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Friday Report – April 13, 2018
This week in #nced: NC Lawmakers Say Don't Rush to Break Up Large School Districts; NC Has Spent More Than $150 Million to Boost Reading. Are These Scores Worth It?
by Forum Admin
The Friday Report
April 13, 2018
This Week on Education Matters: Overhauling Public School Funding
A legislative task force created by the General Assembly in 2017 is considering overhauling the way North Carolina funds public schools. This week we talk with the co-chairs of that task force, Senator Michael Lee from New Hanover County and Representative Craig Horn from Union County. We’ll discuss what they’ve learned so far and what’s next.
Guests:
Sen. Michael Lee (R-New Hanover) (pictured above, left)
Rep. Craig Horn (R-Union) (pictured above, right)
When and Where to Watch Education Matters
Saturday at 7:30 PM,
WRAL-TV (Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville)
Sunday at 8:00 AM,
FOX 50
(Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville)
Sunday at 6:30 AM and Wednesday at 9:30 AM, UNC-TV’s North Carolina Channel (Statewide)
The North Carolina Channel can be found on Time Warner Cable/Spectrum Channel 1277 or check your local listing and other providers here.
In our classrooms, the impact of trauma can range from distractibility to difficulty relating to others and managing emotions. Teachers may perceive that a student just has behavior problems or is not interested in learning when the reality is that student is simply too overwhelmed to learn. Trauma can lead to behaviors which result in lost instructional time, reduce graduation rates and set our students on the road toward joblessness and poverty.
There is innovative work going on in North Carolina called the Compassionate Schools Initiative which is being led by Buncombe and Watauga Counties as well as the Public School Forum’s Resilience and Learning Project. This movement is changing our approach to students who have experienced childhood adversity by training staff on the impact of trauma, equipping them with new strategies for helping students build resilience, and emphasizing self-care for staff and students alike.
To continue reading the complete article, click here.
Ann Goodnight has been named as the recipient of the 2018 Public School Forum of North Carolina Jay Robinson Education Leadership Award. The Forum established the award in 2000 to recognize leaders who have demonstrated innovative, creative, effective leadership for public education in North Carolina. Mrs. Goodnight will be honored at a gala event on Monday, May 21, at the Raleigh Convention Center.
Do you know a leader in your community supporting our schools and making a difference in the lives of children both in and out of school? The Public School Forum is seeking nominations for individuals to be highlighted on our weekly statewide TV show, Education Matters. Click herefor an example of a recent spotlight.
Nominees could be principals, superintendents, teachers, teacher assistants, guidance counselors, parents, students, business leaders, community volunteers, afterschool providers, and the list goes on!
To nominate someone, please fill out the form here.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
National Math and Reading Scores Remain Constant, But Disparities Emerge
Photo Credit: Pixabay, Pexels.
The gap between high- and low-achieving students widened on a national math and science exam, a disparity that educators say is another sign that schools need to do more to lift the performance of their most challenged students.
Averages for fourth- and eighth-graders on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also called the Nation’s Report Card, were mostly unchanged between 2015 and 2017. The exception was eighth-grade reading scores, which rose slightly.
But scores for the bottom 25 percent of students dropped slightly in all but eighth-grade reading. Scores for the top quartile rose slightly in eighth-grade reading and math.
To continue reading the complete article, click here.
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.
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.
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
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.
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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