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With Tears in his eyes Dr.Grier said thathe could not have improved the AYP scores so much without the leadership of the schoolboard.

As the discussion ended there were no questions from the board about the AYP presentation.

Next on the agenda the approval of the schools districts mission. Questions and discussion for at least 20 minutes. "Have we got the "ism" in racism right asks Diversity Smarti?

This is just one more real life episode from our beloved school board.

Dear Lord please pray for our children.

I think transfers should be first--the transfer of the Superintendent--RIGHT OUTTA HERE.

Once again Dr. Grief pulls a fast one in order to avoid federal sanctions.....

Screw the children,,,,the important thing here is Dr. Griefs' reputation as a World Class Superintendent.......

How stupid can the General Public in Guilford County be to continue to allow Dr. Grief to Cheat their children out of a quality education???????????

We all know that the Board Members in High Point are to Ignorant to understand the Con Game that Grier plays on them,,,,,,but now it seems that the rest of the countys' board members have lost the Balls' to stand up to the unethical tactics that the Master Manipulator spews forth.....

How bad do GCS schools have to get before Grier is FIRED?????

But, Dr. Grief said that he would never try to bamboozle us. Don't you trust him?

Why is it that every time it gets hot for Dr. Grief that someone finds a way to get him out of it? It would seem that all of the powers that be will do anything to prevent his demise, no matter how badly he fails. And, then, they reward him for avoiding failure.

Is more tutoring in itself a bad idea?

I would like to see the how much money Guilford county will receive for this Pilot program and ultimately where does it really get used.Likewise, there are folks who have been forced in to schools as a result of ridiculous redistricting that were prepared to opt out.Once again Grier and his gang finds a way to change the rules.
Tutoring is fine if it utilized, but this Pilot program also forces good students to remain at a poor performing school so that the numbers game can be achieved.

Freddy,

Tutoring is a great idea, but if I'm reading correctly, only low income students are eligible.

Where does that leave struggling students that don't meet the guidelines?

Where does that leave students who have been transfered into a struggling school until the school gets 'up to par?'

Where does that leave the low income student who has been reassigned to a school that is many miles from home? I doubt they will be able to take advantage of the tutoring because the tutoring has to take place outside of regular school hours.

Once again, too many children are being LEFT BEHIND in a program that was designed to have just the opposite impact.

I watched the entire board meeting last night and it was excrutiating! It was blatantly obvious that only Dr. Routh even understand the numbers presented. The rest of the board had no idea - mathematically challenged! They can't ask questions because they cannot understand or even begin to know where to start. It's pitiful.

Doesn't GCS require Senior Projects now as a prerequisite to graduation?

If so, last night is a Senior Project waiting to happen - possible titles:

How to make numbers lie for you

How to bamboozle a mathematically challenged board of education

How to make a 51% passing rate sound GREAT (Smith HS)

How to give Statistics a bad name

I could go on and on and on.........

Many of the kids that caused Welborn to fail their AYP's have now been redistricted to Southwest Middle School for the 06-07 year. These kids will no longer be eligible for tutoring because SWMS is not in the sanction phase, yet.

Once again, our school board just moves them around without ever having to deal with them. I guess a diverse school was more important for these kids than actually learning to read.

The pilot program does not come with extra money. It just allows the district to switch the sanctions.

As I understand it, schools have various levels of tutoring offered to different students. This is just one program. Schools may already contract with private tutors to help some students and usually offer tutoring to any struggling student, regardless of income status, during after-school programs.

If the schools have already been offering tutoring to sruggling students and it has not been taken advantage of.... why does the district think all of a sudden, more students are going to use it?

If it has been used by struggling students, evidently it has not yielded enough positive results to help schools reach ayp?

On the surface, it appears that we are once again doing the same thing, with a different name, that in the past has left our children behind!

What really is the goal of Guilford County Schools?

Re Kay's comment.

"Where does that leave the low income student who has been reassigned to a school that is many miles from home? I doubt they will be able to take advantage of the tutoring because the tutoring has to take place outside of regular school hours".

This means a lot to me. In the boards efforts to hide problems away and not really solve them they continue to deny disadvantaged children access to resources that can really help.

I would like to see the African American local politicans and Bubba and Co jump on things like this. To me it is so obvious. Why isnt it to them?

They just all just STINK! Big time.

Deena Hayes,

I cannot believe that you are going to stand by and allow Dr. Grier to once again play games that ultimately do NOTHING for the Poor, Minority Students.

You bark loud when it comes to Racial Healing and Minority Contracts,,,, but don't seem to concerned that Dr. Grier has a Hangmans Noose around the Neck of Minority Childrens Educational Progress.....

Is there a trade-off somehow between Grier and Yourself??????????

I guess if these problems were ever resolved there would be NO need for the "JESSE JACKSON MENTALITY" Programs that so many of our board members PROFIT from.......

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!

The day all disadvantaged children get an education is the day Deena Hayes has to stop crying wolf and its the day she WILL have to stop taking advantage of opportunities for herself.
It seems to me that the Black community leadership have no real interest in stopping this cycle of failure. They are too busy making money for themselves.

This sounds nice:

""Supplemental educational services are extra academic services, such as tutoring, offered outside of regular school hours free of cost to eligible students. Services are designed to increase the academic achievement of low-income students, particularly in the areas of reading, language arts and mathematics.""

The above is the wording from the State's Announcement that NC is one of the five states allowed to skirt NCLB sanctions--oops, I mean "switch".

Well, isn't that nice. IF you are receiving free or reduced lunches, you can get free services....

So what happens to the other kids? We can't talk color when dealing with school issues, so we have to group kids by free/non-free lunches--same thing-- So once again, move over white child while the black child receives their special services in Guilford county Schools.

Deena, is this what your daddy taught you? Step on the toes of the white kids sos yer kin can git something for nuthin'??

Guilford County Schools makes me sick. How low will they go to keep evading actual education?

The key phrase for Double D is this.

"" such as tutoring, offered outside of regular school hours free of cost to eligible students.""

Children that are bussed to the other side of town and are eligible will simply not be able access this resource.

They will answer back that the local community will help. The Vickie Alston's/ DoubleD's and the Reverands of High Point will also help but we all know that this is BS.

So, the circle of failure will continue and so the rich and selfish African American politicians can continue to cry "RACISM" and continue to take advantage.

DoubleD, YOu have it made.

Leave it to GCS to do this pilot.

If they would have tutored these children in the first place, maybe we wouldn't have failing schools. The whole thing doesn't make any sense.
Most children who opt out of a school aren't the ones that need the tutoring.

If they are now offering tutoring at these schools, there is no need to bus kids around.

And the black leaders and the Jesse Jacksons of the world should be ashamed of themselves. They do not do anything constructive to help their people. They rather keep them down so they can be in the spotlight screaming racism.

That Deena is fake, fake, fake!!!!

SUBJECT CHANGE: sort of...

I see the headline this morning that our "Historically Black Schools" are in need of fearless leaders.

I have the man for the job!!!!! I'm sure he has been secretly looking for a new job anyway. The Good Dr. Grier is the man!

PLEASE TAKE HIM!!!!!! He might even do something worthwhile in the collegiate world. There will be NO kids to bus around, NO "AYP's" to meet, NO sanctions to sidestep, No forcing AP classes on kids, No diversity quotas to meet, No more listening to Dotty ramble on!!-- this could be a really nice kick--back job for the guy. He really needs a break.

GET HIM OUTTA HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will High Point Centrals' new Fast Food Academy have its' own set of Administrators????????

Will it be a Seperate school when it is time for AYPs next year????????

If you draw the Dumbest Kids into a Faux High School on the same campus,,,the probability of the main school passing AYPs go way up.....

I'm Good,,,,,,maybe Dr. Grier could use me on his "Staff of Juggling, Shell Game Statisticians".....

All elgible students are offered tutoring privileges without respect to income, ethnicity, etc.

WRONG BUBBY!!!

Those "eligible" for tutoring are ONLY kids that receive Free or Reduced lunches.

If you BUY lunch, you BUY your own freakin' tutoring! Public schools don't give a ... about anyone but the poor, failing kids. To ... with the rich or moderate-income failing kid.

That's how DDeena wants it and THAT'S HOW IT WILL BE!

Of course, and that would make them eligible students. That's my point.

These guidelines are for the most part as a result of Bush's NCLB education flop that has made teachers teach the test for yearend results and has demoralized a generation of our educators. Bush, as a result of this policy, has NATIONALIZED/Socialized America's education system by having the authority to tell every district in the USA what and how they are to teach. And he's a Republican, the party for limited government?

Not only has this man p____d off the world but has made it more difficult to recruit educators into our public schools.

It's all Griers Fault..........

GCS is in a State of Disaster......

wHILE NCLB LOOKS GOOD ON PAPER, IT WAS NECESSARY FOR MAKING sure the disadvantaged got a good education. Kids were being passed from grade to grade without the necessary skills. Imagine being 23 years old, and you are reading on a 2nd grade level, and you have a high school diploma. Now I don't necessarily agree with the way it has been executed, but something needed to be done with the struggling students. If not, China and India will continue to kick our butts academically.

The trouble with NCLB is the the testing drills are not necessary for all students. The struggling schools should have all the remedial resources available. Other students who know the basics should be able to do more enrichment type lessons because these children get bored with all the continued testing drills. HOnestly, how many times must a child sit through a lesson on 'how many ways do you make ten' if they already mastered the concept? That's why neighborhood schools are important because not all schools are for all students. The trick is to know your community and its needs. Address those needs accordingly!

But that doesn't happen in GCS; they rather bus kids around for the sake of diversity. They care more about who is in the schools rather than focusing on the learning process.

I don't understand DDeena's actions. If I were her, I would be screaming for resources in those schools. I think the double d's have taken over her brain.

"Where does that leave the struggling students that don't meet the guideline?" Kay

Answer: Nowhere. Same place.

You have heard GC use "FRL" synonymously in the past with "poor black". The nutshell version is this is all about lowering the achievement gap between poor black students and white students.

This is your tax dollars at work in public schools.

Thank you for your inquiry about the HP Central Fast Food Academy. I have spared no expense in my quest for a qualified staff.

So far the following professionals have signed on:

1. Ronald McDonald
2. Mayor McCheese
3. The Hamburgler

Personally I stick to the Chop House for lunch so I have never sampled their work. However, everyone over at the GTCC Middle College says that these 3 are "da bomb".

Teachers and even administrators, to my wife's knowledge, are completely forbidden from even knowing which students are FRL (unless a parent discloses this for one reason or another). These students in need also include many lower-income whites in parts of the county, especially. And if black students are disproportionately included in this economic class, isn't that a problem that we should address somehow, rather than attack those suffering the ills of poverty and neglect?

My wife teaches in GCS and has worked as a tutor as well. She maintains the ONLY indicator leading a student to become eligible for public-school-sponsored tutoring is if he or she scores a 1 or 2 on the quarterly benchmarks for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders.

It may well be that those who are less-economically well-off (the poor and working-class) are more likely to score lower on these tests. Data crunchers extraordinaire Dubner and Levitt have shown this correlation.

Some teachers volunteer to tutor one-on-one with their own students; others are paid by parents to privately tutor; and some teachers AND hired outside tutors work under the auspices of such GCS groups as ACES (for students in ACES or not) or from Title I. They meet as a class, not one-on-one, by the way... each group gets smaller and more concentrated as EOGs come up. Sometimes the money dries up and even the FRL students are left without aid.

Some middle-class students are scoring low on the quarterly tests, and are, in fact, eligible for tutoring which they may or may not take advantage of. So, maybe tax dollars from local, state or national coffers shouldn't pay for ANY tutoring, if it's mostly FRL students enrolled? If middle-class parents want more tutoring when their children score low, they can get it now, if the school has sufficient funding. Who should receive these funds first, if they are limited?

IF the parents of FRL students are:

a) working several jobs to stay alive and sheltered;

b) insufficiently educated themselves;

c) experiencing a higher incidence of depression, drug addiction and other symptoms created or exacerbated by economic class;
and/or

d) intimidated by the entire educational system and its inhabitants with their judgements and prejudgements of them;

THEN, they may well be less able and, frankly (and justifiably) willing to navigate the inticacies of what middle-class parents take for granted, such as helping kids themselves with homework, rather than needing tutors.

Freddie bring to mind a strong point.

I thought we heard loud and clear that the Department of Agriculture has said that FRL figures are to be only used for that purpose.

Jennifer? Morgan? Need some help here.

School board members have discussed how as students get older they do not want to be identified as FRL because they are embarrasses so parents don't report this. If tutoring will only be for the FRL than how do you reach the poor students who are not reporting FRL?

Jennifer? Morgan? Where are you?

Freddie when a teachers goes throught the lunch line with the students she knows who is not paying. She knows who doesn't need to bring money. It is not rocket science.

Bubba,

Stop it with the blaming Bush for the ills of the world. He's not to blame for making "teachers teach the test". That's Terry Grier and his mininions. NCLB only sets the bar height, it's the Griers of the world that have decided that teaching the test is the answer, not actually educating.

"the authority to tell every district in the USA what and how they are to teach". How's that work, Bubba? NCLB doesn't tell anyone what and how to teach. That's like blaming the bathroom scales if you don't like it when it reports that you are 30 lbs. overweight. The scales don't tell you what and how you have to do to lose weight, it just reports the facts. Lose the spin the Bubba. People need to start taking responsibility for themselves and stop blaming everyhting on George Bush; he'll be gone in two years, and then who'll you blame for your inadequacies?

An old friend of mine, Teddy Ballgame, brought to my attention a baseball story that has some application here. Everyone is so focused upon AYP, which is really just an outcome. What we should be focused upon is the process that affects the outcome. Rather than Terry Grier and company "teaching the test" to achieve AYP, they need to suit-up teachers to teach the subject and its application. In so doing and actually educating the students, we would be affecting the outcome (AYP's). Reference the following baseball story that helps make the point:

"Longtime students of baseball will acknowledge that it is more difficult to predict the performance of pitchers compared to hitters. The tools that we use to measure pitching performance such as, dominance, control, command, homerun rate, PQS, BPV, hit rate, etc., are good tools but they still leave us with an incomplete assessment of a pitchers true level of skill and ability. All too often, a pitcher like Esteban Loaiza is able to turn his pitching ability around, seemingly overnight. Consequently, we are left scratching our collective heads wondering what he is doing differently that allows him to have such successful outcomes.

In the book, Moneyball, author Michael Lewis describes a situation where he was responding emotionally to the on-field events during an Oakland Athletics ballgame. When Lewis observed that Assistant GM Paul DePodesta was watching a different video feed -— an internal feed directly from the center field camera -— which showed a good view of the strike zone, he inquired about it.

"It’s looking at process rather than outcomes," Paul says. "Too many people make decisions based on outcomes rather than process."

One other major error that Bush failed to implement in his NCLB was private school funding for those students who decided to opt out of their failing school. It's my understanding that so far only 4% of eligible students have left failing schools and transferred to others. Another glaring error in his program. Bush apparently forgot about that "consequence."

Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton-Bush

Lord Hear Our Prayers.

Stormy,

For further enlightenment on the failure of Bush's NCLB read Charles Murray's article in the WSJ Opinion Journal, 7/25/2006, you can google it.

Some of his comments and conclusions:

1)NCLB takes giant steps toward nationalizing ele & second education. It pushes classrooms toward relentless drilling, not something that inspires able people to become teachers or makes children eager to learn.
2)As I pointed out earlier, fails to promote school choice.
3)A teacher comments, "I want to teach my students how to write, not teach them how to pass a test that says he can write."
4)NCLB has not had a significant impact on overall test scores and has NOT narrowed the racial and socioeconomic achievement gap.

....and on and on. Pay particular attention to the "success in Texas" part of the article that Bush is so proud of.

Interesting article that beyond a doubt is unimpeachable and without reproach in it's conclusion that Bush's NCLB, to date, is a failure.

It would be interesting to hear one of our local teacher's insights and experiences with this program. Hopefully, one who is objective and won't spin any anti-Grierite venom into the mix.

Lord Hear Our Prayers.

Questions,

The district provides tutoring for Level I and II students regardless of economic status. So students who are poor or middle class who don't qualify for the free tutoring under AYP (because they didn't sign up for FRL or aren't poor enough to qualify for it) would still be able to access additional tutoring from the district.
However, I don't know the extent of that tutoring (i.e., does everyone get it or just a limited number based on available funds.)

Bubba,

Again, I'll state that the problems that we are experiencing in our public schools are not the fault of NCLB, directly. NCLB was implemented to bring accountability to public education by measuring results, i.e., outcomes. School district leadership throughout the country, and specifically in Guilford, have responded by being outcome-driven, rather than process-driven. Grier and company are mandating teaching to the test, etc. in order to affect the outcome. In a process-driven approach, you would you would address educating students in the subjects, and the outcome would be a result of that teaching. NCLB never mandated teaching of the tests, that was the answer served-up by school administrators. They are the ones that have too much to lose by failure. They aren't really concerned about students' learning as much as their own bottom lines. I am sure that teachers would dearly love to get rid of NCLB as it has made their lives intolerable, but the problem is not the testing, but rather administrators reaction to it. Let's hold Grier responsible for the education of students and quit playing these dirty little games.

NPR's UNC station rebroadcast a terrific discussion today that included UNCG prof. Svi Shapiro on excatly these issues. If it's online, I highly recommend it.