Friday Report – October 13, 2017

The Friday Report

October 13, 2017

For-Profit Charter Schools Are Growing in NC; Here Are 4 Things to Know About Them

A start-up culture dominated the founding of charters in 1997, when community leaders, teachers and local nonprofits opened schools to project their vision of public education. Even the Wake County jail had a charter.

Charters still sprout from local initiatives, but what supporters call the “charter school movement” has been helped along by networks of schools – including for-profit chains.

“It started as primarily a local effort where interested educators, parents, and community organizations saw a need, were interested in education and wanted to do something different,” said Keith Poston, president and executive director of the Public School Forum of North Carolina, a nonpartisan advocate for better schools and more public funding for education.

Last year, though, 27 schools run by for-profit companies received $118 million in state money. That’s about 23 percent of the state money that went to 167 charters.

“We are seeing fewer and fewer home-grown community charter schools and more and more for-profit chains and models,” Poston said.

The for-profit charter management company National Heritage Academies has opened 11 schools in North Carolina and has two more coming, giving it a presence in the state second only to Michigan, the company’s home base. Eight of the 13 National Heritage schools opened or were approved in 2012 or later, after a 100-school limit on charters dissolved.

Charter Schools USA, a for-profit, Florida-based company, opened its first two North Carolina schools in 2013. It now has six, and is set to open three more next year.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:
Bonner, L., Stancill, J. and Raynor, D. “For-profit charter schools are growing in NC. Here are 4 things to know about them.” The News & Observer. 10/12/17.

Durham Parents, Board Members Continue to Fight Against Charter Takeover 

Photo Credit: WRAL.

A group of teachers, parents and school board members rallied Tuesday night in opposition of the state’s possible takeover of Glenn Elementary.

David and Tamara Vanie said they aren’t sold on the idea that charter school operators would be best for Glenn Elementary, where two of their children attend.

“How have you done charter schools? How have you done over 21 years? I see you’re collecting data, but we’re doing our homework too.” David Vanie said.

“It’s not based in actual communal conversation. It’s not based in any engagement with the community.”

Glenn is one of two Durham schools originally chosen for consideration for the state’s Innovative School District, a plan to take failing schools and improve performance.

The other was Lakewood Elementary, which was recently taken off the short list. The group considers the decision a victory for Lakewood, and they now want the same for Glenn.

“If you take it, be prepared for a fight from Durham like you’ve never experienced in anything that you’ve ever done,” said Mike Lee, Durham board of education chair.

Parents, students, educators, board members and state leaders gathered at the rally.

Why NC Charter Schools Are Richer and Whiter

East Wake Academy students find their rides in the traffic line around the high school building at the public charter school in Zebulon, N.C. Photo Credit, Aaron Moody, The News & Observer.

Charter schools in North Carolina are more segregated than traditional public schools and have more affluent students. Most charters have either a largely white population or a largely minority population, according to a News & Observer analysis. On the whole, charter schools are more white and less Latino than schools run by local districts.

In North Carolina school districts, slightly more than half the students come from low-income families. But in charter schools, one in three students are low-income.

Charters weren’t supposed to look like this. The 1996 state law that allowed charters required that, within one year of the schools opening, their populations would reflect the racial and ethnic composition of the school district.

The law defined one of the purposes of charters: increasing opportunities to learn for all students, with a special emphasis on students who are at risk of academic failure or those who are academically gifted.

The original charter law was the product of a bipartisan compromise brokered by a House Republican and a Senate Democrat. The requirements for racial and ethnic diversity were the authors’ response to worries of charter opponents that the schools would cherry-pick the best students, said former Rep. Steve Wood, the Republican who negotiated the law.

“Opponents were concerned there would be creaming across the top,” Wood said. The diversity requirement is “a laudable goal,” he said. “Some of us said it may not be a completely achievable goal.” The original law also capped charters at 100 schools.

The charter school law has been rewritten many times in the last two decades, including a major and extensively-debated change that removed the 100-school cap. Diversity is still mentioned, but it’s no longer a requirement. A 2013 law dropped the mandate and diluted the language so charters must “make efforts” to reflect the local school districts’ racial and ethnic composition.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Bonner, L., Stancill, J. and Raynor, D. “Why NC charter schools are richer and whiter.” The News & Observer. 10/10/17.

Lawmakers Push Pause on House Bill 514

Photo Credit: WBTV.

North Carolina State lawmakers say House Bill 514 was too controversial to discuss right now. Lawmakers could discuss it and make a decision when legislators reconvene in January.

If approved, House Bill 514 would create a Charter School District for Matthews/Mint Hill neighborhoods. Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District (CMS) sent a legislative alert to lawmakers informing them this could mean double taxation for residents. They would not only have to pay Mecklenburg County taxes, but possibly higher taxes in Matthews if more money is needed to fund education.

“I think they raise taxes anyway. At least I will know where it’s going, and it benefits my family,” taxpayer Ian Ray said.

CMS says more money will be needed to provide buildings, transportation, and food. The district estimates it could cost about $200 million to provide new schools for the 6,000 students attending a CMS school in Matthews/Mint Hill.

CMS believes if House Bill 514 passes, those 6,000 students would no longer be part of CMS.

“If you are setting up your own charter system, the expectation is from CMS is that you are going to serve all of your students. All Matthews kids would be coming out,” CMS School Board Chairperson Mary McCray said.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Russell, D. “Lawmakers push pause on House Bill 514.'” WBTV. 10/5/17.

More Bonuses for Teachers?

The State Board of Education is mulling a new plan to award monetary bonuses to certain teachers in elementary and middle schools.

The plan would award fourth- and fifth-grade reading teachers and fourth-to-eighth-grade math teachers bonuses of up to $5,000 per teacher based on their students’ performance on end-of-grade exams.

Funds would be allotted to pay teachers who are in the top 25 percent of teachers in the state, and the top 25 percent of teachers in their local school district, according to the improvements students show on the exams for reading or math over the previous year. Charter school teachers would only be eligible for the statewide bonus.

The bonuses would be allocated at $2,150 per qualifying teacher, up to $5,000 per teacher. The bonuses would be awarded in January.

“I think that it’s a great idea to offer more money to teachers,” said Allison Miller, a fifth-grade teacher at Lowell Elementary School. “It’s an underpaid job, in my opinion. So a bonus, I think it’s a good thing. It’s a step in the right direction.”

As Miller’s students created wind speed gauges called anemometers with paper cups and other materials, she discussed the salary challenges that she and other teachers have faced during her 15-year career as a public school teacher. She said incentives such as the proposed bonuses can help many North Carolina teachers who straddle the poverty line and help to attract more teachers to the profession.

New teachers in North Carolina who possess only a bachelor’s degree currently make a base salary of $35,000, with incremental pay raises with successive years of service up to a maximum of $51,300. Local school districts also provide a supplement to teachers. In Gaston, that salary supplement averages about $2,650 per teacher.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Wildstein, E. “More bonuses for teachers? The Gaston Gazette. 10/9/17.

Many Rural NC Counties Don’t Have Enough Teachers. Can Bonuses Help Change That?

N.C. State junior Celeste Castillo, seen here studying on Oct. 4, 2017, inside the university’s Poe Hall, is a member of the first class of future educators to be considered for TIP Teaching Scholars Award Program.

Photo Credit: Autumn Linford, The News & Observer.

A new program is offering education majors at N.C. State University a big bonus if they commit after graduation to working in some rural school districts that struggle to attract enough teachers.

The TIP Teaching Scholars Award Program will give teachers a total of $10,000 over two years, along with extra coaching from the school and the university. Ten students who graduate from N.C. State in 2019 will be placed in one of five counties – Cabarrus, Johnston, Lenoir, Onslow and Wayne.

The effort is a partnership among the school districts, the N.C. State College of Education and The Innovation Project, a nonprofit led by the superintendents of 24 N.C. school districts. Eventually, the goal is to expand the program to other rural counties.

“We hope that having the financial award will be enough to pique their interest, and then we hope that they will see that these really are great places,” Ann McColl, CEO of The Innovation Project, said of teachers. “We think we can help build a community around them that can support them. Then they can see themselves as a part of something bigger.”

Program leaders hope the initiative will help ease a teacher shortage in rural North Carolina school districts. The Johnston County system in the Triangle is short 18 teachers this year, and 32 percent of new hires last year were from out of state. Cabarrus County near Charlotte needs 13 more teachers, and Onslow County in the eastern part of the state needs 28.

​To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Linford, A. “Many rural NC counties don’t have enough teachers. Can pay bonuses help change that?” The News & Observer. 10/9/17.

Governor Cooper Weighs in on Education Issues

The General Assembly weighed in on education during the special session last week. On Friday, Governor Roy Cooper gave his perspective.

​

Friday morning, he released a statement criticizing the legislature for not taking action on a few education-related items. One, a fix to the K-3 class size restrictions some districts say are going to leave them strapped for resources next year, was a particular focus of his ire.

“Legislators failed to take action on the kindergarten through 3rd grade class size

requirement or fund new teaching positions necessary to prevent schools from eliminating classes and forcing students to move to different schools,” he said in a statement.

“While the General Assembly capped class sizes for kindergarten through 3rd grade at 18 students, legislators failed to provide funding for the additional 4,700 teaching positions necessitated by the smaller class sizes. As a result, students are being forced to switch schools, specialized teachers are being moved into new roles, and programs like physical education, foreign languages, and the arts are being canceled. Parents and students across the state have called for action, but legislative leaders announced they would not take up the issue.”

He also pointed out the General Assembly’s delay in confirming his nominees to the State Board of Education and the Teachers and State Employees Retirement Board of Trustees.

​To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:
Granados, A. “Governor Cooper weighs in on education issues.” EducationNC. 10/8/17.

Revised Applications for Funding from the Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund Now Available

Newly enacted legislation makes changes to program.

Revised applications for funding through the new Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund are now available, and the application deadline has been extended to 5 p.m. on Oct. 16. Language in Senate Bill 582, passed by the General Assembly last week and signed into law Sunday, clarified that the grant funds may be used only for school buildings.

The revised applications are available at www.schoolclearinghouse.org. Awards will be announced by Nov. 1, as originally planned.

The fund — more than $100 million over the next two years — was provided by the General Assembly to assist lower-wealth counties with their critical public school building capital needs. For this year and next year, funding will be available only to Tier 1 counties. In later years, Tier 2 counties also will be eligible.

To continue reading the complete press release, click here.

​
Reprinted from:
“Revised Applications for Funding From the Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund Now Available.” The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. 10/10/17.

NC Highlight

WakeEd Partnership Honored with US2020 STEM Mentoring Award

On Tuesday, US2020 announced that WakeEd Partnership (WakeEd), a business-backed nonprofit organization committed to improving public education in the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS), has been awarded the US2020 STEM Mentoring Award for Excellence in Public-Private Partnerships. The STEM Mentoring Awards are a national platform to celebrate and encourage exceptional work in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) mentoring. US2020 will recognize the award winners today in Washington D.C., at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.

WakeEd is being recognized for two programs that they facilitate in partnership with the Wake County Public School System. SummerSTEM and World Café engage STEM businesses and organizations in supporting educators by helping them bring real-world lessons to the classroom.

To continue reading the complete press release, click here.

Excerpt from:

 “WakeEd Partnership honored with US2020 STEM mentoring award.” WakeEd Partnership. 10/11/17.

National News

When Students Are Traumatized, Teachers Are Too

The Next Generation of Science Education Means More Doing

Students from City As School high school in New York City think like engineers as they construct a water filtration system. Photo Credit: Tara García Mathewson, The Hechinger Report.

Five groups of high school students worked around tables in Vielca Anglin’s science classroom on a recent afternoon at City-As-School in New York City. They had half-liter water bottles in front of them and a range of materials including pebbles, soil, rice, marbles, scouring pads and gauze. Their task: create a gravity-driven water filtration system that gets dirty water as clean as possible. It was up to them to decide what materials to use and in what order.

The lesson came five days after Hurricane Maria had pummeled Puerto Rico, when residents had started to realize the lack of access to clean water could cause a public health crisis on the island. Anglin was asking students to think and act like scientists and engineers.

“That’s what this class is about,” Anglin said. “Getting students to understand that they’re designers, that they’re engineers, and they can be a part of these real-world issues and real-world problems that are coming up.”

Around the tables, the students began debating what materials should go into the filtration systems and the best order for the materials. Adjua Ayoluwa advocated putting larger stones at the top of the system, layering materials by size from there.

“Usually when I see filtration systems, the bigger things are at the top so the large sediments can be filtered out first and then the smaller sediments are filtered out at the end,” Adjua said.

Another group did the opposite, and a third mixed up the layers, putting rocks on top, then layers of rice, gauze, more rocks and more gauze. They each had their theories about why their designs might work, and at the end of class they poured water through their systems to see whose came out the clearest. (Adjua’s theory seemed to hold up.) The next day, after water had had plenty of time to drain through the systems, the students would test the pH levels for a final determination.

This type of project reflects the best intentions of the Next Generation Science Standards, which encourage teachers to enable students to learn science by doing. Drafted by representatives of K-12 education, higher education, industry and state governments between 2011 and 2013, the standards call for schools to help students build on science knowledge from one year to the next and make connections across disciplines that have historically been approached as completely separate.

Can Apprenticeships Pave the Way to a Better Economic Future?

Byoncé Reyna, a student at the Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Design, jokes with Katie Vicuna during her internship at Pinnacol Assurance. Vicuna, an agency relations coordinator at Pinnacol, is Byoncé’s mentor.

Photo Credit: Nathan W. Armes, Education Week.

Colorado leaders are painfully aware that they need to find skilled workers to fill thousands of jobs. And they’re betting big on their new secret weapon: an apprenticeship program for high school students.

This fall, 116 teenagers from four districts have fanned out to 40 companies in Colorado in the inaugural year of the state’s apprenticeship program. Three days a week, the junior and senior students are at school, and two days a week, they’re earning minimum wage or more while they learn the ins and outs of finance, information technology, business operations, or advanced manufacturing.

Colorado has a grand vision for the outcome of this project: By 2026, 20,000 apprentices from all across the state will have finished high school with transferable college credit, at least one postsecondary credential, three years of work experience, and in most cases, an associate degree.

The program fits into an expanding national conversation about how schools can do a better job with the career side of the well-known mantra “college- and career-readiness.” A changing economy demands a workforce with sophisticated technical skills, and at least some training or education after high school.

Even with low national unemployment, many jobs are going unfilled as companies search for the talent with the skills they need. Searching for answers, policymakers are encouraging schools to use internships, work-based learning, and apprenticeships to expose young people to career ideas and build work experience. President Donald Trump is likewise urging high schools to offer apprenticeships.

In Colorado, the aim is to arm students with general work skills like good communication and time management, which can pay off in a wide variety of jobs, and industry-specific skills like software development or accounting. Each apprenticeship is based on a curriculum developed jointly by business, colleges, and K-12 schools. The goal is to better position students to save time and money in college and compete for jobs and to supply a bigger pool of skilled workers for Colorado companies.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from: 

Gerwertz, C. “Can Apprenticeships Pave the Way to a Better Economic Future?” Education Week. 9/26/17.

Opportunities

Burroughs Wellcome Fund Application Open for Promoting Innovation in Science and Mathematics (PRISM) Award

The Promoting Innovation in Science and Mathematics or PRISM Award provides NC public school teachers the opportunity to receive up to $3000 in funding towards the purchase of STEM-related materials and up to $1500 for any necessary training for those materials.

The award was created in 2012 by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund to support teachers in their efforts to provide quality hands-on, inquiry-based activities for their students.

“The PRISM Award enables teachers to provide new and inventive ways of teaching STEM in their classrooms,” said Dr. John Burris, president of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. “For a relatively modest investment students all over North Carolina can benefit from the wealth of material that may not otherwise be available to them.”

The Fund has provided 238 awards to 77 of North Carolina’s 115 school districts for a total of $750,000. One teacher, Matthew Kinnaird in Buncombe County, used the PRISM Award to build a radio telescope with his class to gather information for NASA.

Teachers may apply at https://www.bwfund.org/grant-programs/science-education/promoting-innovation-science-and-mathematics. The deadline to apply is December 5, 2017.

Call for Papers: Teacher Leadership Journal

The Journal of Interdisciplinary Teacher Leadership, an online scholarly publication of the Kenan Fellows Program for Teacher Leadership, announces a call for papers for its next issue to be published in early 2018.

The program is most interested in manuscripts that address educational leadership, specifically how teachers can grow their influence without leaving the classroom, the interdisciplinary nature of STEM, project- and inquiry-based learning, agricultural education, science literacy, and education policy and advocacy.

They welcome articles on research, case studies, analysis and literary reviews. They will also accept evidence-based essays and editorials that are not simply personal accounts or strictly opinions. Full manuscripts must be submitted through kenanfellows.org/journals by December 1, 2017.

Submissions will undergo a blind peer review. Please direct questions to Amneris Solano, managing editor, at asolano@ncsu.edu.

RACE: Are We So Different?

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Science’s RACE: Are We So Different? exhibit continues at the museum through October 22, 2017.

This exhibition looks at race through the lens of science, history, and personal experiences to promote a better understanding of human variation. Interactive exhibit components, historical artifacts, iconic objects, compelling photographs, multimedia presentations, and attractive graphic displays offer visitors to RACE an eye-opening look at its important subject matter. RACE tells the stories of race from the biological, cultural, and historical points of view offering an unprecedented look at race and racism in the United States.

Admission is free but tickets are required. For tickets, as well as additional details on the exhibit, visit https://naturalsciences.org/exhibits/featured-exhibitions/race.

In addition to the exhibit, a series of Speaker Events which includes Diversity in STEM topics were jointly planned in collaboration with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science and sponsored by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. All of the exhibit events were free of charge and the Speaker and Conversation series were streamed live and recorded for continued access and playback. You may access the series of recordings 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 www.ncforum.org.

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