Friday Report – November 18, 2016

Sean Hamel, Principal Program Evaluator of the General Assembly’s Program Evaluation Division, answers questions during Wednesday’s meeting of the Joint Legislative Program Evaluation Oversight Committee.

Photo Credit: Alex Granados, EducationNC

Legislators met Wednesday to discuss problems with the way in which the state distributes K-12 funding to North Carolina schools.

During a lengthy presentation to the Joint Legislative Program Evaluation Oversight Committee, lawmakers heard details of a report that suggests either extensive reforms to the current system or a complete overhaul that would change the system to one that uses a “weighted student formula.” Basically, under that model, a base amount of money is allocated for each student in the state, with additional funds added to that amount for students with extra needs. School districts would get their funding in this manner, rather than being provided money for specific categories such as teachers, textbooks, etc.

Of the problems found with the current model of K-12 funding distribution, a summary of the report states:

“The Program Evaluation Division found issues with individual allotments or issues that span numerous allotments, ranging from unintended consequences of particular methods and formulaic policies and procedures to a lack of rationale for the factors used to determine how resources are distributed. The Division also identified deficiencies with the allotment system as a whole resulting from overall system complexity and lapses in the control environment.”

The Committee voted to “endorse” the report, created by the Program Evaluation Division of the General Assembly, and directed the staff to prepare draft legislation to create a task force of legislators to study overhauling the allotment system into one that uses a “weighted student formula.”

That draft will come back before the Committee in December for further discussion and perhaps a vote.

For a summary of the report, as well as the final report and other documents related to the meeting, go here.

Reprinted from:

Granados, A. “Method of allocating state funds to school districts could change.” EducationNC. 11/17/16.

“North Carolina has provided this comprehensive collection of public school data for 15 years to assist families seeking information about their local schools,” said State Superintendent June Atkinson. “I encourage parents, educators and the school community to use this data to inform conversations about what is working for their local schools and how they can support their schools to improve teaching and learning.”

This year’s report card includes school indicators provided in previous years’ reports such as school performance grades (A-F) for both traditional and charter schools and statewide end-of-grade and end-of-course test results for the five achievement levels. The latest report cards also include a couple of changes:

• Annual Measurable Objectives (AMOs) are replaced with Participation Targets, as North Carolina is no longer required to report AMO proficiency targets for 2015-16 and 2016-17; and
• Wireless Access Points per classroom has been added to help evaluate digital access for students.

Still to be added to the report cards are information about teacher quality and educator effectiveness as well as college enrollment and course completion.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from: 

NCDPI. “2015-16 NC School Report Cards Released.” 11/14/16.

Nineteen of North Carolina’s lowest performing “priority schools” will share in nearly $40.3 million in federal grant funds during the next five years aimed at improving student achievement through various school turnaround strategies.

The schools represent the fourth and final round of recipients of federal School Improvement Grants (SIG) awarded by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction through a competitive federal application process. The 19 schools, in eight districts, will benefit from SIG funds North Carolina has received for the last three years – allowing for five years of support instead of three years provided for previous cohorts of schools. North Carolina received approximately $13.9 million in 2014, $14.1 million in 2015, and recently awarded $12.2 million for 2016.

The grant competition was open to Title I or Title I-eligible schools that previously had not been awarded the grant and, based on the most recent data available, had been identified as “priority schools,” or the lowest performing 5 percent of schools in the state, determined by state end-of-grade or end-of-course tests.

Since 2010 in North Carolina, 61 schools in three previous rounds of School Improvement Grants – in 2010, 2011 and 2013 – have received a total of nearly $144 million in federal funding to pursue three-year efforts to boost student performance through aggressive turnaround approaches. Some schools received as much as $2 million for each of the three years of participation though others received less than $1 million total depending on need and student population.

The grant program is intended to achieve significant gains for schools struggling with low student performance by adopting one of several turnaround models prescribed by the federal government but chosen by the school. These have included converting to a charter, replacing the principal and at least half the staff, outright closure and a transformation approach that involves replacing the principal and taking a series of steps to increase teacher effectiveness, overhaul instructional strategies and increase parent involvement, among others.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from: 

NCDPI. “Federal Grants Support School Improvement Efforts and Helps 19 Schools Across North Carolina.” 11/15/16.

For as long as she can remember, Alicia Hash (pictured right) always had aspirations of becoming an educator.

Her interest in the profession only grew as a teenager, as she watched the powerful impact that her mother—a school teacher—had on children and parents in their small hometown of Walnut Grove, North Carolina.

“I saw her passion for children,” says Hash, who is now in her sixth year as principal of Cotswold Elementary School, a racially and economically diverse school located in the heart of Charlotte, North Carolina. “Growing up, I was surrounded by teachers.”

After several years of teaching students throughout the state of North Carolina, Hash, who earned her undergraduate degree from North Carolina A&T State University, decided to go the administrative route and earn a graduate degree in educational leadership by participating in the Leaders for Tomorrow Program, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) initiative held in partnership with Winthrop University.

Participants in the program complete a 42-semester-hour degree through a combination of face-to-face and web-based instruction and receive mentorship from CMS leaders.

Now, Hash is the one who is mentoring and inspiring teachers who are charged with the task of educating the school’s 820 students. Her leadership has won her international recognition, as she was awarded the Outstanding Urban Principal of the Year Award at the International Conference on Urban Education recently held in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

An overwhelming majority of educators agree that equity in education should be a national priority—but in the meantime, teachers report dipping into their own pockets to help fill in the gaps.

Scholastic, the education publishing company, surveyed 4,721 public school educators—a pool comprised of 3,694 teachers (including 76 school librarians) and 1,027 principals—over the summer for its nationally representative report. Teachers and principals largely say that their students in both high- and low-poverty schools face barriers to learning that come from outside the school environment. To meet the personal needs of students, and to supplement classroom resources to enhance learning, teachers and principals feel obligated to use their own money.

These findings aren’t necessarily surprising or new—teachers have been tasked with funding their own classrooms for years—but the scope of the survey sheds some light on what educators are prioritizing.

On average in the past year, teachers who were surveyed spent $530 of their own money on classroom items. Teachers in high-poverty schools spent nearly 40 percent more—an average of $672.

As the chart shows, 70 percent of responding teachers said they purchased food and snacks for their children. Sixty-five percent purchased cleaning supplies. And 26 percent of teachers who were surveyed said they bought clothing for their students.

Principals also used their own money—an average of $683 over the past year—to pay for classroom or student supplies, and for principals in high-poverty schools, that figure increased to $1,014. Seventy-nine percent of principals purchased food and snacks for students.

Each year, the North Carolina Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Center awards individuals and organizations whose extraordinary contributions to science, mathematics and technology education in North Carolina help advance education in North Carolina.

Awards are presented in eight different categories. Educator and student award recipients receive $1,000 and are honored during the Celebration of Science, Mathematics and Technology event in the spring.

Visit the North Carolina Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Center website for more information. The deadline to nominate is December 1st.