Friday Report – March 3, 2017

This week marked the end of an era in state public school finance with the official retirement of Department of Public Instruction (DPI) Chief Financial Officer Philip Price. Price has been a fixture in school finance in North Carolina for nearly four decades. As the General Assembly explores Education Finance Reform (House Bill 6) including the notion of letting “the money follow the child,” through weighted student funding formulas, Price’s expertise will certainly be missed.

Even with changes across a number of state agencies in budget and finance leadership, the state continues to have strong financial leadership. Charlie Perusse, the Governor’s State Budget Director, had held that position under a prior administration and was most recently the Chief Operating Officer for the UNC System. At DPI, with Adam Levinson (pictured above with Price) becoming the agency’s new Chief Financial Officer, and Alexis Schauss continuing to serve as the Director of DPI’s Financial Business Services Division, the public school finances are in extraordinarily good hands.

Additional coverage of the Chief Financial Officer transition can be found on WRAL, available here.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Childress, G. “State Board of Education votes to close Durham’s Kestrel Heights High School.” The News & Observer. 3/2/17.

Several African-American Democratic lawmakers announced their support for school choice Tuesday.

Although alternatives to traditional public schools have historically been promoted by Republicans, Rep. Rodney Moore, D-Mecklenburg, Rep. Edward Hanes, D-Forsyth, Sen. Erica Smith-Ingram, D-Bertie, and Sen. Ben Clark, D-Cumberland, spoke of the importance of choice in bringing opportunities to disadvantaged students. Parents should be able to choose whatever environment leads to the success of their child, they said, including traditional public schools, charter public schools, private schools, and home schools.

“Make no mistake,” Moore said in a press conference, “the bedrock of strong communities starts with our schools, and we are here to ensure that every child — let me reiterate, every child — receives the best education possible regardless of his or her zip code or family income.”

Sen. Joel Ford, D-Mecklenburg, Rep. Elmer Floyd, D-Cumberland, Rep. Cecil Brockman, D-Guilford, and Rep. Kelly Alexander, D-Mecklenburg, also stood at the press conference. The coalition was backed by Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina (PEFNC).

Democrats have mostly, in the past, seen public charter schools as distractors of resources and attention from struggling traditional public schools. Smith-Ingram said that mindset needs to change.

“The challenge for us is to get away from the ‘either-or’ and set our hands and tasks to ‘both-and,’” she said. “I support traditional public schools, and I support public charter schools, and I support private schools.”

Opportunity scholarships, also known as vouchers, have been attacked in particular by public school advocates — especially on the Democratic side. In this program, public money helps pay for a child to go to a private school, which critics say are not held to the same standards as public schools.

Clark addressed this concern, saying he often hears people say they don’t want their taxpayer money going to a private institution.

“But what they fail to understand is those public dollars are going to educate children who are a part of our citizenry,” Clark said. “So again, the expenditure of public funds for a public cause is a great thing, and I can think of no greater cause than the education of our children.”

Charter schools have been found to be more segregated when it comes to minority students, particularly black students. But lawmakers Tuesday said they think more options for parents — a free market in education — can only be a positive for students.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

By Charles Jeter, Former NC House Member

Last July, the Thomas Fordham Institute released a study on the effectiveness of vouchers (called Opportunity Scholarships in North Carolina) in educating children in comparison to public schools. This is an organization that says on its website that its Policy Priorities are, “… policies and practices leading to a lively, accessible marketplace of high-quality education options for every young American (including charter schools, magnet schools, voucher programs, and online courses)…” In short, a very pro-voucher organization.

So what did this report say that the Fordham Institute undertook, ostensibly to promote the expansion of vouchers in America? It said that vouchers have failed miserably. That’s right, a pro-voucher group had to put out a report that concluded that vouchers are failing our children. And keep in mind, this isn’t an outlier of empirical studies of vouchers’ effectiveness in educating our children. Two other recent studies (one in Indiana and another in Louisiana) came to the same conclusion.

So what does this mean for North Carolina? In 2013 the North Carolina General Assembly passed the Opportunity Scholarship Act that created the voucher program for our state. (In full disclosure, I was a member of the General Assembly at that time and did vote in favor of the legislation.) Opportunity Scholarships were pitched as a way to ensure better educational outcomes for those children who may not be thriving in public schools. At the time the legislation was passed, there were little data on the effectiveness of these programs and many legislators were encouraged by the anecdotal evidence that was available.

To continue reading the complete press release, click here.

Excerpt from:

Jeter, C. “I voted for school vouchers. Now I know I was wrong.” The Charlotte Observer. 3/2/17.

The North Carolina Association for Public Charter Schools has named Rhonda Dillingham as its new executive director. Dillingham co-founded Uwharrie Charter School in Asheboro and brings a decade of teaching and leadership experience from both public charter schools and district schools, according to the group.

“Mrs. Dillingham is a perfect fit for our consolidated organization’s renewed focus on providing valuable, accessible member services to public charter schools and their teachers. Her experience as a charter school co-founder and a teacher bring great understanding of current, on-the-ground issues and needs of our members,” NCAPCS co-chair Lisa Gordon-Stella said in a statement.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Hinchcliffe, K. “NC charter schools group names new executive director.” WRAL. 2/27/17.

The State Board of Education today hired Adam Levinson as the new Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Public Instruction. Levinson has been a member of the Department’s senior leadership team since 2007, serving as chief of staff, director of Policy and Strategic Planning, director of the Race to the Top program, chief performance officer and interim director of the Office of Charter Schools.

Before his work at the education agency, Levinson served as a fiscal analyst at the NC General Assembly for seven years. Early in his career, Levinson provided early childhood intervention and family support services in Orange, Person, and Chatham counties for four years.

“Adam is an excellent choice given the range and depth of his experience in state government finance, in K-12 education and as a fiscal analyst with the General Assembly,” said State Board Chairman Bill Cobey. “I am confident that public schools and public charter schools will be well-served through his leadership.”

The Chief Financial Officer manages nearly $10 billion in state and federal funds for education and leads an important part of NCDPI that includes financial services, and school business and support for school operations, including transportation, school facility planning and operation, school nutrition services, textbook services and insurance.

Levinson holds a bachelor’s degree in Government and Psychology from Cornell University, a master’s degree in Early Intervention & Family Support from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s degree in Public Affairs & Urban and Regional Planning from Princeton University.

Reprinted from:

NCDPI. “Levinson Named NCDPI Chief Financial Officer.” 3/2/17.

Elizabeth MacWilliams, principal of Carroll Magnet Middle School, center, takes a selfie with 6th grader Nevaeh Boyd, left, and her friend and neighbor Samiya Jacobs, right, after visiting Nevaeh’s home in North Raleigh on Feb. 6, 2017.

Photo Credit: Chris Seward, News & Observer. 

A Wake County school principal who visits the homes of all 1,000 of her students was profiled on Tuesday’s edition of the NBC Nightly News.

Elizabeth MacWilliams, the principal of Carroll Middle School in Raleigh, was featured on the newscast’s “Inspiring America” segment, where viewers “meet the remarkable people who are making a positive impact on our communities and making the world a little bit better.” NBC News visited Carroll earlier this month.

“Sometimes we mistake hardworking parents,” MacWilliams said as she explained to NBC why she visits the homes of students instead of relying on parents to come to the school. “We mistake their absence for a lack of interest, and I found that’s not the case.”

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Hui, T. “Raleigh principal who visits home of every student on NBC News.” The News & Observer. 2/28/17.

A report from the Girl Scout Research Institute finds that girls with lower socioeconomic status participate in extracurricular activities less often than their more affluent peers.

The report by the research arm of the Girl Scouts of the USA entitled “The State of Girls 2017: Emerging Truths and Troubling Trends,” uses data from national and government sources to take a look at girls’ well-being in the United States. The information was collected between 2012 and 2016.

While it covers a lot of ground, including demographic information, a look at the number of girls living in poverty, and the state of girls’ physical and mental health, our focus here is on girls’ participation in extracurricular and after-school activities.

Researchers found that among high school seniors, girls with lower socioeconomic status (SES) were less likely to participate in student government (6 percent versus 10 percent) and sports (17 percent versus 31 percent) than girls with higher SES backgrounds. Girls with lower SES were also less likely to do volunteer work “at least a few times a year” compared to girls who are more affluent (73 percent versus 86 percent).

The report notes that “these differences are found in activity areas that have shown to contribute to girls’ positive development.”

• Improve underrepresented students’ competence in science and mathematics
• Nurture underrepresented students’ enthusiasm for science and mathematics
• Interest students in pursuing careers in research or other science-related areas

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund has opened its application for the 2017 Student Science 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 scientific 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, 2017.

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

The UNC Chapel Hill School of Education (SOE) seeks an experienced professional to serve as the first Program Director of the Master of Arts in Educational Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (MEITE; www.meite.info), at the rank of Clinical Assistant or Associate Professor. The position begins July 1, 2017. The appointment is for a one-year term, with potential to renew for additional terms.

Additional details can be found online at https://unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/115437. Applications are due by March 24, 2017.