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Is there a better way to structure the school day? Principals in Guilford County Schools differ on the effectiveness of block scheduling over traditional schedules. Research indicates it may not matter.
Check out research compiled by the Center for Public Education.
The Pew Center, a non-partisan organization that conducts polls and research on various topics, asked that question in a recent poll.
While there are books and reports that contend students are overly pressured, the Pew survey found that 56 percent of adults feel American parents put too little pressure on students. About 15 percent felt students are overly pressured.
Education Week explored this same topic in an article last month. (Registration required.)
The state released its annual ABCs report today - although it's only half a report. High school results can be found here; elementary and middle schools won't be ready until Nov. 1. The new math test delayed those results.
Read our story in tomorrow's N&R.
In the meantime, here are some tidbits to tide you over ...
Guilford's press release states 91 percent of high schools met or exceeded their goals compared to 57 percent in the state. But they counted the high growth schools twice (once for meeting growth and again for exceeding growth).
I counted those schools only once, and calculated the rate at 73 percent - 16 of 22 high schools met or exceeded growth.
It breaks down like this: Twelve schools met growth. Four schools not only met growth, they exceeded it. Total: 16.
The state public relations folks said they don't count the high growth schools twice, so the 57 percent state rate is comparable to the 73 percent we used for Guilford.
A word of caution: the state made major changes to the ABCs, both in the tests that are included in the performance composite and how they calculate student academic growth. The measures are tougher now. (If you really want to delve into the formulas, check out the state's Web site.)
Continue reading "Most Guilford high schools grow on ABCs" »
Quest asked me to post the story, that ran inside today's paper about the state looking at making it harder to pass tests.
State officials are considering raising the bar for math in the end-of-grade tests for grades 3-8.
Under the standards now, eighth graders only need to answer correctly 33 percent to 35 percent of questions to pass math. The hurdle is so low you could almost fall over it, critics have said.
Last month I posted a strand (scroll down to "State looks at making math tests harder") about these very concerns.
The Hoover Institute, a public policy research center based at Stanford, has released a new report on school funding lawsuits.
Their press release lists 10 myths about school finance adequacy.
North Carolina, as many of you are aware, is embroiled in a long-running school funding lawsuit known as Leandro.
There's some interesting information in here about high-poverty schools that are high-performing and how much money - or lack of money - they get.
Following is an update on the status of the filling of Mission Possible positions in Guilford County Schools. I intended to write a brief story about this last week, but became ill, and don't want to hold off on it any longer.
Guilford County Schools had hired 318 teachers to fill math and reading positions at 20 schools as of Sept. 22, according to district data.
Sixty-nine percent of those positions were filled by teachers who had taught at the school the year before. Of the rest,
33, or 10.3 percent of the total, came from outside the school district
37, or 11.6 percent, were Guilford County Schools retirees or transfers from within the district
25, or 8 percent, were college graduates
4 were not employed in a school district the year before
It will be interesting to see during the next hiring cycle how many teachers come to Guilford County because they heard of this incentive. So far in my reporting, the teachers I have talked to had already decided to interview here before findindg out about the bonuses.
The school system has three years to demonstrate the effectiveness of its program at recruiting and retaining math and reading teachers, specifically those staffing low-performing schools. Mission Possible has been funded by the district, UNC college system and Action Greensboro.
Note: The schools affected include Smith, Dudley, Andrews, Central, Academy at Smith, Middle College at Bennett, A&T Middle College, Jackson, Hairston, Ferndale, Welborn, Fairview, Hampton, Oak Hill, Gillespie Park, Kirkman Park, Wiley, Washington, Parkview and Foust. Eastern and Southern High, which were later added to the list, were not included in this data.
The state Board of Education said it would make math tests in grades 3-8 harder and now it has.
The board voted Thursday to change the standards. What that means is students must answer more questions correctly in order to pass. And the state will use outside tests, such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (aka The Nation's Report Card), to monitor their own.
So how does this affect you? Fewer students will pass the state tests in grades 3-8. Local schools are being sent software to analyze their scores and determine their passing rates. The state expects to release district-by-district data Nov. 1.
While it's unlikely districts would "retain" students at this point - kids will be in their third month of school by the time the results are released - schools might have to ramp up their tutoring/remediation programs.
We don't have Guilford's data, but here's a good indicator of things to come: The state passing rate dropped from about 90 percent in fourth-grade to not quite 66 percent.
Guilford County Schools officials are working out the remediation schedule for students who fail end-of-course tests this year. In case you didn't know, the class of 2010 is the first statewide to have to pass five EOCs and do a senior project to graduate. You can check out the background on that here.
North Carolina considered following the national trend of creating a comprehensive exam but scrapped the idea a few years ago after it proved to be too cumbersome. Check out a rough timeline and old exit exam handbook supplied by the Department of Public Instruction.
Also take a look at a study by the Center on Education Policy that tried to assess the costs to implement high school exit exams. CEP's study did not include North Carolina, but President Jack Jennings said he suspected testing costs would be lower here than in other states since we are using existing exams instead of creating a new one. That doesn't mean remediation costs won't be high.
Check out this story in the Christian Science Monitor about the rise in students taking vocational training courses (with a shout-out to Greensboro included).
It just goes to show that training for the jobs of tomorrow will not necessarily take place at a four-year university.
Morgan and I (along with many other reporters, editors, photographers, etc.) will spend most of tomorrow working on stories about President Bush. We'll be filing snippets throughout the day online, along with pictures and videos.
Check out our front page online for this coverage. There's a link that you can't miss - George Bush looking out from the page at you. You'll need Adobe Flash Player 9 to view everything there.
We'll try to get back to the Chalkboard as soon as possible.
In the meantime, read coverage of the visit so far: Bush visit confirmed; Falkener prepares; Fundraiser sold out; What would you ask the president?.
And check out tomorrow's paper. You'll find out how kids who get to meet the president - either by greeting him when he arrives or answering the Commander-in-Chief's questions in class - are getting ready.
Stick with us and we'll show you what happens when the president comes calling ...
America is not alone in its struggle to recruit and retain public school teachers and principals. A recent report by the Center for American Progress provides a brief survey of teacher compensation in other industrialized countries and identifies incentive plans that might be useful here.
Some of the programs identified in the report deserve consideration but that doesn't mean the public and educational system shouldn't test the assumptions about the future of public education (i.e. that serving the economic interests of the United States is its top priority).
For example, will the much-advocated college attendance be financially feasible for most students, with the costs of higher education outpacing inflation? More students are taking out loans to get their degrees and they are competing against those in other countries who will do the same work for pennies on our dollar. College too is a business and it would seem increased demand and tuition go hand in hand. And is the public subsidization of educating future teachers sustainable over the long-term or even fair to those in other career fields?
What do you think about this report and the ongoing dialogue about teacher pay?
I'd heard about this on the news in the wake of the recent school shootings and a local teacher recently asked me to post it.
A Texas school district is training students - and teachers - to fight back if an armed intruder enters their classroom or school. Here's the AP story.
It's an unusual approach that has raised some eyebrows, according to the articles.
The school board will name the district's top principal on Monday.
The winner gets $2,000, courtesy of Harris Teeter, to either spend at the store or on professional development.
... the News & Record editorial department has endorsed Garth Hebert for the job.
Hebert, a CPA and local businessman, faces Debbie Maines, president of the Guilford County Council of PTAs. They're vying for the District 2 seat, which is being vacated by longtime school board member Susan Mendenhall who is not seeking re-election.
Both Hebert and Maines ran unsuccessfully for the at-large seat in 2004. But that was a pretty crowded race with two big name opponents: Dot Kearns and Jim Kirkpatrick. And at-large races cover the whole county.
This is a whole different ballgame. There's no incumbent. No big name politicians. And it's restricted to voters in District 2, which includes Southwest and High Point Central high schools.
Stay tuned for more about the candidates in an upcoming profile of the District 2 race. We've interviewed both candidates and will share their thoughts on issues ranging from redistricting to high school reform to financial responsibility. The story will run closer to the election.
The school board took a lengthy look at disaggregated data that shows that even when black students come from a high-income household, they do worse than white students.
Board member Deena Hayes asked Monday if it would be fair to say that white students coming from households that makes less than $20,000 a year do better on average than black students from households making more than $70,000. Dr. Gongshu Zhang, chief accountability and research officer, said yes. You can see for yourself the data here (page 26 of report).
"I think we need to look at that..." Hayes said. "When white students are doing that much better than black students coming from an economically stable household."
Unknown is how often students for the scores reported took the SAT or if the disparity is coming from the test itself or the environment students are in.
The Guilford County Board of Education will meet noon Wednesday at the Eugene Street office to discuss revising its strategic plan to boost the number of minority and female firms working on school construction. Kenneth Johnson (female) of Raleigh did the report; you can read the plan under consideration here.
Update: Read Sunday's story about the plan.
UPDATE: SCORES DELAYED
The state board has delayed release of ABCs results until Nov. 9. Read more here and the full e-mail from board Chairman Howard Lee here.
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The last of the ABCs and AYP results should come out Wednesday morning.
The state Board of Education meets Wednesday to go over the elementary and middle school results. The data is supposed to go live on their Web site at 9 a.m. High school results were released Oct. 5.
What can you expect?
For starters, passing rates for math should drop dramatically at many schools.
Two reasons why; the state:
*updated the test to match the tougher curriculum
*upped the ante by requiring students to answer more questions correctly to be deemed proficient.
Check out this MSNBC story on a student who died after being Tasered by police.