Friday Report – November 30, 2018

The Friday Report

November 30, 2018

Forum News

This Week on Education Matters: Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Satana Deberry campaigned to become Durham County’s next District Attorney advocating for reforms in the criminal justice system, including how students are treated. She’s now one of several new District Attorneys and Sheriffs elected in November in North Carolina and across the U.S. who believe overzealous policing and prosecution has exacerbated a school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately affects poor and minority children. Her election, and this debate, comes at the same time there are calls for increased police and security presence at our schools in the wake of recent shootings. Can we do both – protect children and also make sure all students are treated fairly?

Guests:

• Satana Deberry, District Attorney-Elect, Durham County (pictured above)
• Peggy Nicholson, Co-Director, Youth Justice Project (pictured below)

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 1276 or check your local listings and other providers here.

Online at ncforum.local.

Education Matters is also available as a podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Overcast, and Google Play Music.

Public School Forum Programs

Download the Forum’s 2018 Education Primer

Download the Forum’s 2018 Local School Finance Study

Download the Forum’s 2018 Roadmap of Need

2019 Eggs & Issues Breakfast

On Wednesday, January 23, 2019, the Public School Forum will host our 5th Annual Eggs and Issues Breakfast. This event will include the include the release of the Public School Forum’s Top 10 Education Issues for 2019 and a special taping of our weekly TV show “Education Matters” featuring an All-Star panel of students and educators. Breakfast will start at 7:30 AM. The program will begin at 8:00 AM and conclude by 9:30 AM.

Event Details

Date: Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Time: 7:30 AM to 9:30 AM

Location: Marbles Kids Museum

201 East Hargett Street, Raleigh, NC

To purchase tickets for this event, click here. Sponsorship info available here.

State News

Do More Cops in Schools Make Them Safer? New Study Looking at NC Schools Says No.

Wake County Sheriff’s Deputy Sharron Bass, center, talks with seventh-graders, from left, Abbie Smith, Emma Wilkins, Rachel Strawn and Anabel Russo while he oversees dismissal outside of Ligon Middle School in Raleigh in this 2014 file photo. Photo Credit: Corey Lowenstein, The News & Observer.

A new report looking at security in North Carolina schools is challenging the belief that putting more police officers in schools will make them safer.

The study of North Carolina middle schools found no relationship between increased funding for school resource officers and reduction in cases of reported school crimes. Kenneth Alonzo Anderson, the report’s author and an associate professor at Howard University, said legislators across the country should consider the findings before rushing to put more police officers in schools following mass acts of violence such as the school shooting incident in Parkland. Fla.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Hui, K. “Do more cops in schools make them safer? New study looking at NC schools says no.” The News & Observer. 11/23/18.

NC School District May Stop Suspension for Some Infractions Because ‘It Isn’t Working’

Photo Credit: JJ Thompson, Unsplash.

North Carolina’s largest school system may stop suspending students who commit infractions such as not following a teacher’s orders, showing disrespect to a teacher, cursing and cheating.

Wake County school administrators said Tuesday they anticipate presenting to a school board committee in January changes to the Code of Student Conduct that would limit principals to using in-school discipline for some lower-level offenses. Some school board members say the changes are needed to remove bias against minority students who are being overly suspended and to change the focus from punishment to encouraging students to behave positively.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Hui, K. “NC school district may stop suspensions for some infractions, because ‘it isn’t working.’” The News & Observer. 11/28/18.

How Are Tax-Funded Private-School Tuition Vouchers Being Tracked?

Photo Credit: CBS 17.

Roughly 20 percent of North Carolina students are opting out of public schools for private or home schooling. The state’s Opportunity Scholarship Program is helping pay the tuition for many of those students. Tax dollars funded $28 million for private school tuition last year.

That’s led to questions about the program and how tax money is being spent.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Essex, R. “How are tax-funded private-school tuition vouchers being tracked?” WNCN. 11/21/18.

Teacher Pay: Here’s How North Carolina Ranks

Photo Credit: Pixabay, Pexels.

High-profile teacher strikes in a handful of states earlier this year could be a foreshadowing of issues in newly configured state legislatures in 2019. School funding and teacher pay drove at least 177 teachers to run for election in recent midterm elections, and at least 42 of them won, mostly in statehouse races.

Nationally, teachers were paid an average annual salary $60,483 in the 2017- 2018 school year, according to the most recent data available from the National Education Association. In North Carolina, the average salary was $50,861, ranking 37th among U.S. states.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Johnson, K. “Teacher Pay: Here’s How North Carolina Ranks.” The Charlotte Patch. 11/26/18.

Did CMS Assignment Changes Slow Resegregation? Here’s What 2018 Race Tallies Show

Photo Credit: Photo by NeONBRAND, Unsplash.

For most of 2016 and 2017, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools leaders wrestled with student assignment changes while the community watched anxiously.

This year the biggest changes took effect. They were designed to reduce racial and economic segregation while avoiding massive upheaval and keeping neighborhood schools intact.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Doss Helms, A. “Did CMS assignment changes slow resegregation? Here’s what 2018 race tallies show.” The Charlotte Observer. 11/27/18.

An Inside Look: Schooling Migrant Families

Emily, left, and Brenda Merlin, sisters in the migrant education program in Bladen County. Photo Credit: Alex Granados, EducationNC.

Hope Derry and Janett Nunez Meza are not a threatening pair. Derry is an unassuming 30-year-old from Ohio, and Nunez Meza is a 40-year-old originally from Nicaragua.

The two work for the Bladen County migrant education department, recruiting migrant students into the program and working with older youths who are not in school to help them get their General Educational Development credentials or learn English. It’s their job to show up at farmworker camps and talk with workers.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Granados, A. “An inside look: Schooling migrant families.” EducationNC. 11/28/18.

Using Teacher-Leaders to Improve Schools

Photo Credit: Element5 Digital, Unsplash.

Edgecombe County Public Schools in rural North Carolina has long had trouble filling all of its open teaching positions. Historically, there just hasn’t been enough interest among qualified candidates. But that’s changing.

Edgecombe is still a rural district with a high-poverty student body, but a new staffing model has made its schools newly desirable for teachers who want to be school leaders without leaving the classroom. The model stems from an idea laid out in a paper almost a decade ago by Emily Ayscue Hassel and Bryan Hassel, co-presidents of Public Impact, an education advocacy organization. That idea is simple: Students chalk up three times the learning gains in classrooms with the most effective teachers (those in the top quintile), so if it’s not possible to hire only the most effective teachers, why not expand those teachers’ reach?

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Garcia Mathewson, T. “Using teacher-leaders to improve schools.” The Hechinger Report. 11/29/18.

Asheville Chickenpox Outbreak Revives Debate About Religious Exemptions to Vaccines

In this May 12, 2017, photo, registered nurse Samantha Marz checks a student at Rundle elementary school in Las Vegas. Photo Credit: John Locher, AP.

At least three dozen students at an Asheville private school have come down with the chickenpox in what state health officials are calling the worst outbreak of the disease since a vaccine was introduced in 1995.

The outbreak at Asheville Waldorf School has reignited controversy about the North Carolina law that allows parents to exempt their children from receiving mandatory vaccines based on their religious beliefs. Students may also be exempted for medical reasons.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Brosseau, C. “Asheville chickenpox outbreak revives debate about religious exemptions to vaccines.” The News & Observer. 11/28/18.

National News

The Students Suing for a Constitutional Right to Education

Photo Credit: Ted S. Warren, AP.

Nearly all of the world’s 180-plus countries include the term education in their constitution. Most guarantee every child the right to free education, and many make participation in some form of schooling mandatory; some even provide universal access to affordable college. For the remaining handful, the UN’s decades-old treaty on children’s rights, which stipulates various educational protections, serves as a backup, and has been ratified by pretty much every sovereign nation on the planet. Except for one.

That one country is the United States of America, a nation that prizes the idea that anyone should be able to build a better life through education and hard work.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Wong, A. “The Students Suing for a Constitutional Right to Education.” The Atlantic. 11/28/18.

How Election Results Will Shake Up State Education Policy

Jahana Hayes. Photo Credit: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images.

There will be a new cast of characters overseeing state education policy in 2019—and many of them will be looking to shake things up to deliver on the many promises they made on the campaign trail in this year’s midterm elections.

New governors—many of them Democrats—are expected to propose ambitious budgets with new ways of funding their K-12 systems. The fresh crop of governors and state board members is likely to lead to big turnover of state schools superintendents in places where they’re appointed.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Burnette III, D. “How Election Results Will Shake Up State Education Policy. Education Week. 11/26/18.

Opportunities

Job Opportunity: NC CAP Program Coordinator

The NC Center for Afterschool Programs is seeking a full-time Program Coordinator to support the programmatic and policy efforts of the organization, pertaining to S.T.E.M. (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

Primary Job Responsibilities:

• Design and coordinate STEM-learning programs, initiatives and strategies for afterschool/out-of school
• time programs.
• Support coordination of NC CAP programs and events, including the annual Synergy Conference,
• Policy and Practice Convenings and Advisory Board Meetings.
• Contribute to NC CAP communications, including the Afterschool Observer E-Newsletter.
• Support communication with the NC CAP Advisory Board.
• Work with NC CAP Director on website and social media marketing and communication efforts.
• Monitor, document, and provide analysis of state of afterschool in North Carolina.
• Attend state and national convenings.
• Increase NC CAP’s visibility, and represent NC CAP as needed.
• Other duties as assigned by the NC CAP Director.

Established in 2002, NC CAP works with key partners, including afterschool providers, state agencies, state and local policymakers, universities and community colleges, business, and the philanthropic community, to increase access to high-quality afterschool, before school and summer learning opportunities for children and youth, particularly low-income children and those at risk of educational failure. NC CAP is part of a 50-State Afterschool Network focused on improving education and out-of-school time opportunities for children and youth.

To learn more about this position and how to apply, please visit: https://ncafterschool.org/nc-cap-program-coordinator/.

Public School Forum Seeking a Policy Analyst

The Public School Forum of North Carolina is seeking a Policy Analyst. This individual will contribute to policy analysis and research efforts on a number of key educational issues in North Carolina. This position would be an excellent early career opportunity for an individual interested in education policy. Reports to the Senior Director of Policy.

Primary Job Responsibilities:

• Monitor, document, and provide analysis of current education policy issues in North Carolina, with a focus on school finance, teacher pipeline, and education data systems.
• Conduct and interpret quantitative and qualitative research on K-12 education policy topics.
• Attend state legislative convenings and committee meetings.
• Contribute to the Forum’s communications efforts including op-eds and guest columns, newsletter articles and social media efforts addressing current policy issues and initiatives impacting education in North Carolina.

To learn more about this position and how to apply, click here.

NC Teaching Fellows Applications Are Now Open

NC Teaching Fellows applications are now open. All applications must be submitted online by 11:59 PM (EST) on Monday, January 7, 2019.

• Receive up to $4,125 per semester for up to eight semesters.
• Study at a premier educator preparation program in North Carolina.
• Benefit from meaningful program activities to enrich your studies.
• Teach in a Special Education or STEM field in a North Carolina public school.

To learn more visit: https://myapps.northcarolina.edu/ncteachingfellows/.

FAST NC Fundraising Drive to Aid Public Schools

A historic storm has devastated parts of North Carolina. In response, a historic, bipartisan coalition of current and former state education leaders presented their effort to aid schools to the State Board of Education, promoting Florence Aid to Students and Teachers (FAST NC) as a drive to help North Carolina’s public schools as students and educators struggle to return to normal.

Hurricane Florence caused at least 1.2 million, or about 80 percent, of North Carolina’s public school students to miss some school. Many school buildings are damaged, and several school districts are still closed due to displacement, flooding and storm-related disruptions. Now, FAST NC has brought together an illustrious steering committee for the effort to help schools recover.

To learn more about FAST NC and how to donate, click here.

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 ncforum.local.

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