The Friday Report – October 19, 2018

The Friday Report

October 19, 2018

New Twist on Town Charter Flap: Did Lawmaker Offer CMS a Favor If They’d Fire One Man?

Rep. Bill Brawley spoke about a request from Matthews to look at the possibility of seceding from Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools at the Ballantyne Breakfast Club in April 2016. Photo Credit: John D. Simmons, The Charlotte Observer.

Three top Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials said Tuesday that state Rep. Bill Brawley offered early this year to kill a controversial town charter bill if CMS would fire its governmental liaison.

While rumors have floated for months, this is the first time anyone has gone on the record saying Brawley made the offer. School board Chair Mary McCray, Vice Chair Rhonda Cheek and Superintendent Clayton Wilcox said Tuesday that Brawley, a Republican lawmaker from Matthews, told them he’d withdraw House Bill 514 if Wilcox would fire Charles Jeter, a former Republican state representative who had alienated Brawley in his new role.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Doss Helms, A. “New twist on town charter flap: Did lawmaker offer CMS a favor if they’d fire one man?” The Charlotte Observer. 10/17/18.

Governor’s Commission Discusses Principal Pipeline

Members of the Governor’s Commission on Access to Sound Basic Education met at the Cumberland County Board of Education on Tuesday. Analisa Sorrells, EducationNC.

On Tuesday, the Governor’s Commission on Access to Sound Basic Education convened in Fayetteville to consider the role that principals play in ensuring that North Carolina meets its obligation to provide all students with access to a sound basic education. Tuesday’s meeting was part of the ongoing work of the commission to provide recommendations on how the state can meet the requirements of the 1977 Leandro decision. Previous meetings of the commission focused on topics such as school funding and early childhood education.

The commission will meet again on Dec. 4. Future meeting dates have been scheduled through April 2019, after which the commission is expected to craft a final report. According to Geoff Coltrane, senior education advisor to Governor Roy Cooper, a website that explains the commission’s work and offers links to all previous meeting materials will be available to the public soon.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Sorrells, A. “Governor’s commission discusses principal pipeline.” EducationNC. 10/18/18.

This 24-Year-Old Lawsuit Could Radically Alter Public Education in North Carolina

An elementary school in the Robeson County school district, one of five low-wealth school districts that sued the state of North Carolina for failing to provide adequate resources. Photo Credit: Gerry Dincher, Flickr.

Not far from Fayetteville, North Carolina, in a part of the state many know only from driving through on their way to Wilmington or Myrtle Beach, sits Raeford, a little town in Hoke County where life once centered around agriculture and manufacturing. Those sectors employed fewer and fewer people over the last quarter of the twentieth century. By the 1990s “The only thing left was a little bit of Burlington Mills,” says Kathleen Leandro of a textile plant in the town. “That was about it as a tax base.”

Kathleen and her husband relocated to Raeford from nearby Ft. Bragg when he retired from the military after Vietnam. That’s where they raised their two sons, Scott and Robb, making sacrifices to support their kids’ education when school resources fell short. “We didn’t have a big middle-class to pull from,” says Kathleen of Raeford. “There were hard-working families but that didn’t bring a lot of money into the schools.”

To continue reading the complete press release, click here.

Excerpt from:

Cooper, M. “This 24-year-old lawsuit could radically alter public education in North Carolina.”  Scalawag. 10/15/18.

NC Will Reduce Testing for Elementary Schools Hard Hit By Hurricane Florence

White Oak High School in Jacksonville, North Carolina, was battered by rain and wind from Hurricane Florence. Photo Credit: White Oak High School.

North Carolina elementary schools who were hard hit by Hurricane Florence will get some relief from having to give state-required tests while they recover from the effects of the storm.

The State Board of Education unanimously voted Tuesday to waive a policy requiring kindergarten through third-grade students to take three reading assessments this school year. State education officials say districts that were hardest hit by the storm, such as those where students lost a significant amount of time when schools closed, will be eligible to receive the one-year waiver.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Hui, K. “NC will reduce testing for elementary schools hard hit by Hurricane Florence.” The Charlotte Observer. 10/16/18.

NC High School Students Rank Near the Bottom on the ACT Exam. There’s a Reason Why.

In this May 6, 2015 file photo, a computer-based practice ACT English test is displayed on a computer monitor in Washington. Photo Credit: Jacquelyn Martin, AP.

North Carolina high school students continue to rank near the bottom of the nation on the ACT exam, but there’s at least a partial reason for the state’s performance.

New results released Wednesday from the Class of 2018 show that North Carolina’s average score remained at 19.1 out of a possible 36. The state was below the national average of 20.8 and tied for 46th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

To continue reading the complete press release, click here.

Excerpt from:

Hui, K. “NC high school students rank near the bottom on the ACT exam. There’s a reason why.” The News & Observer. 10/17/18.

National News

‘You Are Still Black’: Charlottesville’s Racial Divide Hinders Students

Trinity Hughes, left, and Zyahna Bryant at Charlottesville High School, where they are seniors. Photo Credit: Matt Eich, The New York Times.

Charlottesville, Va. — This article was reported and written in a collaboration with ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative journalism organization.

Zyahna Bryant and Trinity Hughes, high school seniors, have been friends since they were 6, raised by blue-collar families in this affluent college town. They played on the same T-ball and softball teams, and were in the same church group.

But like many African-American children in Charlottesville, Trinity lived on the south side of town and went to a predominantly black neighborhood elementary school. Zyahna lived across the train tracks, on the north side, and was zoned to a mostly white school, near the University of Virginia campus, that boasts the city’s highest reading scores.

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Green, E. and Waldman, A. “‘You Are Still Black’: Charlottesville’s Racial Divide Hinders Students.” The New York Times. 10/16/18.

Ed. Dept. Signals New Attempt to Address Racial Bias in Special Education

Photo Credit: Pixabay, Pexels.

Four months after deciding to put on hold Obama-era rules relating to racial disparities in special education, the U.S. Department of Education has signaled it plans to take a crack at creating its own set of policies on the topic.

The department said it plans to release a “notice of proposed rulemaking” this fall. No other information is available; publishing its intent in a government document called the Unified Agenda is just the first step in what could be a lengthy process. (The Obama administration worked on its version of these rules for two years before they were finalized.)

To continue reading the complete article, click here.

Excerpt from:

Samuels, C. “Ed. Dept. Signals New Attempt to Address Racial Bias in Special Education.” Education Week. 10/17/18.

Opportunities

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.

Synergy Conference 2019

Hope Street Group Annual Survey

Are students tracked to certain careers based on socioeconomics or the reputation of a job? How can we better connect students to businesses and ensure all students are aware of their career potential?

Hope Street Group, in concert with the North Carolina Business Committee of Education, needs your perspective to improve work-based learning for K-12 students in North Carolina. Visit ednc.org/hopestreet for a 15-minute survey that will be used by local and state decision-makers to discuss how we best support students in career awareness and exploration.

All teachers, school staff, administrators, parents, business leaders, district staff, and community members can participate—so please share. Perspectives from everyone are needed: elementary educators, small business owners, principals, literacy coaches, school counselors, community college staff and educators, parents of students across K-12. If you have an interest in education, please take this survey by 10/31/18 and encourage others to do the same at ednc.org/hopestreet.

Your colleagues in the Hope Street Group North Carolina Teacher Voice Network are counting on you to help them amplify your voice and opinions.

The William Friday Teachers Retreat

Sunday, Nov. 11 – Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018 | UNC-Chapel Hill’s Wilson Library

Designed to equally educate and appreciate our state’s incredibly teachers, UNC-Chapel Hill’s Carolina K-12, in partnership with the North Caroliniana Society and Wilson Library’s North Carolina Collection, invite 4-12 grade teachers from around the state to join us for an engaging (and FREE!) two and a half day academic retreat in beautiful Chapel Hill, NC, with a special “field-trip” to Historic Hillsborough. Throughout these engaging three days, teachers will enjoy a snapshot of some of North Carolina’s most captivating history, events and people, all the while celebrating each participating teacher and the important work you do!

Check out the agenda here. For additional information and to apply, click here.

Upcoming Professional Development at NCCAT 

North Carolina educators have plenty of opportunities throughout the fall to attend the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT), a recognized national leader in professional development programming for teachers. Applicants are encouraged to register as soon as possible to ensure a spot. Programs are available to North Carolina educators at the Cullowhee and Ocracoke campuses, online and with NCCAT faculty visiting school districts. NCCAT provides food, lodging and programming. Teachers and or their districts are responsible for travel to and from the center and the cost of the substitute teacher.

For a complete list of upcoming NCCAT programs, click here.

For more information on how to apply for NCCAT programs, 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 www.ncforum.org.

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