Friday Report – April 13, 2018

The Friday Report

April 13, 2018

State News

NC Lawmakers Say Don’t Rush to Break Up Large School Districts

More than 2,000 students walked out of Green Hope High School in Cary on Feb. 28, 2018, to demand political changes to try to end school gun violence following the recent Florida school shooting massacre.

Photo Credit: Travis Long, The News & Observer.

State lawmakers who are looking into how to break up North Carolina’s school districts agreed Wednesday that additional study is needed before legislation is considered to split up any school systems.

Leaders of a state legislative committee said Wednesday they didn’t have enough time to address all the issues that would come up if any of North Carolina’s 115 school districts were split into smaller ones. The committee adopted a report that says additional study is needed before the General Assembly creates a process for the public to try to break up large school districts.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Hui, K. “NC lawmakers say don’t rush to break up large school districts.” The News & Observer. 4/11/18.

NC Has Spent More Than $150 Million to Boost Reading. Are These Scores Worth It?

Jeff Maynard teaches a reading lesson to his third-grade class at Brier Creek Elementary School in Raleigh in 2014. The students worked in “reading camps” to prepare for end-of-grade tests to comply with Read to Achieve.

Photo Credit: Chris Seward, The News & Observer.

North Carolina students have made little progress on reading despite a state program that has pumped more than $150 million into boosting young children’s skills, a new round of national exams released Tuesday shows.

About 39 percent of North Carolina fourth-graders and 33 percent of eighth-graders were rated proficient in reading on the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation’s report card. The fourth-grade results were slightly above the national average but have ticked downward since the last NAEP exam was given in 2015.

In 2012, North Carolina launched Read to Achieve, a statewide push to make sure students could read at grade level by third grade. Since then, the state has spent $151.7 million on the program, much of it for digital devices for elementary schools and summer camps to help young readers who fall behind.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Doss Helms, A. “NC has spent more than $150 million to boost reading. Are these scores worth it?” The Charlotte Observer. 4/10/18.

Psychologists: Early Help Could Deter School Violence

Photo Credit: Pan Xiaozhen, Unsplash.

Hiring more psychologists and guidance counselors would help school officials identify students with mental health challenges sooner and deter serious violence, professionals in those fields told legislators Monday.

Leaders of state associations representing these professionals spoke to House members who are seeking ideas about how to make schools and students safer after the Feb. 14 shooting that left 17 dead at a Florida high school.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Robertson, G. “Psychologists: Early help could deter school violence.” Associated Press. 4/9/18.

NC Is in Desperate Need of School Nurses. Will It Foot the $45 Million to $79 Million Bill for More?

There are so few nurses in North Carolina’s public schools that a new state report says it could cost an additional $45 million to $79 million a year to help meet student health needs. Photo Credit: Travis Long, The News & Observer.

There are so few nurses in North Carolina’s public schools that a new state report says it could cost an additional $45 million to $79 million a year to help meet student health needs.

There’s one school nurse for every 1,086 students, according to a state legislative staff report, meaning the majority of student medical needs have to be met by non-nurses. The report said it could cost $45 million a year to get to a ratio of one nurse for every 750 students and could cost $79 million annually to ensure every North Carolina public school has a nurse.

That money could come from the state or also from county governments, which provide 45 percent of the annual funding for school nurses. The amount needed to have a nurse available to every student could be closer to $65 million a year instead of $79 million based on the number of schools that are on the same campus that could share a person.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Hui, T. “NC is in desperate need of school nurses. Will it foot the $45 million to $79 million bill for more?” The News & Observer. 4/9/18.

NC Teaching Fellows Commission Names 2018 Fellows

Photo Credit: Element5 Digital, Unsplash.

The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Commission has named 110 individuals as the inaugural class of North Carolina Teaching Fellows. Following the program’s return last year, the Commission received 232 total applications and named approximately 150 semi-finalists. Teaching Fellows applicants were evaluated on the following measures: GPA, standardized test scores, leadership and experience, a written essay and mission statement, and for those moved forward as a semi-finalist, an in-person interview.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

“NC Teaching Fellows Commission Names 2018 Fellows.” The University of North Carolina. 4/9/18.

In Chapel Hill-Carborro Schools, Fewer Kids Are Being Sent to the Office. Here’s Why.

The overall number of students in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools with one or more referrals during the first semester decreased by 18 percent, from 510 to 418. Photo Credit: CHCCS.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools says restorative practices, in which students meet with those they have wronged to make amends, is helping to bring disciplinary referrals down.

The school board got some promising news Thursday night in an update of the district’s equity plan. The report looked at disciplinary and academic data.

Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Services Rydell Harrison said office discipline referrals for the district were down 24 percent, from 1,004 in the first semester of last school year to 759 for the first semester of this school year.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Goad, M. “In Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools, fewer kids are being sent to the office. Here’s why.” The Herald Sun. 4/6/18.

Join the Conversation About Education and Economic Opportunity in Your Community

Image Credit: EducationNC.

The myFutureNC Commission—comprised of state leaders in education, business, philanthropy, government, and faith‐based and nonprofit communities—is reimagining the ways our communities, our regions, and our state support an individual’s attainment journey, from pre-Kindergarten through postsecondary and into the workforce.

To help them in this task, the myFutureNC Listening Tour is collecting ideas and feedback from people all over the state. We want to hear from everyone: educators, parents, service providers, faith leaders, employees, employers, government representatives, and students.

Please join our team at one of our Listening Sessions this spring and summer to share your thoughts and ideas about strengthening educational and economic opportunities for your community. Drop in at any time: We will share information on our work at 2:30 pm, meet in small groups for discussion at 3:00 pm and host community conversations with local education thought leaders at 4:15 pm.

To learn more & RSVP for a Tour stop, click here.

National News

National Math and Reading Scores Remain Constant, But Disparities Emerge

Photo Credit: Pixabay, Pexels.

The South’s Push to Resegregate Its Schools

The St. Louis Board of Education was picketed by the NAACP on July 27, 1963, after the board issued a modified enrollment plan which the NAACP said did not go far enough in integrating the schools. 

Photo Credit: Bettmann, Getty Images.

North Carolina is the latest state to consider breaking up countywide school systems, endangering districts that are models of racial integration and economic stability.

On April 4, a little-known legislative committee met for the fourth time in six weeks in downtown Raleigh, N.C. Although its name is dull and obscure—the Joint Legislative Study Committee on the Division of Local School Administrative Units—its mission is anything but. The committee is the front line of a legislative push, led by statehouse Republicans, to dismantle North Carolina’s big countywide school districts by allowing rich, often white suburbs to secede.

Though it has no law allowing school secession, North Carolina is the latest Southern state looking to resegregate what’s left of the region’s integrated public schools. More than 60 years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling made school racial segregation unconstitutional, school secession has been gaining momentum across the South, with richer areas trying to wall their kids and tax dollars off from big districts in Atlanta; Dallas; Little Rock, Ark.; Baton Rouge, La.; Birmingham, Mobile, and Montgomery in Alabama; and Memphis and Chattanooga in Tennessee.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Newkirk, M. “The South’s Push to Resegregate Its Schools.” Bloomberg Businessweek. 4/10/18.

Study Reveals Teachers Don’t Have Enough Time for Peer Collaboration

Photo Credit: Rawpixel, Pexels.

Teachers in high-poverty schools collaborate just as much as teachers in low-poverty schools, researchers at the RAND Corporation recently found. However, teachers in both low- and high-poverty schools reported they didn’t have enough time to devote to collaboration.

The study looked at survey responses from a nationally representative sample of 1,825 teachers to gain insight on how much time teachers have to collaborate and the extent to which teachers receive helpful feedback through collaboration. The study was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Sarisohn, H. “Study Reveals Teachers Don’t Have Enough Time for Peer Collaboration.” Education Week. 4/9/18.

Opportunities

Making Innovation a Priority in NC Schools

Join the UNCW Watson College of Education for the “Making Innovation a Priority in NC Schools: Exploring Innovative Practices” conference on Monday, April 30, 2018.

• Explore innovative programs and practices (personalized learning, 1:1 technology, problem-based learning, STEAM) and other unique initiatives.
• Learn how innovative programs and schools can help engage students in meaningful and challenging learning.
• Help identify the opportunities and obstacles to making innovation a priority in our public schools.

DATE & LOCATION
Monday, April 30, 2018 from 8:30am-3:00pm
UNCW Watson College of Education – Room 162

Keynote
Dr. Buddy Berry, Eminence Independent Schools, KY

Special Guest
Mark Johnson, North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction 

To learn more or register, visit https://uncw.edu/ed/innovation/ or contact Robert Smith at smithrw@uncw.edu or 910.962.4076. 

Burroughs Wellcome Fund Accepting Applications for 

Student STEM Enrichment Program

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund has opened its application for the 2018 Student STEM Enrichment Program (SSEP) grant awards. SSEP supports diverse programs with a common goal: to enable primary and secondary students to participate in creative, hands-on STEM activities for K-12 students and pursue inquiry-based exploration in BWF’s home state of North Carolina. These awards provide up to $60,000 per year for three years. The application deadline is April 18, 2018.

For more information or to access the application, visit https://www.bwfund.org/grant-programs/science-education/student-science-enrichment-program.

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.

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