News-Record.com

So the first year results of the High point choice plan are in.
SW marginally better...Well done!
Central...continues a decline. About 5% for 2004 making a total of about 15% for the last two.
Andrews ..Well, thats a disgrace! The decline continues to disgustingly low levels.

ITS A DISGRACE!

STOP THIS PLAN! ITS NOT WORKING!!!

TERRY (THERE IS VALUE IN DIVERSITY) GRIER HANG YOUR HEAD IN SHAME AND GET OUT OF HERE!

SCHOOL BOARD..........WHAT CAN I SAY. ITS A FINE MESS ISNT IT!

Can't wait until tomorrow! Looks like a job well done Bruce! The numbers tell what we have been saying-- we ain't doing too well!!! (that was said in my best local redneck twang)

And you where saying why no one chose the state of the art technology Andrews in the HP Choice lotto plan?

This sounds like it is a great deal of data for just 2 people to analyze. Perhaps you could use the help of a $122K statistician.

Let me get this straight, so far it sounds like HP Central and Andrews are down, so that means the teachers and assistants there did not receive any bonus. So once again you have unhappy students heading into the teeth of teachers that unhappy, both groups unhappy through no fault of their own?

In conclusion Guilford County is left with an inverse relationship between student performance and the pay levels of the Board of Education and Dr. Grier. What does it say when the worse the students do the better compensated the School Board and the administration are?

I can't wait to see the token head bobbin during the first live School Board meeting stating how unacceptable this is, AND IF ONLY THEY HAD MORE MONEY THINGS WOULD BE BETTER.

The General has returned from his trek to the North and what do I read when I get here?

The Guilford County School System is FAILING.

SOLUTION: FIRE DR. GRIER NOW!!!!

Gosh, High Point High schools are a mess. I am beginning to understand what all the fuss about Dr.Grier is all about.
We should demand an action plan from the school board!!

I just went to the GCS website.

What a pretty picture they paint of the ABC results.

According to Dr. Grier, everything is running as planned and he should get a pat on the back for the job he has done.

FIRE DR. GRIER NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Jennifer and Bruce,

Thank you for your thorough coverage of the ABCs results in today's paper.

The articles, charts, and quotes cover a lot of territory.

It's obvious that all schools are going to have to determine a range of steps and strategies to turn things around.

I noticed that poor sixth grade reading results were dropped this year because "of flaws in the statistical measure that had skewed results for a second year." When did the state make that decision? Do you know how many middle schools would have fared worse in Guilford County had those results been counted?

Also, on the "Around the Area" chart you included on page A9, do you know why the 2002-2003 percentages were universally so much higher among area districts?

Sincerely,

Hardy

Seymour,

I'm not sure how middle schools would've done had the state included those sixth-grade reading scores. However, only 7 of 19 middle schools made their goals as it was, so middle schools didn't do well regardless.

As for the 2002-03 scores, who knows? Scores that year were much higher all across the state than they've been in any other year before or since.

State officials still deny there was any kind of "false positive" with the testing results. Clearly, though, something was amiss somewhere. It doesn't make sense that nearly 100 percent of North Carolina schools would pass after never approaching that level before, then tumble back down to the 60-75 percent passing range in just two years.

And a big part of the problem is that the N.C. Department of Public Instruction keeps the state testing process a closely-guarded secret. There's no way for an independent critic, such as a university professor, statistician, news reporter or even a parent, to examine the test questions and see if they are valid.

In many other states, the questions are released to the public after the test is given.

I already read all about it. At first the numbers seem disheartening, but closer review shows that there are bright spots. Many of the Guilford County elementary and middle schools score in the 90s with an overall average of about 83%. In fact some of the schools that did not meet the state goals scored in the 90s. Examples are: Claxton elementary 93.9%, Jefferson Elementary 95.4%, Jones Elementary 94.9%, joyner Elementary 91.4% and Sternberger Elementary 90.1%.
The real question that needs to be answered is; Why is there nearly a 20% drop in the overall average from elementary and middle schools to high schools? Many of the answers that have been given are excuses and symptoms of the root cause. The cause of the low test scores in high schools is a result of too much freedom given to the students and not enough discipline and accountability. The students rule the high schools not the administration, not the parents, and not the teachers. This trend must be reversed before test scores can increase. The adults who should be responsible for the schools need to focus more on solving the problem than worrying about catering to the individual problem children. We need to take a stand and regain control of our high schools.

The posting for Bruce Buchanan on Aug. 5th at 9:59 was mine. I do not know why it showed up under his name. This is my first attempt at responding to a blog.

Um, I actually wrote and posted that one, Doug. But I think I understand where you might be confused. When you post here, your name appears UNDER your post, not over it. I guess different blogs do it different ways.

In any case, welcome to The Chalkboard and I hope you make us a frequent stop.

Worth repeating, by Doug Bushee:

"The cause of the low test scores in high schools is a result of too much freedom given to the students and not enough discipline and accountability. The students rule the high schools not the administration, not the parents, and not the teachers."

WARNING: What appears below is long; hopefully it will not be a waste of your time.

When Southwest Guilford Middle School students took a full day to visit all three High Point high schools, there were notable differences, as far as how many high school students were in the halls and how they conducted themselves.

If you wanted to rank the three schools, based on that experience, High Point Central came across the best, then Southwest, then Andrews.

As a teacher at Southwest Guilford Middle School, I am very careful about judging other schools. Visit my school at the right time, and you might encounter too many students in the hall or inappropriate behavior. That's true for any school, anywhere.

But since I've been at Southwest (about to begin year 10), there's no doubt that we've improved the environment drastically.

These are some examples:

1. We have cameras inside and outside our school. When I visited my school earlier this week, new cameras were in place at the end of our three grade-level hallways. That cuts out an angle that many students had figured out did not have "eyes" watching them at all times. Though I understand perfectly why we can't, I wish we could put cameras in our student bathrooms, not so that we could view students taking care of their business, but so that we could prevent or catch some of the things that probably go on in all school bathrooms. All it takes is one person to do something that messes it all up for everyone else. A few years ago, it came up that student bathrooms in some schools weren't be properly stocked with toilet paper. If you had any idea what some students do with that toilet paper, you'd be more sympathetic to the challenge of trying to maintain a decent facility. (The new cameras should let us know who's going into and coming out of our bathrooms so that we'll have better odds of figuring out who's responsible for any messes and problems.)

2. Years ago, we created mandatory traffic patterns for our stairways. That helps prevent riot-like scenes that can develop when too many students are all trying to move in the same space at once. At Kiser Middle School and some other schools, they've actually painted lines on the floor that let students know where to walk. While we don't have those yet, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea for any school, including high schools.

3. Our students used to arrive at school and stand in our large commons space. With the first arrivals, that wasn't a problem. By the time the last students arrived before being dismissed to A.A., there would be students everywhere, standing and moving around. While teachers were assigned to monitor the students, incidents still occurred too frequently. The monitors had a difficult time doing their job because they often couldn't observe what was going on. Some of the monitors were too short to see past standing students who were taller than them. Most students behaved themselves, but you always have just the right number to create regular problems. In the middle of the school year, our principal decided he had had enough. He announced one day that students would no longer stand in the commons; they would sit. For sixth graders and most seventh graders, that wasn't the end of the world. For many of our eighth-graders, who were used to being free to stand for two-and-a-half years, this change was completely unacceptable. But despite protests and threats of some form of boycotting, the change was made, and by the end of the year, I bet few students recalled ever being allowed to stand. Current students don't even realize there was a time when things were done differently (don't you dare tell them!); they faced the expectation that they sit the first day they arrived at our school, and they do what is expected of them, which more often than we realize turns out to be the case. The issue has everything to do with what expectations are laid out for students.

4. We used to allow students to go to their lockers as soon as they were dismissed from the commons to go to A.A. The first wave of students started coming up between 8:25-8:30. But buses would continue arriving until at least 8:45, which was the time students were expected to go to A.A. Some of those students who came up with the first wave would stay out in the hall for as long as 20 minutes, socializing and hanging out while other students arrived. Many of us teachers did not mind that; students get precious little "free" social time in school. But when 8:45 would arrive and we would begin telling students to hurry up at their lockers and move on to class, we would have a small but significant group of students who would resist doing what we had told them they needed to do until we repeated ourselves repeatedly (redundancy intended) and/or "got ugly" (raised our voices). Now? Students report straight to A.A. After almost all students have arrived, different teams have staggered times for their students to go to their lockers. We no longer come close to having the entire grade level in the hall all at once. I have to laugh at us for what we endured most of the years I've taught. The way we do it now is infinitely better, and we have far fewer problems in the halls first thing in the morning than we used to.

5. This is probably my least favorite. But it's at least as important as anything else we do (or should do.) During class changes, teachers have to be in the halls. I hate this because there are plenty of times when I dismiss students and need to do something in my classroom before the next group of students arrive. Maybe a student has a question. Maybe I need to double-check that I have everything in order for the next class. Maybe I need to have a one-on-one quick talk with a student about discipline. There are countless, legitimate classroom-based tasks that pop up. But the same is true for all teachers. And if we all stay in our classrooms during a class change, for whatever reasons, no one will be in the hall to monitor students, and "stuff" will go on out there, incidents that our mere presence would--more often than not--prevent. Our administrators remind us of this expectation as much as anything else. They are right. Hall monitoring is vital to ensure that chaos and disorder does not reign. (Oh yeah, the other problem about being out in the hall is that "stuff" can then go on in the classroom. It's potentially a no-win situation, but things are more likely to occur in the hall.)

It is a tragedy that a relatively small number of students create the conditions that require that we restrict all students' freedom.

But there is one freedom in school that must be protected for all, at all reasonable costs: the freedom to learn.

The high schools could probably learn a lot from how elementary and middle schools control students' movement and restrict students' freedoms. (I wouldn't be surprised if we all couldn't learn a lot more from each other that we unfortunately fail to share and seek.)

There may be a few who will argue that we should not treat high school students like little children.

But the way some students are allowed to act in too many of our schools at all levels will not be tolerated in any normal workplace. Precious few of our children will become professional athletes, who are almost literally allowed to get away with murder. Normal jobs have standards and expectations for employees' behavior.

If students are given the false sensation that they can get away with unacceptable behavior, they will pay dearly later in life. It is a sin for schools (and parents) to allow students to get away with behavior that may jeopardize their futures so severely later in life. Behaviors become our habits, and once they are our habits, they are incredibly hard to change.

I have not mentioned every step that our school has taken, but I've highlighted some of the major ones that come immediately to mind.

If high schools are not already doing some of the things I've mentioned, they may want to consider giving them a shot.

Sure, there will probably be resistance at first.

In the face of change, there always is.

But what have you got to lose?

Will such changes in the long-range make things worse?

What other ideas do you have?

Because it's frightfully obvious that we all need to take a look inside and figure out how we can all do a better job.

Mr Floyd;
You seem to be a dieing breed of GCS employee. That is one with common sense. It seems that society (maybe its wrong to blame GCS) as a whole has decided that students are entitled. Entitled to everything because they breathe. They don't have to earn the right by showing responsibility. What has happened has been a slow progression of 'feel good' attitudes. I agree that most students have no clue as to the real world and what would be expected of them; dress attire; attitude; following the rules; etc. As adults we do them a disservice not to make them aware of what would be expected of them in a working environment.

on the state of nc office of the governor website gov easley is quoted"these schools have consistently performed poorly, and i want to know the reasons why""we have to demand accountability" if he would read the chalkboard it would point his team in the right direction, i am going to write him, and i think we all should voice our opionion to him, i'm sure some of you have, his teams need some direction and grier will be doing nothing but squirming to cover his butt and does not put our kids first

Mr. Floyd,

This was quite a long post but worth reading every word. No one understands better than teachers who are in this situation every day.

You are so right about setting limits and rules in the beginning and having expectations. There will always be rules and limits and expectations in the "real world" work place. It won't always be "comfortable" and we are doing these kids a disservice if we allow the negative behavior to continue with no consequences.

I remember reading a few months ago after teachers' comments were printed when GCS had met with them. I was litterly sick in the stomach when I read about the teacher was hurt on purpose when breaking up a fight (I forget which school - it doesn't really matter as it could be any school). Anyway, the kid was back in school shortly thereafter and continued to laugh at the teacher. How humiliating is that and why should any adult who deserves respect have to endure this type of humiliation. This is just one reason many are leaving the teaching profession that they love.

I liked all the ideas that you posted. Basically, I guess you could just read basic manuals on "crowd control" and have some order and speading out the number of students at different times in the commons to prevent a lot of the problems. Cameras are an excellent tool.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, just like a fire drill or a tornado drill, there needs to be training and procedures in place as to how to handle emergency situations when they arise such as students fighting or hitting a teacher.

It really is time to "take back our schools" and have social and civil expectations for all students to abide by. These are public schools and public safety should be a number one priority. It is a shame, as you stated, that it is usually a few that ruin it for the group. We really do need alternative schools for kids who just don't want to be or can't function in a traditional school setting.

Until order is restored in our schools, teachers will continue to be limited in their instruction time while they take care of discipline issues. Teachers will continue to leave.

All students should have the freedom indeed to learn in a safe and orderly environment.

Thanks for doing what you do and hanging in there.

Rox, I hope you gave the governor the link to the chalkboard.

So what is the prognosis for the choice plan with the state advisors at Andrews and Central?
Any ideas anyone?

Forked, it is "put a fork in it - it's done?"

Perhaps the governor would know what to do or has a plan if you write him. Do you think he will say, "Awe, just give it more time. The data is not in yet."?

ted

yes, he will know about the great opportunity we have to express public opinion-the chalkboard

will he read it? if he wants "to know the reasons why" he will read it

if he is one of them-well, what else can you do
when you're forked?

Bruce,

Your article in today's paper (Friday) is outstanding - and no spin!

Thanks for the coverage and thanks to your editors for placing this important information prominently on the front page.

forkbygsc

in a perfect world the prognosis would be
the "special teams" would be at the proposed
"special school" to be built in high point to help the specific students that need extra attention to perform well, we would have our neighborhood schools back and the the STATE board of education will make it alright.........
but this ain't walgreens, your guess,good as mine

Yes Bruce, you have entered the "NO SPIN ZONE".

The graphics were outstanding and everyone loved how you combined some readers' comments in the article from the CB. The information was very thorough.

Surely lots of folks who have cancelled their subscriptions ran out to get this edtion today.

Thank you and your fellow workers for all the time you put into this piece.

p.s. Are you or Jen covering the upcoming School Board meeting on August 9th? We can watch you all working diligently live on TV from the convenience of our living rooms. Many will be watching this meeting to see if the ABC subject and how to help the struggling schools will come up.

Also how is it looking for the bus ride times this year??

BA

Sad to say, folks, but money won't fix it.

Something else will.

Guilford came in 10 points behind Cumberland, which is so poor that it was one of the lead plaintiffs in the Low Wealth lawsuit against the state not so long ago. Cumberland has a pitifully small tax base, unlike the land of milk and honey which is the Triad, because virtually everyone there works for the military.

Think of a business here in Greensboro which would employ more than 50,000 people at a workplace that has its own airport - but pays no local taxes - and you begin to get the picture. The federal government used to give school systems in military towns special subsidies to help offset the economics that such towns have, but those subsidies ended in the early years of the first Clinton administration.

The per pupil spending is necessarily less, because the county doesn't have the money. The students can also be difficult to teach. That's because sometimes they have absent parents. Dad, or Mom, or both, could be on one of the 82nd Airborne Division's business trips to Iraq or Afghanistan. And they worry, and rightfully so, whether or not that parent is going to come home. That kind of scenario distracts students much worse than any distractions they might see in Greensboro or High Point.

But they are doing better than we are. Part of it might be a certain mindset that you get in a place that patriotic, that failure is not an option. There are Schools of Excellence in Fayetteville in rich neighborhoods and in poor ones alike.

A big part of it might be a certain parent who got angry enough at the condition of her son's school to run for the school board, then succeeded in gathering support to make wholesale changes in the school administration - including the departure of the superintendent. That same parent then ran for the county commission, where she was in a position to threaten the withholding of funds unless the schools continued to improve. The school administration got the message: Perform well. Or get the hell out of town.

Keep this in mind - parents of Guilford County Schools students: Help is on the way. Pay close attention to the ballot choices next election - and vote for real change.

And make sure your choices pledge to keep one thing in mind - that the teacher is the thing. Anything that stands in the way of a teacher doing his or her job needs to be taken away. If that something is a disruptive child, then fine. Take 'em out. If it's a disruptive, fearful or a bureaucratic principal or someone from the downtown Land of Oz, that person should be handed a box, given sufficient time to pack their belongings and escorted from the building.

It's the teachers, stupid.

Please explain.
If Central has performance Composite scores worse than the two previous years how does it get assigned "High Growth " and "Expected growth" ?

Weedeater you are absolutely correct,Throwing money at the problem will not fix it. You cite a fine example and I am certain there are many more out there like it. Money is necessary for schools to function, but it must be spent for the right kind of programs and managed by the right kind of people. Your advice on the upcoming elections is well taken. My question is: Where can someone find the best source of unbiased information abut the canidates? An unimformed vote is a wasted vote. The citizens of Guilford county know what they want but they don't always know who can give it to them. We need leaders in our county like the one you mentioned from Cumberland county.

dear explanation needed,
Scoring for ABC's is very weird-not sure about HS since they take alot of different subjects, but for Elem, and middle they take the groups scale scores from 03-04 and compare to the same students in 04-05. The scores go with the kids from elem. to middle. For instance if a 5th grader scored 260 on the test in 03-04, they have to score higher in 04-05. Not sure what percentage change the state wants, and I think the percentage changes with the overall score. If you are at 90% maybe the growth has to be 1%, but growth at 50% could be 3%

I think one of the problems is that a school with 90% passing can not be recognized if they don't have the growth, but someone like Central with overall 50% passing shows growth so they get the recognition! Weird; but that is the government for you!

Debora's explanation is correct. Making your ABCs targets and the performance composite (or the passing rate on state tests) are two different things.

Making your goals depends on showing a year's worth of academic growth during the year, based on where the students begin the school year. The idea is to put all schools on a level playing field in terms of qualifying for bonus money.

Suppose you are a fifth-grade teacher. You teach at a poor school where your students only read at second-grade level on average. During the course of the year, you are able to get them up to fourth-grade level. However, your students still aren't doing well enough to pass the fifth-grade tests.

On the other hand, suppose a fifth-grade teacher at another school has students who are on sixth-grade level when they start the school year. By the end of the year, they haven't made much progress, but because of where they started, they are able to pass the tests.

So which teacher is doing a better job? The state's ABCs report would say the teacher in school #1.

On the other hand, it does seem odd to give schools a pat on the back when half or more of the student body is below grade level.

And in the specific case of High Point Central, they actually didn't get any recognition, nor will teachers there receive any pay bonuses.

The school qualified for "High Growth" status, but Central didn't test at least 95 percent of students. Because they didn't test enough students, Central is automatically disqualified from any ABCs recognition or bonuses.

Bruce and others,
We had several schools that didn't test enough students. Did those students not show up for the last 3 weeks of school? If so wouldn't they have been tested the days they were there, or were makeup days just certain days. Seems like the principals would have made sure they tested enough kids. Another problem to add to the list!

On a differnt front, the redistricing plans are to be on the agenda for tomorrow night. Can't wait to see how that will pan out!

There were two schools cited for not testing enough students - Andrews and High Point Central.

I'm not sure what the problem was, but this should be pretty basic stuff. I can understand why a school might not meet its test score goals - there are ton of factors that go into student performance and test scores, many of which are beyond the control of the schools.

But getting enough kids tested is simply a matter of being organized and paying attention to detail. By my count, Andrews and Central were the only two schools in the state not to meet this minimum requirement.

Bruce,
you are probably right about the count, I was doing it off the top of my head--

I agree seems like someone should be in hot water for not getting the kids tested, should be a no brainer. If they show up for school, corral them and get them tested!!! Call their homes, follow them to sports, work, down the street.. just get it done. My guess is that the teachers will be ticked that the growth was there, but they get no bonus. We are trying to get teachers to work in these schools and then something this silly happens- too bad. (and I mean that seriously)

It seems to me too many young people don't show up regularly for school. It's little wonder some don't show up on test day.

If a students aren't in the classroom often enough to complete a course, should they even be allowed to take the final exam?

If a teacher has 60 students, wouldn't it only take 4 of them skipping the exam to fall below the 95% needed for testing compliance?

It's 95 percent of the entire student body, not 95 percent in each teacher's class.

It's obviously not a hard standard to meet, since 99.99 percent of schools were able to do so.

Bruce:
Do you mean the entire student body (freshmen through seniors) or the total number of students enrolled in the courses used for ABC tests?

Are students who are hospitalized, incarcerated, or have run away counted?

Should students who do not complete a course be allowed to take the final exam? If so, should their exam grades be used for ABC assessment?

Finally, how far short of the 95% did these two schools fall?

Anon,

Excellent questions. Bruce?? Also should there be a time when the students should not be counted as "there" when they have missed so many absenses. Shouldn't excess absenses just take them off the school roster?

Does the county just still count them as bodies in order to get their federal dollars?

What about drop outs that have been coraled back to school? How much school have they missed? If it is more than half a year, should these students be counted?

When students miss the tests on a certain day, could they not be given or another day (unannounced if necessary)? Just test them.

ABC and Final Exam assessments should be separate.

Bruce, please help if you can.

To be quite honest, I'm not sure about all the technical details of student attendance. And the state report doesn't say how close these two schools came - just that they didn't make the 95 percent minimum. Schools who didn't make that 95 percent threshold had a chance to explain themselves to the state.

But again, the ABCs of Public Education report evaluated nearly 2,200 schools. Only two in the entire state - Andrews and Central - didn't meet this guideline.

Bruce,

If this is accurate that only two schools in the entire state did not meet the guideline, something is surely wrong. Are you going to do some investigative reporting and follow-up on this?

Do you know if it is a requirement that this be explained to the state by the school system?

Also if it is a requirement, is this information documented somewhere for the public to read at some time in the future?

BA

Assorted Information and Thoughts About Make-Up Testing, Test Security Issues, Proctoring, Etc. (just in case anyone's interested):

At the middle school level, students are tested, regardless of how many days they miss. I would guess that it's the same with elementary school students, but I'm not sure how it works in the high schools.

Students who are absent are tested upon their return to school, according to a schedule that the counselors and administrators determine. This is referred to as Make-up Testing.

Sometimes, if students are serving an out-of-school suspension, they are contacted about returning to school ONLY for testing.

As soon as they finish testing, they report to the office to await their rides home so that they can finish serving their supensions.

With the Gateways, every effort is made to test ALL eighth-graders.

In some extreme cases, I believe some sixth and seventh graders are not tested if they continue to be absent during make-ups. (In those cases, I believe that would still count against the percentage you're supposed to test.)

Also--if I'm correct--students who have only been at a school a certain number of days are tested, but I don't believe their results count toward AYP. I'm not sure if they count toward the ABCs.

Testing is intense at our school, and I would assume that it is at all schools.

If you have not already done so, I highly recommend that you volunteer to proctor one day during testing.

We struggle every year to secure enough proctors. I've even gotten my own brother and mother to proctor before. (One year, my mother proctored during all three days of regular EOG testing; if you've ever proctored, you know what a sacrifice that represents.)

Proctors usually report from around 8:00 AM until around noon.

Also, because of testing security issues, when a class finishes testing, the testing administrator (usually a classroom teacher) and proctor collect all test materials and meticulously count them. It's rare, but if you don't count the materials, you risk having a student keep a test booklet or answer sheet, accidentally or intentionally; it's not unheard of.

Proctors used to be allowed to take all of the test materials to our counseling office for us after everything was collected and counted; they would turn in the materials to the counselors who count all the materials again.

Now, the test administrators are required to return the materials themselves, sometimes standing in line for long periods of time while the proctor (often a parent) is asked to stay with and monitor the students. (It takes a long time because the counselors are collecting and counting all of the materials being turned in by ALL the test administrators.)

While they usually display perfect behavior during testing, some students will relax a little too much for proctors' tastes, particularly if it's a parent who's not used to supervising 25 + students whom they don't know personally.

One reason I recommend proctoring at least once is so that you can witness what students do during testing.

In the interest of full disclosure, I've never encountered a parent who has proctored and reported that he/she loved the experience. It's usually tediously dull because ALL you're supposed to do during the hours of testing is monitor the students as they take the tests.

I've told students that they're lucky; in my opinion, it's more interesting to take a test than to WATCH students take tests.

But the students are correct to remind me that it's also more stressful to take the tests--unless you're a teacher stressing about how ALL your students will do, maybe.

You are so correct about proctoring-- it is my least favorite volunteer activity. If you are asked to proctor someone that gets unlimited time to take a test, you could be there for many hours and you do nothing but watch the student. I really think that in this case the proctor is suppose to watch the teacher to make sure nothing against the rules goes on. I am speaking of one child, one teacher, one proctor. I have proctored for 7th grade writng and eog's 4 different times. I only do this if our school can't find other people as I hate it, but it an necessary evil!

Seymour and Deb,

Ditto, ditto on proctoring. Very tedious indeed. I have done it in elementary school and middle school - my least favorite volunteer job also. And you are right we were told it is also to watch the test administrators. In elementary school, sometimes we have had two proctors in the room. (Also helpful when the toilet do not work in the trailers and you have to escort kids to the bathroom one at a time to the main building.) They cannot go together, talk and/or discuss a test. It is very strict.

And Seymour, so right about perfect behavior in middle school during testing. You could hear a pin drop.

Off the subject - GREAT JOB STAFFORD on your speech tonight - straight from the heart!

no one gonna comment on the redistricing from tonights BOE? It's going to be interesting!

Deb,

Still think it is a "work in progress" - too preliminary. Many are waiting to see what happens next meeting when Eric has the proposed numbers to have a Weaver type school in High Point.

These were asked for at last meeting and he did not have these ready. As you watched tonight, Alan and Anita both asked for these again.

This should be presented at the next BOE.