Public School Forum

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by Forum Admin

 

The Friday Report

September 23, 2016

Education Matters Premieres Next Sunday, October 2

The Public School Forum’s new weekly television program, Education Matters, is set to premiere on Sunday, October 2nd on WRAL-TV, the NBC affiliate in the Raleigh-Durham/Fayetteville market. The program aims to provide the public with real facts about the state of public education in North Carolina. The weekly television show will explore everything from the history of public education to the current issues and trends affecting every school and classroom in the state. It will be hosted by Public School Forum President and Executive Director Keith Poston.
The first week’s program will focus on North Carolina’s teacher pipeline and feature the following guests:
  • Dr. Mary Ann Danowitz, Dean, School of Education, NC State
  • Dr. Van Dempsey, Dean, Watson School of Education, UNC-Wilmington
  • Trey Ferguson, Teacher, Leesville Road High School, Wake County
  • Shemika Banuelos, Teacher, Wilson’s Mills Elementary School, Johnston County
Education Matters will air on Sundays at 11:30 AM on WRAL-TV through mid-November. The program will move to its permanent time slot, Saturdays at 7:30 PM, beginning November 26, 2016. Education Matters will also be viewable online, with full episodes and additional content on the Public School Forum’s web site https://www.ncforum.org/ and on WRAL at https://www.wral.com/.

Marvin Pittman Remembered as North Carolina ‘Giant in Education’

The late Marvin Pittman is being remembered as an advocate for children, particularly those who are from low-income families, during his long career as an educator and community activist in Raleigh.
Pittman, 66, who died Sept. 15 after a battle with cancer, was praised as a “giant in education” at Tuesday’s Wake County school board meeting. Over more than 40 years, Pittman was an education consultant, teacher, principal and senior official in the Wake and Durham school systems and the state Department of Public Instruction.
As chairman of the education committee at Compassionate Tabernacle of Faith Baptist Church in Raleigh, Pittman helped schools such as Walnut Creek Elementary School. He lobbied Wake school leaders to do more to help high-poverty schools and support minority students.
“He was a champion for education, an advocate, a fighter,” said Wake school board member Keith Sutton, who called for a moment of silence at Tuesday’s meeting. “Very passionate about education, particularly passionate about those that are disproportionately affected by race, by poverty or those that just simply did not have a voice.”

In This Issue

Education Matters Premieres Next Sunday, October 2

Marvin Pittman Remembered as North Carolina ‘Giant in Education’

Helping Teachers Take Flight

NC Creating Plan to Meet New Federal Education Requirements

Summer Accelerator Program at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics: Call for Participation

RFP Open for 21st Century Community Learning Centers

World View Fall Programs

Journal for Interdisciplinary Teacher Leadership

Public School Forum Programs

Nominate an Outstanding Education Leader!

The Public School Forum is seeking nominations for education leaders to be profiled on our new weekly TV show, Education Matters, premiering October 2nd on WRAL-TV.
Do you have a great leader in your local school? Nominate them today! We are seeking leaders who make a difference in their school each and every day.
To nominate an education leader, please fill out the form here.

Forum News

Helping Teachers Take Flight

The Public School Forum is now accepting applications for the 2016-17 class of the Beginning Teacher Leadership Network (BTLN). The application period is open through September 30. Early-career teachers in Wake, Mecklenburg, and Union counties are eligible. Christina Spears, a special education teacher at Panther Creek High School in Wake County and a member of the BTLN’s Teacher Leadership Council, wrote about her experience in the BTLN:
Being a beginning teacher is challenging, to say the least.
Rick Smith said it best when he uttered, “Being a new teacher is like trying to fly an airplane while building it.”
My alma mater, Meredith College, provided me with the parts to build a dependable and long-lasting aircraft: the depth of knowledge in special education law and how to effectively implement classroom management practices while delivering instruction using evidence-based practices. I have plane parts with a lifetime warranty: a faculty member who will answer my questions via email or meet me for coffee on a Saturday to catch up.
I was expected to assemble this jet sans fully stocked toolbox or license to pilot.
Wake County Public Schools (WCPSS) equips beginning teachers with a tool chest full of equipment to put together the parts of this plane: the Beginning Teacher Support Program, which provides mentors for BTs and frequent observations used to improve practice. Among other helpful tools: monthly meetings consisting of professional development and opportunities to share with other teachers.
The Public School Forum of North Carolina has gifted beginning teachers in Wake, Mecklenburg, and Union counties (with more to follow) with a license to pilot a perfectly-crafted airplane. Without Beginning Teacher Leadership Network (BTLN), my plane would be sitting in a hangar, dormant. Since participating in this innovative program, I have been flying with confidence. I shine in the classroom with my students, alongside my hard-working colleagues and friends who dedicate time and energy every day to do right by their students. I am eager to learn from educational leaders in my district and state who are working to make positive change in policy and programs every day. I’m strong-willed in my efforts to make decisions within my professional learning teams and school-based systems that address students’ needs. I am assertive in my ability to engage in conversations with both peers and policymakers.
To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Beginning Teacher Leadership Network Accepting Applications for 2016-17

The Public School Forum’s Beginning Teacher Leadership Network is accepting applications for the 2016-17 school year for Mecklenburg, Wake, and Union counties. Application links are available online at https://www.ncforum.org/beginning-teacher-leadership-network/.

The Beginning Teacher Leadership Network (BTLN) offers early-career teachers (1-3 years) the chance to continue their development as classroom instructors while learning how to advocate for the educational profession. Participants in BTLN meet regularly to improve their classroom practice, network with one another, and learn about state and local education policy. It offers beginning teachers the chance to grow in their pedagogical practice, as well as bolster their impact beyond the classroom. BTLN implements specific interventions to retain beginning teachers by fostering their leadership ability and leveraging the skills of veteran teachers. It is completely voluntary and intended as a supplement to the required professional development delivered by the local education agency. It takes a three-pronged approach to teacher-leadership by focusing on the areas of education policy and advocacy, cross-curricular collaboration, and professional development.

More questions? Check out THIS video about the BTLN or contact Forum Program Director James Ford at jford@ncforum.org.

State News

Report Suggests Newer NC Charter Schools are Performing Worse than Their More Established Counterparts

On the heels of the release of the 2016 A-F public school performance grades, officials from the North Carolina Office of Charter Schools released a report last week that provides more detailed information on charter schools’ academic performance. The data appear to indicate that newer charter schools aren’t hitting it out of the park, academically speaking—yet.

The report includes already-released data showing that during the 2015-16 school year, the entire charter school sector received grades that spanned the A-F spectrum, just like traditional public schools. And a higher proportion of charter schools received As—and a higher percentage got Fs, too—just like the prior two academic years.What’s different and remarkable about OCS’ new report, however (the first of its kind that’s been publicly available, to my knowledge) is that it highlights the academic performance of younger charter schools—and it appears that those schools don’t quite stack up to that of their older counterparts.
While the entire charter school sector received grades for 2015-16 that ranged from As to Fs—with the bulk of them in the ‘C’ category—no charter schools that were approved for opening in 2013 received As. Fifteen percent of those schools received Fs, a higher proportion than the entire sector. That trend repeats itself for 2014 and 2015, as you’ll see in the report.
To continue reading the complete article, click here.

38 New Charter School Applicants for Fall 2018

The North Carolina charter school office has received 38 applications to open new schools in 2018. A spreadsheet of applicants is available on the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) Office of Charter Schools’ website.
Most of the applicants proposed to open schools in urban areas or counties surrounding them. Seven proposed to open in Wake, and six in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
Currently, 167 public charter schools are open for students in North Carolina. An additional eight schools received a favorable report in August from the State Board of Education to begin their planning year for preparation to open in August 2017.
NCDPI staff will provide training for these applicant groups over the next year as they complete the ready to open process. These eight – once they’ve successfully completed their planning year – when added to the five charters that were scheduled to open in August but asked for a one-year delay, will bring the state’s total number of charter schools to 180.
Charter schools are public schools operated by nonprofit boards. The schools have open enrollment; and no tuition is charged to attend. Public tax dollars are the primary funding source for charter schools.
Visit the NC Office of Charter Schools’ website for more information.

National News

Teachers Can Be Key to Helping Students Cope With Trauma, Ed. Sec. Says

Teachers, bus drivers and cafeteria workers come across students who are dealing with trauma in their own lives every day, and districts and states need to make sure they know how to respond, U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King, Jr., said at a White House conference Monday.
King talked about his own experiences growing up with a father who had undiagnosed Alzheimer’s disease.  His teachers made sure that he felt safe and challenged at school, ultimately putting him on the track to success.
“Today’s conversation is about policy,” King told attendees of a White House event on dealing with student trauma, but it’s also about “how we create school environments that save kids’ lives.”
The White House conference, titled “Trauma-Informed Approaches in School: Supporting Girls of Color and Rethinking Discipline” sought to find solutions for disproportionately high suspension rates among black girls. Black girls represent 8 percent of enrolled students, but are 14 percent of students receiving one or more out-of-school suspensions. 
The Education Department also released some new resources to help districts combat the problem, including “Safe Place to Learn,” an online toolkit that includes information about trauma sensitivity and online training programs to help educators learn how to work with kids who may be suffering from trauma.

Fresh Policy Leverage Waits as Governors’ Contests Heat Up

In decades past, governors have leveraged their bully pulpit to advance increasingly bold education agendas. They’ve had their own children integrate schools, pledged that every child would have a laptop computer, and overhauled learning standards.
Next year, they’ll enjoy fresh leverage in school accountability, courtesy of the nation’s flagship K-12 law—and that prospect already has amped up the volume of education debate in several of this year’s gubernatorial contests.
The Every Student Succeeds Act tosses power back to states to design their own school-accountability and teacher-evaluation systems, among other measures, after more than a decade when the federal government used the No Child Left Behind Act to set priorities for education policy nationwide.
Twelve states will pick governors Nov. 8, and two-thirds of them will be new faces regardless of the partisan outcome, as incumbents exit the stage because of term limits or other factors. Of the 12 races, six governorships are held by Democrats, five by Republicans, and one (West Virginia) by an independent.
That fluid situation and the Every Student Succeeds Act’s new grant of policy flexibility to the states may clear the way for a more activist stance on education policy by the nation’s governors, according to James B. Hunt Jr., who served as the governor of North Carolina from 1977 to 1985, and then again from 1993 to 2001. He now runs the Hunt Institute, which aims to help shape the education agenda of politicians aspiring to serve as a governor.
“Back in the days before [the No Child Left Behind Act], we were making huge changes to increase education resources and focusing on teacher improvement with a laser-like focus,” he said. “With ESSA, what you’re going to see now is governors throw themselves back into the education arena.”
In the 12 gubernatorial races this year, school funding, finance formulas, and accountability have dominated the debates. 
To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Opportunities

NC Creating Plan to Meet New Federal Education Requirements

What will the new federal education law, Every Student Succeeds Act, mean for North Carolina students? State educators and policymakers are crafting North Carolina’s plan now for submission to the US Department of Education during its March submission calendar.
Academic indicators will continue to include proficiency on English language arts/reading and mathematics, progress of English language learners, graduation rates, and a to-be-decided other academic indicator for elementary and middle schools. In addition, the new law requires the inclusion of other measures of school quality or student success as long as those indicators are valid and reliable, comparable, available statewide, and meaningful indicators of student success.
Input is being collected online through the “Let’s Talk” application, which may be accessed from the Department’s website; in regional meetings with superintendents and school officials; as well as in six public comment sessions to be held from 4-6 p.m. on each of the following dates:
October 6 – North Wilkesboro
October 12 – Jacksonville
October 18 – Fayetteville
October 19 – Tarboro
October 24 – Waynesville
October 25 – Burlington
Reprinted from:

Summer Accelerator Program at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics: Call for Participation

The Summer Accelerator program at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, offers rigorous short courses to gifted students from around the world. Each year we seek out high quality instruction and course design to provide students. This is where you come in. 
We are excited to invite you to propose a course (or two, or three) for the summer of 2017. Please note, we are expanding. In the course proposal form, we ask for your feedback about teaching in different locations across the state.
Find the full request for proposals with a link to the proposal form here, along with FAQs: CALL FOR PARTICIPATION 2017
Any questions- email Jen Hill at jen.hill@ncssm.edu, call her at 919-416-2635.

RFP Open for 21st Century Community Learning Centers

NCDPI Federal Program Monitoring and Support Division staff are pleased to announce the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) 2017-18 Request for Proposals (RFP).
The purpose of the 21st CCLC program is to offer expanded learning opportunities for students during non-school hours. The program must be designed to provide students with high-quality academic and other enrichment activities designed to complement the students’ regular academic program. The 21st CCLC program must also offer families of participating students educational development opportunities.
The Application Guidance and Application Worksheet is available to assist organizations with planning a proposal. If you have any questions, please contact Brandon Patterson with NCDPI’s Federal Program Monitoring and Support Division.

World View Fall Programs

World View at UNC-Chapel Hill offers exciting professional development opportunities in global education for K-12 teachers, school administrators, and community college educators. Our fall programs for K12 educators feature innovative strategies to drive global learning. Continuing Education Units earned can be applied toward the NC Global Educator Digital Badge process. Register for the fall global education symposium and online course today!
Innovation and Technology to Drive Global Learning 
October 19-20, 2016
  • Fuel the drive with dynamic presenters, interdisciplinary sessions, curriculum development opportunities and a wide-range of exhibitors.
  • Be in the passenger seat as you experience lessons that demonstrate technology and innovation.
  • Support your road trip by collaborating with colleagues as you consider your own classroom.
  • Drive away with tools, strategies, resources and a professional network to drive global learning.
Location: The Friday Center for Continuing Education, Chapel Hill, NC
Cost: $175 per person. $600 for a team of four; $150 for each additional member
CEU: 1.5 CEUs offered

October 6 – November 16, 2016
Join World View’s online course for an exploration of global topics such as the economy, the environment, diverse populations and the U.S.’s place in the world. Educators will gain hands-on experience with web-based resources for teaching about global issues in the classroom.
Location: Online!
Cost: $250 per person for World View Partners; $300 for Non-Partners
CEU: 4 CEUs offered

Journal for Interdisciplinary Teacher Leadership

The Kenan Fellows Program for Teacher Leadership is accepting articles and literary reviews to be featured in the second issue of the Journal for Interdisciplinary Teacher Leadership (JoITL). The peer-reviewed publication features original work on K–12 educational topics from research to pedagogy to policy, and more.
Special consideration will be given to works that address:
  • STEM education and science literacy
  • Project and inquiry based learning
  • Teacher leadership and research experiences for educators
  • Data literacy and digital learning
Submissions will be accepted through Monday, Oct. 31, 2016.
For submission guidelines, visit kenanfellows.org/journals. Please send questions to the managing editor, Amneris Solano, at asolano@ncsu.edu.

The Friday Report is published weekly by the Public School Forum of NC and is distributed to Forum members, policymakers, donors, media, and Forum subscribers. Archived editions can be found at www.ncforum.org.

©2016 Public School Forum of North Carolina. All Rights Reserved.

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