News-Record.com

The Dudley community is invited to a forum from 10 a.m.-noon on Saturday to discuss reform efforts at the school and look at how community volunteerism and advocacy can help Dudley.

Dudley is one of 17 N.C. high schools with repeatedly low test scores targeted by a judge for improvement. Smith High also made the list, with several other Guilford public high schools (Andrews, Eastern, Central, Southern, Middle College at Bennett, Middle College at N.C. A&T and Greensboro College Middle College) on a larger "needs-improvement" list identified by Gov. Easley.

The Community Dialogue on Education and Dudley alumni put together the forum. For more information, contact site coordinator Francine Scott at 370-8130.

In Guilford, 33 schools saw new principals when the academic year started this year. Last year, 43 schools saw new leaders. Those changes represented vacancies because of resignations, retirements, promotions and new schools opening. Those numbers likely will climb each year as more and more principals hit retirement.

Charlotte is having similar problems. One solution they're looking at is building up principals from within their own ranks. Guilford started that "grow-your-own" approach several years ago. The first recruits - about 20 - are already serving as assistant principals and principals. The first participants received their principal certification through UNCG.

Update: Check here for the latest principal turnover.

Last week Guilford County Schools' Mission Possible teacher incentive plan was featured in the Raleigh News & Observer. The article compared the beginning salaries of first-year teachers who hold a bachelor of arts degree in Guilford County compared to those in other Triangle districts:

Guilford County Schools:$32,587
Wake County Schools: $32,216
Durham County Schools: $32,072
Chapel Hill-Carrboro: $31,931
Orange County: $31,361

GCS spotlighted the numbers on its Web site on Friday.

The Public School forum just released its 19th annual school finance study, showing that the gap between the state's richest and poorest counties has widened. The group examined real estate assets in 100 counties to show the amount of wealth being tapped per child. It also ranked districts by county-funded per pupil expenditures.

This was interesting: The real estate gap widening between wealthiest and poorest counties increased frrom $477,477 in 1997 to $1.1 million in 2005. And the taxable real estate wealth available per child in the wealthiest counties was about $1.4 million compared to $258,318 in the poorest counties.

Guilford County dropped down from 28 in 2003 to 29 in 2004 in the rankings of adjusted property valuations per student, under Mecklenburg and Wake counties. The district ranked 10 again in 2004 for county spending per student, also below Mecklenburg and Wake.

The district's chief researcher Gongshu Zhang updated the board Tuesday on last year's ABC/AYP results, ranking Guilford against similar-sized districts.

Guilford County Schools released on Tuesday high school graduation rates using a formula that estimates the percentage of freshmen who graduated within four years. Dudley and Grimsley saw the biggest changes. Check out our story Thursday and the district's report.

Read our story here. (Note: You can now comment directly on the story, via a comment link at the bottom. This is similar to the blogs except you'll have to register with our system using a valid e-mail address. We're piloting a comment program and trying to work out the kinks. You can also comment on Thursday's graduation rate story.)

Find past coverage of the Nov. 1 fire that claimed Eastern here.

Fire officials sent the press release yesterday afternoon after offices had closed, so we weren't able to reach anyone for questions. We'll try to get more information today about how officials came to the conclusion that it was arson and how long had they suspected that might be the case.

UPDATE: We ran into some problems trying to speak to students Friday. Principal Lisa Cooke didn't want us on campus, according to information relayed through the public relations department. Cooke has not returned our calls the past two days. So we tracked down some students who we have been keeping up with periodically since the fire and asked them what school was like Friday.

Read what they had to say, and more from investigators, in Saturday's paper.

Last week we got what seemed like about a 15-second interview with Judge Howard Manning about the status of Smith and Dudley high schools, two of the 17 that he targeted in March for having low test scores for several years. I only got to ask one question: What did he think of the schools now that he has visited them?

I had to drive all the way to Rocky Mount to track down the elusive judge (he rarely returns media calls). He was taking part in a panel discussion about education for the TV talk show NC Spin. It will air on WFMY (Channel 2) at 6:30 a.m. Sunday. I caught him on the way out the door on his way back to Raleigh.

I didn't catch his speech for lunch, but we did get audio of the panel discussion and the question and answer session afterward. We broke it up into two files because they were so large. Listen to them here and here. (Note: Might as well go get your coffee and bagel while this is loading. It takes awhile.)

Teachers can pick up a heart-shaped piece of pottery from D.K. Clay Pottery (AKA The State of Clay Pottery) which has set up shop at Four Seasons Mall, across from Ruby Tuesday.

The first 500 teachers who show a photo ID proving employment with a Triad school will receive one of the bowls, valued at $17, for free. The offer is good through Sunday (Dec. 17).

From our online edition today:
MCLEANSVILLE — A 12-year-old girl and a teaching assistant escaped serious injuries Tuesday morning when a woman pulling a car to the curb of an elementary school knocked them over, officials said.

Read the rest of the story here.

Interested in how a pre-K classroom works? Check out this blog by a pre-K teacher in New Jersey. It's a fascinating look into early childhood education.

More states across the nation are focusing on pre-K education. There's still a debate over whether funding should go toward universal pre-K or targeted programs, which provide services for the most disadvantaged children only. Read more about this debate, and about pre-K education in general, at Pre-K Now (which also hosts the above-mentioned blog).

North Carolina is pumping millions into its early childhood program with lottery and other money aimed at Gov. Easley's More at Four, which has provided pre-K for at-risk 4-year-olds since 2001.

Find here a report among a long list of reports advocating for the reconstitution of our public education system. The New Commission on Skills of the American Workforce makes several proposals to help schools better prepare students for the global economy, including making it easier for adults with families and full-time jobs to go back to school, provide high-quality, universal early childhood education and recruit from the top third of high school graduates going to college into the teaching profession.

The need to reform the public education system is clear, but the commission makes the following assumptions:
* The point of the school system is to help Americans compete against other countries and have a higher standard of living (standard of living wasn't really defined).
* The industrial model we should use is one of a pyramid or hierarchy (see page 6 of the executive report).
* Teachers should look at their profession as a career ladder.

The question is do we Americans want to make the sacrifices to reach these goals. Sure, many a college grad dreams of a high-paying career with benefits and a sizeable retirement. But some of those same people get bored and burned out and sick from the long work hours and decide they would rather work part-time for less money. On the other hand, others use their creative skills to improve the lives of many, such as finding cures for diseases or technology that makes vehicles more efficient.

Do you agree with the proposals mentioned in the report and do you think the ends we are striving for will be worth the investment?

Update: Read comments from other bloggers and organizations on this study: The American Federation of Teachers, Andrew Coulson of the Cato Institute and Eduwonk.

I saw this story (registration may be required) about a parent challenging whether the Harry Potter series should be in elementary school libraries. I thought it might interest some parents out there.

Check out the American Library Association's list of the most-challenged books of the 21st Century. The boy wizard is No. 1.

Small fires, the vast majority of which were intentionally set, plagued Eastern middle and high schools the past several years, according to fire department records.

Reporter Lex Alexander looked at records for the Greensboro, High Point and county fire departments to compare Eastern to other schools in the district.

Fires were much more prevalent at the Eastern schools than anywhere else, records showed. What the records didn't show, and no one could answer, is "Why?"

Alan Perdue, director of Guilford County Emergency Services, speculated that some schools might not be reporting small, quickly extinguished fires, which could skew the numbers.

Principals at high schools with consistently low test scores will talk to the school board tonight about plans to reform.

The schools are: Andrews, Dudley, High Point Central, NC A&T Middle College and Bennett Middle College. Southern and Eastern would be involved next year if their performance composite on state end-of-course tests is less than 70 percent at the end of this school year

They have until Jan. 30 to submit a plan and must make the changes in the 2007-08 school year.

Tonight's meeting also will include discussion on:
* Eastern High and a proposed "pod" village, or modular classrooms, to house students until a new school can be built.
* Graduation rates and why they fluctuated so drastically (a 39-percentage point difference) at Dudley High from 2005 to 2006.
* Very Strong Needs and moving High Point-area students who qualify for the services (for the district's most academically-advanced students) from the Academy at Lincoln to Welborn Middle in 2008. District officials had planned to make the move effective next school year.

The school board voted 10-1 tonight to put all of Eastern Guilford's students in a modular or "pod" village next school year. Darlene Garrett voted against the plan.

Students have been separated at two sites since Nov. 1, when a fire destroyed their Gibsonville school.

The board agreed Nov. 28 to create the modular set up until a new school can be built, likely not until 2009. But they were unsure at that time if they could put freshmen at the site.

Parents are still pushing for a reunited Eastern at the Carolina Corporate Center, formerly Lucent. Eastern parent Clyde Gann asked the board to give a fair evaluation between the two concepts during public comment at the beginning of the meeting.

The board spent about an hour discussing Lucent vs. pods before voting to move ahead with the pod concept.

Meanwhile, officials plan to advertise this week for companies interested in rebuilding Eastern. The "request for qualifications" will be due Jan. 11.

The district is using the construction management at risk approach, where companies show they can do the work then negotiate a price with the district. Typically, the district outlines the work needed then seeks the lowest-responsible bid. Under that scenario, the final cost is not set.

VSN
The board voted 11-0 to keep the VSN, or Very Special Strong Needs program, at the Academy at Lincoln in Greensboro. The program was just moved to that school last year from its two former sites: Wiley Elementary and Aycock Middle schools(both also in Greensboro). VSN serves the district's most academically advanced students.

District officials had been looking at whether to move part of the VSN program to Welborn Middle in High Point, to serve students in that area, because space is already getting tight at Lincoln.

You may have noticed that today's paper was a little bit smaller than usual. We had some computer problems Tuesday night that forced us to limited production. I don't know if anything had to be cut from the story I wrote about the school board meeting.

I blogged some of the outcome of the meeting live, which is in the previous post.

UPDATE: What I didn't get into the story is that the board never got around to discussing the graduation rates. There had been questions about why Dudley's rate plunged 39 percentage points from 2005 to 2006. In that same time, Grimsley's rose by 29 percentage points. Did redistricting play a role? They never got to discuss it with the district's statistician, but here's what he was going to present to the board.

The graduation rate, along with an update on construction, were among items put off until the next meeting because Tuesday's meeting was running long.

Here's the story I wrote for today's paper:

The Education Trust (read more here about the non-profit group) has released a report looking at how states spend money on low-income students and minority students.

State officials say North Carolina's numbers are misleading because the data comes from 2004-05, before the state pumped millions into high-poverty schools.

"This year's funding gap report paints a fuller – and even more painful – picture of how funding choices made at every level shortchange low-income students and students of color," said Kati Haycock, the president of the Education Trust.

At our sister (or should I say, brother?) blog the Capital Beat, N&R reporter Mark Binker talks about two groups criticizing how lottery money is being doled out for education.

We ran a story recently about how districts are spending or planning to spend their money.

From our family to yours: Happy Holidays

If you haven't had a chance to check out the "Scared of Santa" photos, check them out here. (I hear the best were saved for the print edition today.)

School districts could do a better job of informing about and involving parents in the implementation, process and results of the No Child Left Behind Act, according to a recent study by the non-profit Appleseed.

The group researched parental involvement in six states. Among its findings and recommendations:
*States, districts and schools must provide meaningful, understandable and timely information to parents regarding key school and student data.
*Districts and schools should pursue multiple, proactive strategies for communicating with and engaging parents -- particularly parents who are low-income or whose first language is not English.
*Districts and schools should leverage their limited resources by engaging community organizations.
*Federal, state and district officials need to prioritize and fund more comprehensive professional development for teachers and administrators, with special emphasis on challenges of culture and language.
*Federal, state and local policymakers and educators should recognize parental involvement as central to school improvement and place parental involvement strategies on par with other steps take to improve student achievement.

The appendix includes resources for parents and school officials.

Update: It turns out the cumulative promotion indexes for Dudley and Grimsley this year were based on student population fluctuations stemming from enrollment, according to Gongshu Zhang, chief accountability and research officer.

He was supposed to discuss the rates Dec. 19 but the item was postponed until Jan. 9. However, the agenda included a breakdown of Dudley's rates. He explained to me this week that the index, which represents the probability that freshmen at a school will graduate in four years, is reliable when enrollment is consistent from year to year. In Dudley and Grimsley's case, it wasn't because of redistricted students between the schools in 2005. So it appears Amos Quick was correct to believe redistricting played a factor. Dudley Principal Phyllis Martin, who was out of town the week I wrote the initial stories, called me the following week to say she was suspicious of the numbers as well.

I plan to write a fuller story on this next week once folks return from vacation. To be clear....

* The CPI uses a formula involving enrollment data to project the percentage of freshmen who will graduate on time. It is a probability and therefore not a true graduation rate.
* The traditional graduation rate is calculated by determining the percentage of seniors who graduate that year.
* The state and district will start next year reporting the percentage of freshmen who actually graduated in four years (they started tracking a few years ago cohorts of freshmen).