News-Record.com

Update: I've attached data for 2004 and 2005 after last year's numbers.

Some of the commenters have been asking for detailed data on the Advanced Placement scores from last year. I have compiled the information available in a simple format. Keep in mind that the district currently cannot disaggregate by income level and the breakdowns by school are limited. The Advanced Learner department also does not track students' grades so I cannot give you a district count of how many students pass the exam versus pass the course. (That would be kind of tricky to draw conclusions from anyway.) However, the district does require all students who take an AP course to take the exam.

Student achievement in math and reading has increased since the No Child Left Behind Act was enacted five years ago, according to a comprehensive study released today. But the gains can't be attributed directly to the federal law.

Possible reasons for the results include increased learning, teaching to the test, more lenient tests, scoring or data analyses and changes in populations tested, according to the report. Some state and local reforms also began before the law passed.

The report discovered the following about North Carolina:
* Student performance levels were steady in reading between 2003 and 2006. Student performance levels in math rose slightly between 1999 and 2005.
* In both reading and math, the percentages proficient were higher in elementary and middle grades than in high school.
* The average yearly gain in math in the percentage proficient was higher at most grades before NCLB took effect in 2002 than it was after, although gains appearead in both periods.
* Gaps in percentages proficient for black and low-income studetns narrowed between 2002 and 2006 in reading and math at all three grade levels analyzed. Gaps narrowed in math for Hispanic and special education studetns at all three grade levels.

Check out a virtual tour of the "pod village" that will serve as the temporary Eastern Guilford. The district gave media a tour on Tuesday of two of the five "pods" or modular units that have been set up so far. There will be 10 in all, with the last expected to arrive in July. Five existing mobile classrooms and the vocational building that survived the fire will also be used to house students.

Dave Burnett, executive director of facilities and construction, said work is on track and going well. However, they might have to work some 24/7 shifts toward the end to get everything ready for the start of school, he said. Listen to excerpts from an interview with Burnett.

Students return to class Aug. 28.

The "pods' are made up of between 9 to 11 sections, or floors. There were three such sections on site Tuesday waiting to be combined with other floors yet to arrive. They'll make up building No. 6, which is the media center, Burnett said.

The pods sit on a series of concrete blocks. Burnett called it "pier construction." I did a quick count and believe there are 9 blocks across the front and about 24 across the side. That's not counting the ones underneath each section that I couldn't get a clear view of crouched down at the edge of the pods. There are also metal ties into the ground along the edges of each pod. I didn't get a good count of how many per section or pod.

Click here for past coverage of the Eastern fire and check out tomorrow's News & Record to see how the fire changed expectations for the Class of 2007, which graduates Saturday.

Update: Here is the school readiness report.

The rundown: Guilford Education Alliance is working with several state and local agencies to help more children become ready for school and track the county's progress at accomplishing this over time. You can read about this report in stories here and here, which touch on different angles.

I was able to flesh out by deadline the desire of the alliance to increase the percentage of families accessing high-quality child care. Another focus of the organization was the physicals that students entering kindergarten are required to complete. Guilford County Schools gave the alliance access to thousands of these health assessment forms, but it turned out only half were usable. This limited the alliance's efforts to determine school readiness county-wide.

The alliance has recommended the automation of these forms for data crunching in the future. It also recommends that school nurses and school leadership teams use the data to address children's health needs, which is already done to some extent now.

On Tuesday the Board of Education approved its final project list for a proposed November bond referendum in time for county commissioners to vote on it next week. Check out the updated school bond guide to get more details about the projects. Keep in mind that some of the numbers have changed and so the project descriptions may have to be updated again.

I have detected some discrepancies in two sets of AP data I have received from Guilford County Schools. I received a couple of weeks ago AP scores from 2004 to 2006 and then this week I received a copy of the Newsweek Data request (don't have electronic version yet) sent this year for the Top Schools ranking, courtesy of a reader.

Well, I noticed that 12 schools had a different number listed for the number of exams taken in 2006 and 7 schools had a different number listed for its Equity and Excellence percentage. For example, Western High was listed as having an EE of 65 percent on one sheet and 46.4 percent on another sheet (the one I was given). High Point Central was listed as having EEs of 32 percent and 12.4 percent on two different sheets as well. Most of the other EEs were pretty close.

Oddly, the Early College at Guilford was listed as having 7 exams taken in one sheet and 245 exams in another. Huh?

I've left messages with Ashly Morrison, the district AP/IB coordinator to find out the reason for the discrepancies. I'll keep you posted.

I am doing an inventory of how well I give readers (both online and off) what they want in education coverage from the News & Record. Here is your opportunity to tell me what you like about it, what you want to see more of and what you want to see less of. Because the comments component of The Chalkboard is unreliable at this time, I suggest you e-mail me directly at mjosey@news-record.com. Serious suggestions only please.

Guilford County Schools reported today that Western High School’s ranking on a national list of top high schools will drop after discovering discrepancies in how Advanced Placement scores were reported to Newsweek.

The ranking, released in May, is based on school access to rigorous Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses for more than the top-level students.

Sonya Conway, district relations director, released this statement to the News & Record today after the newspaper notified the school system of discrepancies in two sets of Advanced Placement data:

"Following an internal investigation by Guilford County Schools, we have discovered discrepancies with the data reported by individual schools to Newsweek for their annual AP Challenge Index ranking, as compared to the data provided to the district by the College Board. Regrettably, both Western High and (High Point) Central High initially reported a few inaccurate totals that have since been corrected and forwarded to Newsweek. Newsweek representatives have confirmed that (High Point) Central’s ranking will not change based on the corrected data; however, Western’s ranking on the index will change. GCS’ preliminary estimate indicates that Western’s index score will change from 3.560 to 3.154, which will move their ranking from 80 to 124 on the national list.

"School officials have apologized to Newsweek for the error, we do not feel this was done intentionally, but rather was a case of misinterpretation of what was being requested and how to calculate the numbers during a time of administrative change. We have since implemented an internal verification process to ensure accuracy of future reports."

Conway said the notice would be placed on the "Friday Notes" section of the Guilford County Schools Web site.

At least one more high school will be requiring students to wear standard mode of dress next school year. Dudley was first, followed by High Point Central. Smith will require it for freshmen and Southwest is considering it. I'm still trying to reach the Smith and SW principals to determine why. Stay tuned...

The school board plans to discuss military recruitment of high school students next week after parents representing a local advocacy group asked to be put on the agenda. Their concerns: parents and students aren't getting a balanced picture of military life by recruiters and many don't know about their option to opt-out of contacts lists used by recruiters.

Richard and Sandra Koritz, founders of Parents and Citizens for Truth in Recruiting, sent an e-mail to board members in May, requesting the following:

* We are asking the board, at a minimum, to send a mailing to the parents of all students who are rising juniors and seniors in high school, clearly informing them of their right to take their name off the list and the procedure for doing so.
* We also ask the board to consider informing juniors and seniors of their right to opt out through flyers on bulletin boards at school, announcements and any other methods deemed appropriate.
* In addition, we request that this information and opt-out forms also be made available online.
* Finally, we request your support in allowing our group and other like-minded citizens to coordinate visits to schools to provide opt-out forms to juniors and seniors, and/or truth in recruitment literature, so as to help provide our youth with a balanced picture of a potential military career, at this moment in our history.

What do you think of this group's proposals? Are they necessary?

Guilford is one of 122 districts or coalitions of schools to receive a federal grant to improve U.S. history education. The focus of the grant is teacher training through partnerships with colleges and museums.

Read Guilford's grant proposal or check out the U.S. Department of Education site on the Teaching American History program.

Well, it looks the the county commissioners have p-ed off the school board on two counts: a budget that may result in job cuts and a six-month delay in a public bond vote.

Commissioners think waiting on the referenda could help get more favorable votes. Fellow reporter Nate Degraff found in past bond votes that "no" voters typically stay home if they have no other reason to vote (like municipal elections), while the "yes" voters come out in roughly the same numbers. This could hurt GCS in the end, especially if more "no" voters come out in May and another PR nightmare occurs (such as with the middle school remediation).

However, what should they do about Eastern? Does it even matter at this point, given the commissioners' promise to rebuild it? And do you think a May referendum could motivate school board members to add on to the bond or drop items off because of inflation?

FYI: A parent e-mailed me this week about rumors that Northern Middle might need to drill a third well and need trailers this upcoming school year. I figured other parents may have heard this, so I asked Dave Burnett, district facilities director, about the rumors.

He e-mailed me back, saying:

"Rumor #1 - There has been absolutely no talk of drilling a 3rd well. Well #2 was checked out previously and is currently being developed. We hope it and all supporting work will be complete in the next 2 weeks.

"Rumor #2 - There are no plans to provide mobile classrooms to NMS for the 07/08 school year. The projections and recent tracking of registrations indicate sufficient capacity for this school year. However, we are developing plans to add a temporary unit to support high school student athletes that may be using the high school fields this fall and prior to the completion of the new high school. Perhaps this is the origin of this rumor."

Hope that helps.

Spend one week with 11 teens and you'll appreciate more what teachers do every day. I know I do.

Last week we published our annual Multicultural Journalism Workshop paper (We opened up the workshop to all students, not just minorities, this year). Students learned about writing, reporting and interviewing. They met other journalists, including Adolfo Briceno from Que Pasa and Sergio Bastos from Batanga. And they created a 12-page paper of their work: editorials, stories, headlines, photos, illustrations. NOTE: The links above may take some time to load. They're large PDF files. The first one includes all but pages 6-7 of the paper, which were laid out as one large page (in the news business we call it a doubletruck). We put those two pages in the second PDF.

Unfortunately, we haven't been able to print the student paper - which students this year dubbed "What's the Word?" - with the regular press run so you guys don't get a chance to see it when you get your paper at home.

But this year our features department agreed to take some of the best work and reprint it. Check out Tuesday's Life section to see what some of our local teens produced after a one-week crash course in journalism.

Staff writers Tina Firesheets and Joe Killian were the other coordinators. I've helped run the workshop for a few years now and this is one of the best groups we've ever had. It's also the largest in my tenure. We've never had more than I think 8 students in the past. You'd be surprised how much three more kids asking questions (Jen, will you edit my story? Can I go to the bathroom? What do I do now?) can frazzle you. Sometimes I'd have them lined up six deep waiting for my help. It's been more than a week and I'm still trying to catch my breath!

Seriously, though. They were an amazing bunch. I expect to read more from them.

See for yourself. Check out the links above or read Tuesday's Life section.

Special thanks to features editor Susan Ladd and assistant editor Mike Kernels for loaning us some real estate in their section to feature student work.

I've been checking out Daniel Quinn, the author of Ishmael (for any of you who are familiar) and I came across one of his speeches on "schooling." Check it out.

Ain't that easy when you don't have the data. I decided to skip doing a story for now until state test scores are released so I could tell readers what they really want to know: How many teachers are getting the bonuses and were they successful in raising test scores at participating schools?

I was able to get some information, so I will share it on The Chalkboard until a full analysis is done:

1) Superintendent Terry Grier plans to evaluate the first year of Mission Possible at the end of the summer, he told me last week. He has said several times that the early feedback from schools is that the program has been sucessful. More math teachers are interested in applying at GCS now compared to a year ago.

"We are getting highly-qualified, more experienced teachers into those schools," Grier said.

Background: 20 schools with the highest percentages of students qualifying for federally subsidized meals became eligible for the incentives at the beginning of the 06-07 school year (Smith, Dudley, Andrews, High Point Central, Academy at Smith, middle colleges at Bennett and A&T, Jackson, Hairston, Ferndale, Welborn, Fairview, Hampton, Oak Hill, Gillespie Park, Kirkman Park, Wiley, Washington, Parkview and Foust). Southern and Eastern high schools joined after the district received a $2 million grant from Action Greensboro. These other schools became eligible for the 07-08 school year when the district received an $8 million grant last fall: Bessemer, Cone, Falkener and Union Hill elementary schools and Allen, Aycock and Penn-Griffin middle schools.

I've been trying to reach Chief Finance Officer Sharon Ozment for about two weeks to discuss the 07-08 budget and what she would be presenting to the school board. I finally heard from her (via a voice mail message left at 1:15 a.m. this morning) about what she intends to do: present an interim budget resolution that the district could operate off until the state passes its budget. This tends to happen every year.

She said she didn't think the budget discussion tomorrow will not focus on job cuts or layoffs, but on whether to approve the additional positions (5.5 new social workers, 20 new midddle school reading/math teachers and 10 elementary specialists to increase planning time and expand foreign language). I read that as: let's try to get through this as quickly as possible without upsetting anybody. Nonetheless, I'm sure the board will get some public handwringing.

Of course, we know what Superintendent Terry Grier recommended last week.

I've had my hands on a preliminary, hard-copy report of short-term suspensions for about a week now, but problems getting apples-to-apples trend data has prevented me from doing a full analysis and story on it. During the 2006-07 school year, GCS had 12,386 suspensions, according to the preliminary report. That compares to a state official total of 13,236 suspensions in 2006 and 12,861 in 2005.

(School safety coordinator Anthony Scales expects to send the preliminary report to the state next week and when he does, I've asked to get an electronic version this time. I will post it and previos preliminary reports once I do.)

Unfortunately, once the district sends the Department of Public Instruction the numbers for verification, the state takes over, publishes a final report online, but does not send the numbers back to the district (according to Scales). Even though the preliminary and final numbers are usually close, I cannot compare suspensions by number of students or by school, because the state only publishes district totals.You can figure out where I'm going: I can get a good idea of how schools are doing individually but there's a chance the numbers could be off.

In the past I have compared preliminary numbers in stories, but I am not sure I feel comfortable doing that again, knowing that those numbers are now obsolete.

I spoke with Amos Quick this week about the school climate task force. As soon as they determine the members, I will let you know.

The Supreme Court today voted, 5-4, to reject diversity plans from Seattle and Louisville, Ky., declaring that the districts had failed to meet "their heavy burden" of justifying "the extreme means they have chosen — discriminating among individual students based on race by relying upon racial classifications in making school assignments," according to a New York Times article.

Jill Wilson, attorney for the Guilford County Board of Education, said the ruling won't affect the district because Guilford is a part of the U.S. 4th Circuit, which already ruled that school systems can't use race as a sole factor in assigning students to schools.

“We were not doing anything that would have been contrary to this opinion in the first place,” she said Thursday afternoon.

She had not read the full opinion yet, but is aware of the two cases that were before the court.

"What it certainly does answer is, I have two equal students, can I choose one based on race to balance the diversity of my school? The answer is no," Wilson said.

More from the NYT: "Thursday's decision, one of the most important in years on the issue of race and education, may not eliminate race as a factor in assigning students to different schools. But it will surely prompt many districts to revise programs they already have in place, or go back to the drawing boards in designing plans."

There's some concern that the decision could affect the federal magnet school program, which funnels millions to school systems. Guilford has used the federal money to expand its magnet programs over the past several years. Magnet schools offer special academic programs, such as languages or arts, and are open to students throughout a district. However, their original purpose was to foster diversity and some states still allow districts to use race as a deciding factor in admissions.

Will Thursday's ruling derail the entire federal magnet program or force officials to revamp it? That's something to keep an eye on.