News-Record.com

Want to know the teacher turnover rate at your school? How about ratio of students per computer? Find those answers and more in the annual school report cards. The latest version tracks data from 2005-06.

The Board of Education plans to discuss at its meeting next week staff recommendations to give principals the choice to keep their SROs or trade them for another assistant principal, reading teacher, counselor or training money. Read Friday's story.

A Wake County task force created last year to evaluate school construction practices released their comparison study Wednesday. Hired consultants surveyed eight counties, including Guilford, Mecklenburg and Forsyth counties, and districts in Nevada, Virginia, Georgia and Florida. Ohio-based DeJong Inc. and Summit Consulting Services LLC studied 156 school projects bid between 2000 and 2006, three of them (one elementary, one middle, one high) from Guilford.

The release of the study comes as Guilford County Board of Education seeks to review construction practices here. DeJong's cursory examination of construction in those districts shows Guilford County Schools spending more per square foot than average ($157.17 vs. $138.97). The square foot costs toward the end of the report were adjusted to take into consideration inflation, local economics and location of all the projects.

Look for a fuller story next week.

The Board of Education will discuss Thursday a recommendation on how to house more autistic students, using funds from a possible November bond referendum. Facilities consultant Joe Hill initially proposed renovating the old Craven school site for low-functioning autistic students. He and other district officials changed their minds after school board attorney Jill Wilson expressed concerns about separating autistic students on separate campuses. Read the story today.

What do you think is the best way for Guilford County Schools to accommodate the growing autism population?

Top district officials will be in the trenches working with teachers and principals at struggling schools starting this week.

Superintendent Terry Grier announced Tuesday plans to redeploy 84 central office staff and 20 curriculum facilitators to work part-time in 18 schools that have failed for several years to meet federal testing measures, which are based on state tests. They'll work at the schools until state end-of-grade and end-of-course testing in May.

The district as a whole failed to meet those federal testing measures, called Adequate Yearly Progress. Guilford is in the first year of improvement, which amounts to setting aside some federal funding for teacher training and coming up with a district improvement plan. Continuing to fail could result in anything from loss of funding to restructuring.

Read more in today's paper.

An independent, bipartisan commission reviewing the federal No Child Left Behind Act will release its recommendations at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. Listen to the live Webcast here.

The federal government has made concessions in the years since NCLB was signed into law in 2002. Limited English Proficient students - also called English as a Second Language students - now are counted on Adequate Yearly Progress for up to two years after they test out of the LEP category. Initially, they weren't counted once they tested out, meaning schools essentially were penalized for teaching them English. They also made changes for special education students.

Do you think anything should be changed about the law as it heads into reauthorization this year? Do you think it is fine just the way it is?

UPDATE
Oops. See Morgan's post above.

Read the recommendations here. It's a rather lengthy report. Check out the commission's press release.

Responses from other agencies ranged from a polite thank you to scathing reviews.

The Aspen Institute, an independent, bipartisan commission released its recommendations to No Child Left Behind today. You can find the full report here and the recommendations here.

Those recommendations included:
* Hold principals and teachers more accountable for test results
* Improve the quantity and quality of teacher training
* Give principals in Title 1 schools the right to refuse the transfer of a teacher who is not "highly qualified" into their school
* Require colleges and universities to set goals for increasing the number of graduates qualified to teach in shortage areas
* Hold schools accountable by restricting the minimum subgroup size to no more than 20 (instead of 40) and confidence intervals to no more than 95 percent
* Require districts to hire a point person on supplemental educational services (tutoring) and school choice/opt-outs.

Some groups criticized the report. The National Center for Fair and Open Testing called the proposals "NCLB on steroids." The center advocates limited standardized testing and a more comprehensive approach to accountability. Find their proposals here.

The American Federation of Teachers called the report a "nonstarter" for remaking the law.

Meanwhile, the Center on Education Policy offered a one paragraph thank you for the commission's work.

The state's ongoing saga over retread tires, including those for school buses, continues.

Reporter Taft Wireback has been following this story since November 2005.

UPDATE: State Superintendent June Atkinson responds.

The Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation released a report today that says North Carolina educators and politicians need to quit complaining about teacher pay. There's no reason to try to meet the national salary average because, well, North Carolina actually exceeds it.

When adjusted for cost-of-living, pension contribution, and experience, North Carolina’s teacher compensation is $993 higher than the U.S. adjusted median compensation and $2,733 higher than the U.S. adjusted average compensation, according to policy analyst Terry Stoops.

North Carolina should instead focus on implementing merit-based pay, Stoops said. What do you think?

The regional meeting to discuss proposed changes to the state curriculum will be from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday at Randleman High in Randolph County.

Check out the FAQ state officials put together.

If you can't make it, listen to or watch apodcast (scroll down to access either the audio or video version) by State Superintendent June Atkinson describing the meetings.

The Guilford County Boards of Education and Commissioners met Tuesday to talk... you guessed it... money. Nothing really newsworthy occurred but I figured I'd update you on topics that came up:

* Eastern Guilford High School: This wasn't on the agenda, but school board attorney Jill Wilson said insurance officials representing the state and the district started meeting yesterday to discuss an insurance settlement for the fire. Wilson said the plan is to begin demolition on the school March 1 once a decision is reached on what parts of the building can be salvaged.

* Superintedent Terry Grier gave commissioners a brief preview into what additional funds the board could be requesting this year. GCS is projecting between 1,800 and 2,000 more students next year. That and a possible 5% state increase in teacher salaries would require an additional $4 million in salaries and benefits. Oh, and the district wants back its $3 million in capital outlay funds that was cut last year.

* Commissioner Carolyn Coleman and school board member Kris Cooke will form a committee to study creating a school funding formula. The boards first broached the idea late last year.

* Commissioner Skip Alston advised the board to play it safe by requesting certificates of participation for priority construction projects in case voters don't pass a proposed bond referendum in November. That would be in addition to the certificate of participation GCS plans to request in rebuilding Eastern High.

Apparently Tar Heels aren't the betting type. Lottery sales have been lukewarm, which means the proceeds doled out to education haven't been has high as first projected.

Guilford originally was projected to get $10.6 million but is on track for closer to $8 million, state records show.

(Check out lottery distributions and projections here. Go to Public School Building Capital Fund link on left, then either Lottery Fund Distribution or Estimated Lottery Distribution. The information also can be found under the Current Fiscal Year link, but at this point that data is old and inaccurate.)

Now, Gov. Easley is proposing to reduce the amount to education to increase the prizes, thereby increasing the number of players spending money and putting more money in education coffers.

What do you think of Easley's plan?

I spent this morning sitting across from four Academy at Smith students huddled around the secretary's phone at their school waiting for their chance to interview an ACC coach. Their English teacher, Stephen Hoyt, arranged for the students to take part in a teleconference for journalists wishing to catch up with the coaches before tournament play begins Thursday.

So sophomores Josh Chavis, Selena Irby, Clyde Sellers and Rodericka Moore vied for time with the coaches against veteran journalists from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Durham Herald-Sun the Spartanburg Herald-Journal and ACC Nation.

My high school journalism teacher never arranged anything that cool!

Listen to the student interviews (they were limited to one question per coach, although Chavis got in two with Wake Forest's Mike Petersen) and the students talking later about the experience.

Listen to the entire teleconference at theacc.com (as of about 1 p.m. I hadn't seen it posted).

The students said they'll likely have to write an essay about their brief stint as a journalist.

Guilford County Schools posted the lowest graduation rate among North Carolina’s five largest districts, a state report revealed today.

The report shows that 63.5 percent of Guilford students who entered as freshmen in 2002 graduated in four years or less. Statewide, 68.1 percent graduated in that same time.

Check out your school's rate here.

Read more in tomorrow's newspaper.