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Friday Report – June 2, 2017
This week in #nced: NC House Votes 80-31 to Approve Budget, Student Achievement Gap Dominates Debate Over Math
by Forum Admin
The Friday Report
June 2, 2017
Leading News
NC House Votes 80-31 to Approve Budget, With Support from a Few Democrats
Rep. Nelson Dollar of Cary is the senior House budget writer. Photo Credit: News & Observer.
The N.C. House voted 80-31 to approve its budget proposal shortly after midnight Friday morning.
The House had taken an initial 82-34 vote Thursday evening, and a few legislators didn’t stick around for the late vote, which is required to take place on a different day – prompting the midnight session.
The votes set up a negotiating process with the Senate, which already passed its own $22.9 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that begins in July. Starting next week, Republican leaders from both chambers will work out their differences in private, with the goal of passing a compromise budget by the end of June and sending it to Gov. Roy Cooper. The House and Senate have already agreed on how much to spend, which represents a 2.5 percent increase from the current fiscal year.
The budget passed with support from 12 Democrats, even as House Democratic Leader Darren Jackson spoke out against the bill. Supporters included Rep. Yvonne Holley of Raleigh, Rep. Becky Carney of Charlotte and Rep. Ken Goodman of Rockingham. Only one Republican, Rep. Jeff Collins of Rocky Mount, voted against the budget.
Democrats made the case that the budget prioritizes tax cuts over needed spending on education and other programs. They argued that Cooper’s budget proposal was a better approach. “There are ways the House budget is better than the Senate budget, and there are some ways that it’s worse,” Jackson said. “Both miss out on opportunities to invest in jobs, people and education.”
Rep. Michael Speciale, a New Bern Republican, countered that Democrats were making the same “sky is falling” argument they’ve made since the GOP took control in 2011. “We can always do better if we had more money, but we’re not going to tax the citizens of this state out of their income and out of their homes,” Speciale said. “That’s why we’re in charge now and you’re not.”
Under the House plan, state employees would receive a $1,000 salary increase in the fiscal year beginning in July, with another $1,000 raise coming the following year. State retirees would get a 1.6 percent cost-of-living increase that would apply for one year only.
The budget would provide the biggest raises to mid-career teachers, although teachers at all experience levels would get raises under the proposed salary chart. Starting pay would increase from $35,000 to $35,300, and teachers with more than 25 years of experience would get a 0.6 percent raise of $300. The average teacher raise is 3.3 percent.
To continue reading the complete article click here.
Highlights of North Carolina’s State House Budget Bill
Below are highlights of the $22.9 billion budget for North Carolina state government for the 2017-18 fiscal year tentatively approved Thursday by the state House. Unless otherwise noted, monetary figures reflect increases or reductions to base budget expenses or the amount of revenue generated or lost. The two-year budget bill also covers the 2018-19 fiscal year, but those provisions can be altered by the General Assembly when it meets next year.
Public Education
— teach an additional 9,120 students anticipated in the public schools this fall: $31.9 million.
— classroom textbooks and digital materials: $10.4 million.
— increase funding allotment in public schools for children with disabilities: $11.3 million.
— grants to expand vocational/career technical education for grades 6-7: $700,000.
— reduce central office administration staff funds for local school districts by 5.3 percent: -$5 million.
— modernize Department of Public Instruction business systems: $10 million.
— audit business processes of Department of Public Instruction: $1 million.
— fund up to ten positions in the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s office: $922,000.
— cover legal fees by Superintendent of Public Instruction’s office: $300,000.
— add funds to continue pilot program giving extra pay to teachers who take on additional teaching and mentoring responsibilities in schools: $8.2 million.
— reduce funding to North Carolina Education Endowment Fund for startup to reinstate N.C. Teaching Fellows Program: -$4.6 million.
— residential enrichment program for science, math and technology for three northeastern school districts and high school: $300,000.
— evaluate learning gains and losses for students receiving Opportunity Scholarships to attend private or parochial schools: $587,000.
Policy Proposals
— require arts education credit for high school graduation beginning with students entering sixth grade in 2018.
— numerous changes to publicly released school performance grades.
— direct State Board of Education to develop youth suicide awareness and prevention training program in public schools covering students in grades 6-12.
— allow 20 school districts to begin classes on the Monday closest to August 10 during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years.
To continue reading the complete article, click here.
This Weekend on Education Matters: State Board Chair Bill Cobey & Focus on Charter School Policy
This week on Education Matters, State Board of Education Chairman Bill Cobey talks about the proposed cuts to the state education agency and the Board’s ongoing power struggle and legal battle with the General Assembly and State Superintendent. Also on the show, NC Charter School Advisory Board Chairman Alex Quigley and Research Triangle High School Chief School Officer Eric Grunden weigh in on recent charter school policy proposals.
Guests:
Bill Cobey, Chairman, State Board of Education
Alex Quigley, Chair, NC Charter School Advisory Board
Eric Grunden, Chief School Officer & Founding Director, Research Triangle High School
When and Where to Watch Education Matters
Saturdays at 7:30 PM, WRAL-TV (Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville)
Sundays at 6:30 AM and Mondays at 3:00 PM, UNC-TV’s NC Channel (Statewide)
The Public School Forum is seeking nominations for education leaders to be profiled on our weekly TV show, Education Matters.
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.
This includes (but is not limited to) principals, superintendents, teachers, teacher assistants, guidance counselors, parents, students, community volunteers, afterschool providers, and the list goes on!
To nominate an education leader, please fill out the form here.
State News
Shortly after midnight this morning, the House passed its budget bill, SB 257, as reported throughout today’s Friday Report. Overall, the House’s budget plan contains more bells and whistles in K-12 public education spending and policy than the Senate’s, including increases in veteran teacher pay, assistant principal salaries, children with disabilities funding, and “low-performing schools” changes, among other big and smaller ticket items as reflected below in the chart. (Please note: House budget amendments went through midnight last night, so the appropriations listed below may have been slightly altered by these amendments.)
The items above in bold are generally not in controversy between the two Chambers’ budgets, and therefore are likely to be funded at the above levels in the final budget. The differences, however, portend the ensuing debates and the ultimate winners and losers in the state budgeting process. The next step will be the Senate’s inevitable non-concurrence with the House’s budget bill, which then kickstarts the Conferees process. This process requires House and Senate budget leaders to “confer” behind closed doors, horse-trade among the winners and losers, and determine the final appropriations and special provisions that will ultimately be brought back to the House and Senate for a final vote later this summer. For a more detailed line-item comparison of the Governor’s, House and Senate budgets, please check NC DPI’s Financial and Business Services Division website and its “Comparison of the 2017-18 Proposed Budgets.”
Expansion of Vouchers Sparks Debate
House and Senate Republican leaders are planning to expand the state’s school voucher program by nearly one-third next year, but Democrats say the money should be spent on reducing class sizes in public schools instead.
The 2016-17 budget allotted $34.8 million for the vouchers, called Opportunity Scholarships. A proposal in both the House and the Senate budgets would add $10 million more in 2017-18, and another $10 million in 2018-19. The increase follows legislation approved last year to drastically expand funding for the program over the next decade. About 5,800 students received vouchers this year. Some 8,300 will be served next year, and 10,700 vouchers will be available in 2018-19.
“It’s simply supply and demand,” said Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett. “We are responding to parents who say, ‘Hey, my kid’s on the waiting list. I’d really like the opportunity to do this.'”
House Democrats say the expansion is neither necessary nor prudent.
In a budget subcommittee Thursday, Rep. Rosa Gill, D-Wake, tried to amend the provision to put the additional money into public school classrooms, saying it would help schools pay for a mandated reduction in K-3 class sizes.
Rep. Elmore, R-Wilkes, one of the chief education budget-writers, said the fix to the class size mandate passed earlier this year had taken the immediate pressure off of local school districts, so the extra money wouldn’t be needed.
“We have begun the process of investing in the Opportunity Scholarship program,” added fellow budget-writer Rep. Hugh Blackwell, R-Burke. “There are waiting lists in general. We don’t need to cut these funds back. We need to maintain this investment.”
Gill asked committee staff whether all of the current funding had been used this year. The answer was that it had not.
The amendment was defeated on party lines. Speaking to reporters after the vote, Gill insisted the money isn’t needed.
“What I could not understand is why they’re increasing that amount of the monies for scholarships when it’s already been determined that we have not filled all of the slots, and we still have a reserve,” she said. “They could use it for the arts teachers or the special teachers if they needed to, especially in places where they had to cut.”
Elizabeth McDuffie with the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority, the organization that administers the voucher program, says both Blackwell and Gill are correct.
McDuffie explained that the program currently has a waiting list of more than 1,500 students. However, some funds for the 2016-17 school year were not spent because some parents accepted scholarships but did not use them. By the time the program was aware the slots were unused, it was too late to offer them to other students.
“We have changed our procedures to require families to provide the name of the school the student will attend by July 1, and we will work with the schools to identify who is not enrolled in order to offer unused scholarships to other students,” McDuffie wrote in an email to WRAL News. “I fully expect we will fund 8,300 students in 2017-18.”
To continue reading the complete article clickhere.
Student Achievement Gap Dominates Debate Over Math
Math test scores for African-American boys slid dramatically after 2012, after the state changed the way the subject is taught. Concern over the achievement gap between minority and white students nearly helped doom revised math guidelines the State Board of Education considered this week.
The new guidelines for students in kindergarten through eighth grade squeaked to approval in a 6-4 vote Thursday after a lengthy discussion about the achievement gap and whether students and teachers in low-wealth districts are getting enough help with new ways to teach and learn the subject. Teachers will begin using the retooled math guidelines in 2018.
The math standards were designed to emphasize critical thinking over memorization, but some parents and teachers say the changes are confusing and frustrating for them and for children.
“I applaud the idea of critical thinking,” board vice-chairman A.L. Collins said. “It’s not going to help the students most disadvantaged. Something is seriously wrong with the way we’re teaching disadvantaged students.”
Freddie Williamson, Hoke County school superintendent and an adviser to the board, said disadvantaged students don’t want watered-down standards, but schools need to find more ways to teach them. “You can’t teach everyone the same way,” he said.
Scores on state standardized tests dropped for all students after 2012, when the state started using Common Core standards.
To continue reading the complete article, click here.
NC House Moves to Shift Road Funding to New Charter School Bus Grant
A proposal to move money from road maintenance to a new grant program for charter schools divided the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.
A budget amendment from Rep. Jon Hardister (pictured right), a Greensboro Republican, cuts $2.5 million in road maintenance money to provide grants for charter schools that serve low-income students and want to provide student transportation – a service that many charter schools don’t offer. “If a student’s on free and reduced lunch, it can be harder for them to get to school,” Hardister said.
To qualify for a grant, a charter school would have to have at least 50 percent of its students receiving free or reduced-price lunch. Grants would cover up to 65 percent of the cost of running buses or providing other transportation. Hardister said that of North Carolina’s more than 150 charter schools, only 20 to 30 offer transportation.
The pilot program would serve a limited number of schools, so some Democrats raised concerns about the fairness of the proposal. But Democratic Rep. Cecil Brockman of High Point joined Hardister in backing the program.
“This amendment is all about accessibility for low income, poor students,” Brockman said. “One of the biggest critiques folks have about charter schools is they’re not accessible to everyone.”
Some voiced concerns about taking the money from the transportation budget – which has at times in past years become depleted because it was a popular source of funding for unrelated projects.
To continue reading the complete article click here.
If Only CMS Could Clone America’s Best Magnet School
The courtyard at Idlewild Elementary swarmed with volunteers, students and faculty on a recent sunny day, all working to build an elaborate garden that will serve as an outdoor classroom for years to come. The project, a partnership with Real School Gardens, is the latest and most visible sign of the creative energy that led Magnet Schools of America to name Idlewild the nation’s best magnet school for 2017.
The irony is that Idlewild isn’t even what most people would call a magnet school. It’s a high-poverty neighborhood school of 1,100 students, about 250 of them enrolled in a magnet program for gifted kids. It’s also a school where students hail from 40 nations. Gifted students share the halls with severely disabled ones. Children can learn German, robotics and chess or sign up for basketball, cheerleading and Odyssey of the Mind teams – the kind of extras many middle schools are lucky to have.
The national group honored Idlewild for diversity, academic excellence and challenging lessons for all students, regardless of whether they’re gifted, average or struggling.
Too often such opportunities are lacking, especially in settings where most students come from impoverished neighborhoods, a recent investigation by The Charlotte Observer and The (Raleigh) News & Observer found.
“There are extremely poor students who are extremely gifted. What you find is they just don’t have access,” said Kim Morrison, superintendent of Mount Airy City Schools and chair of the Magnet Schools of America awards committee. The group named Idlewild the best of approximately 4,000 magnet programs across the country.
Idlewild is a model for how Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools hopes to make high-poverty schools more diverse and successful in the years ahead. Last week the school board approved a student assignment plan that relies heavily on schools that combine neighborhood and magnet students, known in CMS as partial magnets.
That approval came after intense debate, with supporters citing Idlewild’s national recognition and critics saying its success is not easy to clone.
To continue reading the complete article click here.
Site Chosen for Western NC School of Science and Math
A site was chosen last Friday for the future western campus of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics. The Board of Trustees approved a recommendation that the new campus be on the eastern ridge of the N.C. School for the Deaf in Morganton, a property currently managed by the state Department of Public Instruction.
The site was one of three options on an 800-acre tract near Interstate 40 in Morganton, 170 miles west of the school’s Durham campus. School officials said the location was chosen based on factors such as safety, green space and proximity to downtown and other educational partners.
To continue reading the complete article click here.
Gov. Cooper Names Senior Education Advisor, Business Committee Head
Governor Roy Cooper has named Geoff Coltrane as his Senior Education Advisor. Coltrane currently serves as Director of Institutional Research and Strategic Initiatives at the NC School of Science and Mathematics in Durham. Cooper also named Caroline Sullivan as Executive Director of NC Business Committee for Education. Sullivan is a former Wake County Commissioner.
National News
U.S. Education Dept. Has No Plans for a ‘Federal Voucher Program.’ Let’s Break That Down.
Since President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal 2018 was released last week, a lot of attention has been paid to a $250 million plan in the U.S. Department of Education’s budget that would pay for, and study the impacts of, private school vouchers. But if you listen to the department’s description of that plan, how you talk about the program matters a great deal.
In an email, department spokeswoman Liz Hill told Education Week last week that, “To be clear, there is no federal voucher program. The [private school voucher] grant program would support states who apply for funding to develop school choice programs, and those States’ plans must adhere to Federal law.”
Here’s where the budget proposal isn’t strictly a direct voucher plan: The proposal in the budget blueprint would not send money directly from Washington to use for tuition vouchers at private school. That makes it different than state voucher programs. Instead, it would be run through a competitive grant program, as Education Week writer Sarah Sparks described here.
Still, on another level, Hill’s distinction might be confusing. Federal money under Title I, for example, flows by a set of formulas (approved by Congress) to local districts, who then spend that money on their schools, within certain federal requirements. Yet you might be hard-pressed to find an education funding expert who says Title I isn’t a federal program just because the federal money doesn’t go directly from Washington to students.
The grants would also be subject to federal oversight, since the Education Department would have the responsibility of monitoring the use of the federal grant money.
To continue reading the complete article click here.
Free Play or Flashcards? New Study Nods to More Rigorous Preschools
Ashley Rzonca, a preschool teacher at Woodside Community School in Queens, with students in May 2017.
Photo Credit: Edu Bayer, New York Times.
A group of students at Woodside Community School in Queens peered up at their teacher one morning this month, as she used an overhead projector to display a shape. It looked like a basic geometry lesson one might find in any grade school, except for the audience: They were preschoolers, seated cross-legged on a comfy rug.
“What attributes would tell me this is a square?” asked the teacher, Ashley Rzonca. A boy named Mohammed raised his hand, having remembered these concepts from a previous lesson. “A square has four angles and four equal sides,” he said.
As school reformers nationwide push to expand publicly funded prekindergarten and enact more stringent standards, more students are being exposed at ever younger ages to formal math and phonics lessons like this one. That has worried some education experts and frightened those parents who believe that children of that age should be playing with blocks, not sitting still as a teacher explains a shape’s geometric characteristics.
But now a new national study suggests that preschools that do not mix enough fiber into their curriculum may be doing their young charges a disservice. The study found that by the end of kindergarten, children who had attended one year of “academic-oriented preschool” outperformed peers who had attended less academic-focused preschools by, on average, the equivalent of two and a half months of learning in literacy and math.
“Simply dressing up like a firefighter or building an exquisite Lego edifice may not be enough,” said Bruce Fuller, the lead author of the study, conducted by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. “If you can combine creative play with rich language, formal conversations and math concepts, that’s more likely to yield the cognitive gains we observed.” The study comes amid rapid expansions of taxpayer-funded preschool in cities like Washington, San Antonio and New York, where Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last month that he would eventually expand the program, now open to all 4-year-olds, to 3-year-olds as well.
The new wave of preschools provide playtime, but their major goal is academic “kindergarten readiness,” and the study could provide ammunition for policy makers who want to keep on that course. It could also help officials like Mr. de Blasio make the case for even more public spending on prekindergarten programs.
To continue reading the complete article click here.
When Schools Meet Trauma With Understanding, Not Discipline
Young children play outside in the fog at Crocker College Prep, an elementary school in New Orleans.
Photo Credit: Clarence Williams, WWNO.
If you know anything about New Orleans public schools, you probably know this: Hurricane Katrina wiped them out and almost all the schools became privately run charters. Many of those schools subscribed to the no excuses discipline model — the idea that if you crack down on slight misbehavior, you can prevent bigger issues from erupting.
That was also true of Crocker College Prep, an elementary school in New Orleans. It had strict rules about everything. Students had to sit up straight at their desks, eyes tracking the speaker. They had to walk the halls in silence and even wear the right kind of socks. Students who broke these rules, or acted out in other ways, were punished.
The thing is, students across New Orleans face high rates of exposure to trauma, but school discipline policies have rarely accounted for that. Crocker College Prep is now one of five New Orleans charter schools in a collective to become more trauma-informed. That means Crocker aims to account for the social, emotional and behavioral needs of all students, and their lives outside of school.
The Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies found that kids in New Orleans screen positive for post-traumatic stress disorder at more than three times the national rate. The institute also found that up to half of all kids have dealt with homicide in some way, with 20 percent actually witnessing murder. And then there’s the city’s high poverty rate — about 40 percent of kids living below the poverty line. The state’s high incarceration rate means many children have a parent behind bars.
“Generally there just was really not an understanding of how trauma impacts a child,” says Paulette Carter, president and CEO of the Children’s Bureau of New Orleans, a mental health agency for kids and families. “Teachers and school staff really look at children through the lens of, ‘What’s wrong with that child?’ Versus, ‘What happened to that child?’ “
Carter says schools, because they have so many children dealing with many different issues, often don’t think about the reasons behind behaviors. Mental health workers, like her, though, have learned a lot recently about how trauma changes the brain. “A kid who’s been exposed to trauma … that fight or flight response is much more developed and stronger,” Carter says.
To continue reading the complete article, click here.
Applications Open for 2017-18 NC Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP)
The Public School Forum is now accepting applications for the 2017-18 cohort of the North Carolina Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP).
The Public School Forum has led the North Carolina Education Policy Fellowship Program since 1992, and it has continued to be the only statewide program of its kind that focuses on leadership and professional development in the context of education policy. Each new class continues the trend of high caliber participants and is rich in its members’ range of experiences, both professionally and personally. Fellows come from public schools, higher education, community colleges, state agencies, and a diverse array of education organizations across North Carolina. Each class includes a cohort of Fellows who focus on education policy issues and the wide range of factors that influence education in North Carolina. The program is designed for Fellows to learn about issues and perspectives in education that they don’t always encounter in their daily work so that they can be more informed, rounded contributors to the critical education debates that shape the quality and focus of schools. Fellows increase their awareness of how public policy is made, learn whom the key players are in the formation of this policy, and become more confident and involved in the policy-making process. Leadership development is a key focus of the Education Policy Fellowship Program.
NC Science and Engineering Fair Teacher Workshop Opportunities
Want to learn how to inspire your students to conduct independent research? Interested in learning how to assist students in topic selection, time management, and presentation of science and engineering research projects? Planning your school’s science and engineering research competition? New to the process or looking for a more organized approach?
Plan to attend a NC Science & Engineering Fair Workshop
for the 2017-2018 Academic Year!
Workshops will be offered at the locations below. All workshops run from 9:00am to 3:30pm and include coffee, snacks and lunch.
July 19 – NC Center for Engineering Technology, Hickory
July 27 – Biogen, Research Triangle Park
July 28 – Triad Math and Science Academy, Greensboro
There is a $15 registration fee but all attendees will receive a $65 stipend for participation and 0.5 CEU for completion of the workshop.
ONLY Teachers & Administrators in grades 3 – 12 are eligible to participate. Participants will be asked to implement a science and engineering fair for your class, grade-level or school during the 2017-2018 academic year andcomplete a survey spring 2018.
The following topics will be discussed during the workshop
Learn how to foster and guide scientific and engineering research in the classroom.
Learn how to initiate, manage, and evaluate student science and engineering research projects.
You will be guided through the steps in planning a school or district science & engineering fair.
Workshops are sponsored by the Biogen Foundation.
Eastern NC Educators Invited to Attend Free Teacher Leadership Symposium
The Kenan Fellows Program for Teacher Leadership is pleased to announce its inaugural North Carolina Teacher Leadership Symposium on Tuesday, Aug. 1 in Greenville. As Lead Champion, the Biogen Foundation has made it possible for the Kenan Fellows Program to provide this Symposium at no cost to attendees. The event includes a plated lunch, a networking reception, concurrent professional development sessions, and keynote speakers.
This one-day immersive event will feature concurrent sessions on project-based learning, technology integration, interdisciplinary instruction, building leadership capacity, inquiry-based instruction, developing successful grant proposals, and more!
Educators in the Kenan Fellows Alumni Network will lead the one-day Symposium. These talented Fellows have developed expertise across a wide variety of innovative and effective educational practices that are particularly pertinent to teachers who seek to grow professionally and have a powerful impact in and beyond the classroom.
Registration is open to K-12 educators from 27 Eastern North Carolina school districts:
Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Carteret, Chowan, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Edgecombe, Gates, Greene, Halifax, Hertford, Hyde, Jones, Lenoir, Martin, Nash, Northampton, Onslow, Pamlico, Perquimans, Pasquotank, Pitt, Tyrrell, Washington, and Wilson.
WHEN
Tuesday, August 1, 2017 from 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
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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