclaiming Black and Hispanic Students." Losen's work focuses on the impact of education laws on minority students.
When: 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
Where: Greensboro Regional Realtors Association office, 23 Oak Branch Dr., Greensboro.

What: Public forums on proposed new magnet school programs for Aycock and Lincoln middle schools. The school board is considering a plan to add a global studies program to Aycock. Aycock's academically gifted student program then would move to Lincoln, which also will house arts and pre-International Baccalaureate programs.
When: 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Aycock; 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Lincoln.
Where: Aycock Middle, 811 Cypress St., Greensboro; Lincoln Middle, 1016 Lincoln St., Greensboro.

Information: Guilford County Schools communication office, 370-8386, or www.guilford.k12.nc.us

Call public school funding the anti-Lake Wobegon effect.

In Garrison Keiller's fictional Minnesota town of Lake Wobegon, all the children are above average. Well, to hear educators talk, every school district is below average in funding.

The new Quality Counts report from Education Week magazine gives a comprehensive state-by-state look at school funding. Thursday's News & Record includes a story on how North Carolina stacks up.

The answer, not surprisingly, depends on your point of view.

North Carolina schools spend about $900 less per student than Georgia and about $700 less than South Carolina and Virginia, although the Tar Heel state outpaces Tennessee. But North Carolina students outperform their regional peers on national math and reading tests in almost all categories.

The U.S. Department of Education is in hot water again, after the USA Today uncovered that the department paid national commentator Armstrong Williams $240,000 to promote the No Child Left Behind Act.

Williams, a conservative commentator who writes op-eds for newspapers and hosts television and radio talk shows, was paid to talk about NCLB on the air. The deal also required him to interview Education Secretary Rod Paige.

In October, the Ed Department made headlines when it came out that department officials paid a private PR firm to rank news coverage of No Child Left Behind, a sweeping school reform act.

Ketchum, the PR firm, also produced a pro-NCLB video that appears to be done by a televison news reporter. The video doesn't disclose that the video was paid for by the Department of Education. Federal law prohibits taxpayer money for being used to promote political issues.

Obviously, the issue of a journalist/commentator taking money to promote a cause is a huge ethical no-no. In fact, this may be the journalistic equivalent of Pete Rose betting on baseball.

The folks at Grimsley High School's counseling department have expanded their annual financial aid night into a full-fledged information seminar for parents.

Best of all, all parents, not just those from Grimsley, are invited to listen in.

The financial aid sesssion will give parents of juniors and seniors a chance to ask questions about paying for college. Representatives from the College Foundation of North Carolina will be on hand.

Grimsley officials have added three new 30-minute sessions this year. Parents who don't go to the financial aid session will have the chance to participate in two of the three. They are:

1. How to Help Your Child Succeed in School
2. Building Character
3. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens

"Hopefully, it will be a lot of information for parents," said Grimsley counselor Cheryl Bolick.

As if the free expert advise wasn't enough, door prizes will be handed out, too.

The event starts at 7 p.m. Tuesday and should last about an hour. For more information, call the Grimsley counseling department at 370-8184.

If there's one thing I've learned about folks in the blogosphere, it's that they can't get enough reading material.

Well, here's something to add to your pile: the Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently launched its own education blog called Get Schooled. Fans of The Chalkboard should give it a look.

The federal government is looking to expand its hold on local education. President Bush wants to require reading and math testing of high school students, according to a report in the Washington Post today. (Registration required.)

Bush promises to seek $1.5 billion in funding for this expansion of No Child Left Behind, the federal law that has required all students in grades 3-8 be tested in reading and math.

Critics say the original law has been underfunded. Creating the tests, for example, is a costly venture. North Carolina already had a testing mechanism in place with its ABCs of Public Education program. But many other states had to create their own.

Should the federal government expand No Child Left Behind so soon after its implementation in 2002? Officials are still tweaking the original version, making concessions, for example, on how limited-English speaking students are tested.

What do you think?

The State Board of Education wants to make getting a high school diploma tougher - and more meaningful.

But first, they want to hear from you.

Board members are having a public forum on proposed new high school exit standards Wednesday night from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The meeting will be held at Weaver Education Center, 300 S. Spring St. in downtown Greensboro.

The Greensboro meeting is one of six public forums being held across the state to gather input on the proposals.

Education Week's latest edition includes an article on how schools should handle tsunami relief efforts. Some nuggets of wisdom from that article (which apply to any fund-raising effort, not just for students):

*Don't open e-mails soliciting donations
*Do find a reputable charity
*Don't collect items before finding out what is needed
*Do remember that there will be a long-term need for help as the countries rebuild

Sound advice, especially considering that students throughout Guilford County Schools have raised thousands of dollars so far. Their efforts - ranging from bake sales to sock hops - continue into at least March, according to what district officials knew as of Wednesday.

Click here to see what students are doing.

The Guilford County Board of Education is considering some relatively small school attendance line shifts and the public is invited to participate in the discussion.

The school board will hold a public forum on the proposed changes at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Grimsley High School auditorium.

Students in the eastern part of the Alderman Elementary attendance area will get new high school assignments. The shift would affect about 100 students, although no students would move into or out of Alderman.

Also, about 110 middle school students now in the Aycock Middle area will get new assignments, since Aycock's attendance area is shrinking to free up room for new magnet school programs. Some students are headed to Kiser, while others will go to Mendenhall.

District officials have sent letters to students affected by the proposed changes.

These shifts are small, but board members say they will consider county-wide redistricting later this summer. The last such redistricting effort took place in 1999 and that process produced some of the rowdiest meetings anyone can recall.

At one now-infamous meeting in February, 1999, police arrested nine protesters, including the late African-American community activist Ervin Brisbon.

It's not education-related, but we here at The Chalkboard do want to let you know about The Front Pew - the News & Record's new religion blog.

N&R religion reporter Nancy McLaughlin is heading up this effort. So drop on by when you get the chance; you don't even need to change into your Sunday best!

Student discipline problems have parents worried here in Guilford County.

In Durham, it's the adults who can't get along.

Superintendent Ann Denlinger and school board member Jackie Wagstaff are having a heated feud over in the Bull City. Wagstaff recently was banned from Shepard Middle School by the school's principal, who said the board member was trying to stir up trouble on campus.

Greensboro Montessori School is giving parents and prospective parents the chance to tour the school Saturday morning.

The event runs from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday. Faculty members will be on hand to answer questions about the school and the Montessori curriculum. They also will present mock lessons demonstrating the curriculum.

Greensboro Montessori is located at 2856 Horse Pen Creek Road. For more information, call 668-0119.

Chalkboard regular Terrina Picarello suggested we start a discussion thread about magnet schools. Since magnet schools have been in the news a lot lately, I thought that was a great idea.

Terrina sent the following questions:

"What do people think the criteria for success should be? How do we determine if the Magnet programs are successful? Is it fair or equitable for the school district to spend two and a half times the cost of transportation on Magnet students as we do on other students? Should parents be required to subsidize these transportation costs if their child chooses to attend a Magnet school across town?"

Anyway, these are good questions and I wanted to see what you guys in Chalkboard land think about them.