Friday Report – March 31, 2017

• Unanimously passed its first House Committee this week.
• Next goes to House Appropriations.

• On the School Performance Grades law, this bill would change the current 80:20 (achievement:student growth) formula to having two separate grades entirely:  one school grade for achievement and another school grade for growth.
• It would also prescribe the State Board of Education’s state accountability plan for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) by requiring SBE to use:
  • the school achievement score and
  • specific school performance indicators (e.g., promotion rates from 3rd to 4th grade and from 8th to 9th grade, science test scores, high school graduation rates, and English language proficiency assessments).
• Passed the House on Thursday; goes to the Senate.

• HB 389 would set up a 20-school system 3-year pilot program allowing calendar flexibility for opening dates on the Monday closest to August 10 and closing dates on the Friday closest to June 11.
• HB 375 would permit an opening date of August 15 to align the date with the opening date of the community college serving that city or county.

• HB 13 has been sitting in the Senate Rules Committee since February 20.
• Senators appear to be crafting their own Senate solution.
• Music and Arts educators teemed the General Assembly on Wednesday’s ARTS Day with wonderful children performances all day (and strategic meetings with Senators).

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Binker, M. “No quick move to ease class-size mandate, lawmakers say.” The News & Observer. 3/29/17.

It might be the easiest bill Rep. Craig Horn, R-Union, ever has pushed in the state House.

House Bill 339, which calls for reviving the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program, already has more than 70 of the 120 House members backing it.

“Given that there are 70 co-sponsors and four sponsors, all I can do is lose,” Horn told the House Education – Universities Committee on Tuesday while explaining the bill. “I shall not burden you any further and allow that opportunity to occur.”

The Teaching Fellows program was created in 1986 to recruit top students to enter the teaching profession by providing them with tuition help and leadership training in exchange for a promise to teach in North Carolina for at least four years. Lawmakers dismantled the program as part of budget cuts enacted during the recession, and the final participants graduated from college in 2015.

The proposal would provide forgivable loans of up to $8,250 a year for up to four years to pay for tuition, fees and books for students studying to teach special education or STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) classes. The program would include five schools – either University of North Carolina campuses or private colleges – that will be selected based on their track record of training teachers.

High school students, current college students who want to shift to an education major and graduates who want to return to school for a career change to teaching are eligible for the forgivable loans, Horn said, adding that enrollment in teacher training programs statewide has declined by more than 20 percent in recent years.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Burns, M. “Teaching Fellows revival moves forward with broad support.” WRAL. 3/28/17.

The House Education Committee passed House Bill 375 that would let any school district start classes as soon as August 15 to align with the calendar of its local community college. The committee also backed House Bill 389 that would let 20 primarily high-poverty counties start the school year as early as the Monday closest to August 10.

Supporters of school-calendar flexibility said it should be school districts that determine the first day of classes. “Calendar flexibility is an education issue, not a tourism issue,” said Rep. Kevin Corbin, a Macon County Republican.

But some legislators said letting schools start earlier in August could have devastating financial consequences on the tourism industry. “I hope we’ll think long and hard before we put (20) counties, much less 69 counties or 100 counties into a program like this,” said Rep. Frank Iler, a Brunswick County Republican. “

Under state law, schools can start no earlier than the Monday closest to August 26 and end no later than the Friday closest to June 11. Charter schools and year-round schools are exempted from the law.

School districts have been trying to modify or repeal the school calendar law since it passed in 2004. School officials cite issues such as how the late August start means high school students don’t take their final exams until after they return from winter break.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Hui, T. “NC lawmakers consider letting schools start earlier in August.” The News & Observer. 3/28/17.

Future North Carolina state employees would retire without the promise of pensions and state-paid health care under a proposal to end for new workers some of the major perks that come with government employment.

Under Senate Bill 467, filed Wednesday, state workers hired after July 2018 would not be eligible for enrollment in the state health insurance plan when they retire. Health coverage would last only as long as they worked for the state. And most of those new workers would not be eligible for state pensions, but would be offered the option of enrolling in 401(k) plans. Unlike a pension, a 401(k) plan doesn’t guarantee a specific level of retirement benefits.

The changes would not affect current state employees.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Bonner, L. “NC Senate bill would end some retirement benefits for new state workers.” The News & Observer. 3/29/17.

Construction workers laid the foundation for the new Bryan Road Elementary School in April 2016.

Photo Credit: Johnathan Alexander, News & Observer File Photo.

Voters could be asked to borrow $1.9 billion for statewide school construction needs next year under a proposal presented Tuesday by groups representing county commissioners and school boards.

The N.C. School Boards Association and N.C. Association of County Commissioners appeared before a House budget committee Tuesday to ask for help funding nearly $8 billion in expected school construction needs over the next five years.

The groups want to see a school construction bond on the ballot in 2018 – the first such referendum statewide since 1996. “We’re looking for a one-time infusion of cash by a statewide bond,” said Richard Bostic, a lobbyist for the School Boards Association.

Rural counties have been struggling to fund new schools through property-tax revenues, and some now have aging school buildings in poor condition.

If the legislature agrees to the bond proposal, the school board and county commissioners groups suggest that bond money could be allocated to districts using multiple criteria: Total number of students, poverty level of the district and size of the county. So while all counties would benefit, counties struggling to build schools could get a larger share. Counties could also be required to provide local match.

To continue reading the complete article click here.

Excerpt from:
Campbell, C. “Should NC borrow $1.9 billion for school construction? School boards, counties propose bond.” The News & Observer. 3/28/17.

Two years after a funding fight between Pender County’s school board and commissioners landed at the mediation table, state legislators could take away school boards’ right to sue for more money.

House Bill 305, simply titled “School Boards Can’t Sue Counties,” was filed March 9. All but one of the bill’s 13 sponsors are Republicans, representing counties from Forsyth to Onslow.

In North Carolina local appropriations for schools are set by the county, but school boards can sue if they feel they have not been given enough money. Brunswick County Schools did it in 1994, eventually netting $1.35 million in a settlement with the county.

In 1997 state legislators gave school boards the option to go into mediation with counties before suing. The Pender County school board has used that process twice: in 2006 mediation was scheduled, but the boards reached a settlement before the meeting. In 2015 the board again forced mediation over a $2.6 million budget shortfall, but did not end up getting more money. Mediation did, however, cost taxpayers about $118,000 in fees.

HB305 would still let school boards force mediation, but if that fails the county’s decision would be final.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Bellamy, C. “School boards could lose right to sue for more money.” StarNews Online. 3/27/17.

State Board of Education members reviewed the third draft of revisions to the English Language Arts Standards in March in preparation for a vote in April. The revised standards will govern what students are expected to learn and be able to do in English language arts in each grade, K-12.

North Carolina reviews content standards for every subject taught in North Carolina schools on a regular basis. The latest revisions were made after gathering feedback from local school districts, from the Academic Standards Review Commission and from the public. The Data Review Committee and Writing Team were comprised of local English language arts teachers and others. These groups have been providing feedback and working on revisions since June 2016.

Revisions include a new format for the standards to provide more clarity to the standards, including glossary entries for terms. This change is designed to diminish confusion about what a standard means and to help English teachers statewide to have a common vocabulary. Other revisions expanded the description of the complete writing process, put more focus in some grades on grammar and usage conventions, identified new handwriting standards in grade 2 to focus on cursive writing, and focused more on reading persistence and the ability to connect prior knowledge and experiences to informational (non-fiction) text.

Overall, 125 standards had a major change as described above, 45 had a minor change and 179 standards remained the same. Eight standards were removed, and one new standard was added. Sixty-seven standards had the examples removed with no other change.

Reprinted from:

NC DPI. March 2017 From the Board Room. 3/28/17.

A Wake County middle school teacher got kudos Monday on ABC Television’s “Good Morning America” show for using the NCAA men’s basketball tournament to creatively teach her students about math.

Alyssa Jackson. a seventh-grade math teacher at Durant Road Middle School in Raleigh, was the focus of a “Good Morning America” segment called “How math comes in handy during March Madness.” Jackson had her students study experimental probability by filling out tournament brackets and seeing how well the teams performed based on their seed.

Jackson wasn’t mentioned by name on GMA, but her photo was shown on air. Robin Roberts, a GMA co-host, called Jackson “this wonderful teacher in North Carolina, Raleigh, North Carolina” who used the tournament as a math challenge for her students.

Roberts asked her co-hosts if they had teachers like Jackson who applied math in a way that challenged them.

“I always loved teachers who take something in the real world, something you’re interested in, something these kids hear about every day from their friends, from their family, from us and they turn it into something to learn from,” answered GMA co-host Michael Strahan. “They made it fun. It’s kind of like ‘Hamilton’ is to musicals.”

President Donald Trump signed into law Monday the two resolutions that roll back Obama-era regulations that inform state education officials how they are supposed to implement the new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Trump’s signature finalizes the months long spat between Democrats and civil rights groups, which slammed the move as rolling back protections for the most underserved students and pulling the rug out from under state education officials as they finalize their implementation plans, and Republicans who argued the Obama regulations went beyond the intent of the law as Congress originally wrote it.

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.