Next week Charlotte will host the first of four national summits on how businesses can partner with public schools, with the public-private Project LIFT partnership showcased.
The main sponsor is America's Promise Alliance, a coalition focused on improving graduation rates, youth engagement, early childhood programs and data analysis. The Alliance has more than 400 partners, including children's advocacy groups, major foundations and a long list of professional, educational, business and governmental associations.
The agenda for the June 11-12 event includes speakers from around the country, as well as those from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and its business partners. Business people and educators are invited to register for the free event.
The Charlotte event is co-hosted by the Foundation for the Carolinas, a key player in the philanthropic coalition that's trying to raise $55 million to improve the nine Project LIFT schools. Later sessions are planned for Boston, Denver and Los Angeles.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
New blogger: Rhonda Lennon
Welcome to a new member of the blogosphere: Rhonda Lennon, the District 1 representative to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board, has launched her own site. To my knowledge, she's the first board member blogging.
I suspect she'll make a good blogger. She voices strong opinions and inspires strong feelings, pro and con. One of the best-read posts I've ever done on this blog was about her heated exchange of words with a parent over middle school sports. With more than 11,000 page views and 143 comments, it's been topped only by a live blog about the superintendent announcing layoffs.
Lennon has already been posting her views on Facebook, and she says she created a blog because it gives her more space to elaborate. Her first post is on a dinner she hosted with incoming Superintendent Heath Morrison, and she says she's working on items on per-pupil spending and the board's travel budget. She says she plans to post twice a week.
I hope it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: I'm simply pointing readers to another avenue for information and discussion, not allying myself with Lennon or endorsing anything she posts. If other board members dive in, I'll be sure to let you all know.
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| Lennon |
Lennon has already been posting her views on Facebook, and she says she created a blog because it gives her more space to elaborate. Her first post is on a dinner she hosted with incoming Superintendent Heath Morrison, and she says she's working on items on per-pupil spending and the board's travel budget. She says she plans to post twice a week.
I hope it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: I'm simply pointing readers to another avenue for information and discussion, not allying myself with Lennon or endorsing anything she posts. If other board members dive in, I'll be sure to let you all know.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Weigh in on fast-track N.C. ed reform
N.C. Sen. Bob Rucho, a Mecklenburg Republican, has sent out an electronic newsletter urging constituents to read up and weigh in on the Excellent Public Schools Act that's moving through the legislature this summer.
This bill's a bit of a puzzler. I understand frustration with snail-paced change. But I'm also skeptical of the notion that a bunch of lawmakers can whip out the answers during a "short session" that's generally designed for minor touch-ups to the budget, rather than deliberation on changes that will reshape education in North Carolina.
For instance, Rucho offers this explanation for the benefit of grading schools A to F: "To ensure improvement in schools that receive failing grades, we're creating a new North Carolina Teacher Corps program -- modeled on Teach for America -- that will give the best and brightest recent college graduates and mid-career professionals training and a direct path to teach in low-performing schools where students need the most help."
Even the folks who love Teach For America don't claim it's the solution for failing schools, and those who don't like it are going to be doubly wary of a reform plan that relies on pumping in a new flow of inexperienced teachers.
There's also a performance-pay mandate with no money attached. Ask Peter Gorman how that worked out for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools last year. The idea of intensive reading instruction before children reach third grade is also straight from Gorman's playbook. It makes so much sense, but for CMS, it fell into the "easier said than done" category (read this study on the results, which found little benefit).
All of those questions and quibbles make Rucho's basic message well worth sharing: "Our children deserve better than the status quo. They deserve bold solutions, outside-the-box thinking and robust public debate about which policies will make a better North Carolina for our students. Our plan is not partisan, and we welcome suggestions on ways to improve it. We may need to scale back some aspects, or press harder on others. Regardless, creating better classrooms requires constructive cooperation from both sides of the aisle, not inflammatory rhetoric and wild accusations about who really cares for our children. I hope you'll read our bill, SB 795, at www.ncleg.net and weigh in with letters and calls."
The link in the first paragraph will take you directly to the bill, and the ncleg.net link gives you easy access to your representatives. Have at it!
This bill's a bit of a puzzler. I understand frustration with snail-paced change. But I'm also skeptical of the notion that a bunch of lawmakers can whip out the answers during a "short session" that's generally designed for minor touch-ups to the budget, rather than deliberation on changes that will reshape education in North Carolina.
For instance, Rucho offers this explanation for the benefit of grading schools A to F: "To ensure improvement in schools that receive failing grades, we're creating a new North Carolina Teacher Corps program -- modeled on Teach for America -- that will give the best and brightest recent college graduates and mid-career professionals training and a direct path to teach in low-performing schools where students need the most help."
Even the folks who love Teach For America don't claim it's the solution for failing schools, and those who don't like it are going to be doubly wary of a reform plan that relies on pumping in a new flow of inexperienced teachers.
There's also a performance-pay mandate with no money attached. Ask Peter Gorman how that worked out for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools last year. The idea of intensive reading instruction before children reach third grade is also straight from Gorman's playbook. It makes so much sense, but for CMS, it fell into the "easier said than done" category (read this study on the results, which found little benefit).
All of those questions and quibbles make Rucho's basic message well worth sharing: "Our children deserve better than the status quo. They deserve bold solutions, outside-the-box thinking and robust public debate about which policies will make a better North Carolina for our students. Our plan is not partisan, and we welcome suggestions on ways to improve it. We may need to scale back some aspects, or press harder on others. Regardless, creating better classrooms requires constructive cooperation from both sides of the aisle, not inflammatory rhetoric and wild accusations about who really cares for our children. I hope you'll read our bill, SB 795, at www.ncleg.net and weigh in with letters and calls."
The link in the first paragraph will take you directly to the bill, and the ncleg.net link gives you easy access to your representatives. Have at it!
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
New life for New Leaders in Charlotte
After a major setback earlier this spring, Charlotte's New Leaders program is coming back fresh with an infusion of private money from Project LIFT, says Executive Director Eric Guckian.
New Leaders is a 12-year-old national program (originally known as New Leaders for New Schools) created to develop urban principals with the skills and drive to make transform struggling high-poverty schools. Superintendent Peter Gorman announced its partnership with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in 2008, with promises that it would put more than 50 "highly talented and motivated new principals" into local schools in six years.
In March, interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh blindsided New Leaders backers with the announcement that he planned to drastically cut back spending midway through the effort, saying CMS was spending too much money and had gotten only a handful of principals. Not long before, Hattabaugh had renewed a partnership agreement, but changed his mind when federal money that helped pay for it dried up.
Being publicly proclaimed a poor investment of taxpayer money was a serious blow, Guckian says. He credits his local board, the national organization and a panel of local philanthropists for not only keeping the local project alive but helping it develop a new focus on making classroom teachers better leaders.
"While it was indeed a hardship that the district reallocated our funds, other partners and supporters have made clear that there is strong and diverse community support for our work here in Charlotte," he said in a recent email.
Guckian says it was CMS leaders, not his group, that pitched New Leaders as a sort of principal factory. The partnership with Project LIFT, a philanthropic coalition which aspires to pump $55 million in private donations into nine west Charlotte public schools, will put five principal trainees into LIFT schools while providing leadership training for 40 teachers a year. Those teachers could move into administrative posts or exercise their skills while staying in a classroom, Guckian said.
"In addition to the LIFT partnership, we recently learned that the Women’s Impact Fund will be supporting us at $100K," Guckian noted. "As you may know, grants from the Women’s Impact Fund are voted on by hundreds of influential women in Charlotte, so it’s a really nice vote of confidence from across the community."
New Leaders is a 12-year-old national program (originally known as New Leaders for New Schools) created to develop urban principals with the skills and drive to make transform struggling high-poverty schools. Superintendent Peter Gorman announced its partnership with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in 2008, with promises that it would put more than 50 "highly talented and motivated new principals" into local schools in six years.
In March, interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh blindsided New Leaders backers with the announcement that he planned to drastically cut back spending midway through the effort, saying CMS was spending too much money and had gotten only a handful of principals. Not long before, Hattabaugh had renewed a partnership agreement, but changed his mind when federal money that helped pay for it dried up.
Being publicly proclaimed a poor investment of taxpayer money was a serious blow, Guckian says. He credits his local board, the national organization and a panel of local philanthropists for not only keeping the local project alive but helping it develop a new focus on making classroom teachers better leaders.
"While it was indeed a hardship that the district reallocated our funds, other partners and supporters have made clear that there is strong and diverse community support for our work here in Charlotte," he said in a recent email.
Guckian says it was CMS leaders, not his group, that pitched New Leaders as a sort of principal factory. The partnership with Project LIFT, a philanthropic coalition which aspires to pump $55 million in private donations into nine west Charlotte public schools, will put five principal trainees into LIFT schools while providing leadership training for 40 teachers a year. Those teachers could move into administrative posts or exercise their skills while staying in a classroom, Guckian said.
"In addition to the LIFT partnership, we recently learned that the Women’s Impact Fund will be supporting us at $100K," Guckian noted. "As you may know, grants from the Women’s Impact Fund are voted on by hundreds of influential women in Charlotte, so it’s a really nice vote of confidence from across the community."
A digital science boost
With all the buzz about digital learning, one of the biggest questions is how much educational bang schools can get for their electronic bucks. Discovery Education, a vendor to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, has released a study showing its interactive science lessons contributed to significant student gains in high-poverty CMS classrooms.
Discovery Education provides reading passages, videos and virtual labs to get students engaged in scientific exploration. For instance, fifth-graders studying insect life cycles would look at photos of insects such as butterflies, grasshoppers, beetles and dragonflies. The teacher would get them to talk about different ways those insects grow, and to make predictions about how each changes during its life cycle. Students would watch a digital video on metamorphosis.
CMS uses federal Title I money to provide Discovery Education digital science lessons for all its highest-poverty schools (75 percent or higher), along with training for teachers in how to use those lessons. But participation wasn't required during the study years (2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-12), so some teachers in Title I schools opted out.
Discovery Education provides reading passages, videos and virtual labs to get students engaged in scientific exploration. For instance, fifth-graders studying insect life cycles would look at photos of insects such as butterflies, grasshoppers, beetles and dragonflies. The teacher would get them to talk about different ways those insects grow, and to make predictions about how each changes during its life cycle. Students would watch a digital video on metamorphosis.
CMS uses federal Title I money to provide Discovery Education digital science lessons for all its highest-poverty schools (75 percent or higher), along with training for teachers in how to use those lessons. But participation wasn't required during the study years (2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-12), so some teachers in Title I schools opted out.
The study compared results on state fifth- and eighth-grade science exams for students of 457 Title I teachers who used Discovery Education, 295 Title I teachers who did not and 538 teachers in lower-poverty schools that didn't use Discovery Education. Researchers found that the Title I teachers using the program saw eighth-graders go from 38 percent passing to 57 percent, outperforming both other groups by significant margins (Title 1 non-users went from 19 percent to 32 percent passing, and the non-Title I group went from 41 to 43 percent). The results for fifth-graders weren't as dramatic, but the Title I teachers using Discover Education saw the biggest gains in two years.
The study factored in the benefits that some of the Title I schools got from support provided through CMS' Achievement Zone and/or the strategic staffing program, and there still appeared to be benefits attributable to the digital program.
I'm always cautious of drawing oversimplified conclusions from numbers, especially a study done by an interested party. But this does seem to reinforce what CMS and many thoughtful commenters have been saying: Technology can be a helpful tool when it's combined with good training and enthusiastic teachers.
The study factored in the benefits that some of the Title I schools got from support provided through CMS' Achievement Zone and/or the strategic staffing program, and there still appeared to be benefits attributable to the digital program.
I'm always cautious of drawing oversimplified conclusions from numbers, especially a study done by an interested party. But this does seem to reinforce what CMS and many thoughtful commenters have been saying: Technology can be a helpful tool when it's combined with good training and enthusiastic teachers.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
It's a bird! It's a plane!
Superintendent Heath Morrison may need to move faster than a speeding bullet to deliver on a statement in a recent email to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools employees: "I intend to visit all schools in CMS during my first three months."
I asked him about the mathematics of that plan. CMS has 159 schools. He starts work July 1. School starts Aug. 27, which gives him 24 days with students and teachers in school by the time his first three months end in September. He's already been visiting during interviews and follow-up trips to Charlotte, but even if he knocks 39 schools off the list before the starting bell, he'd have to hit five schools every school day to meet his goal.
Morrison says his plan is ambitious but not impossible: "I have already visited many and have another visit in June. There will also be summer programs and back to school events in July and early August. Don't forget Saturdays in August and September. I may not make it, but the effort and intent is important."
He's probably right about the effort. After Peter Gorman made his high-profile entrance in 2006, I remember hearing grumbles from staff at schools he hadn't visited. And Morrison makes a good impression in face-to-face meetings.
Classroom Teachers Association President Judy Kidd tends to be skeptical of politicians and officials. She says when she first read Morrison's line about being "a teacher on special assignment," it sounded phony. But after meeting him recently, Kidd said Morrison strikes her as genuine.
Board member Rhonda Lennon hosted Morrison and a group of north suburban parents and community leaders Friday night (joined, she says, by a few south Charlotte folks). "He took time to talk to each family who was here -- and they shared the good/bad/ugly about their experiences at CMS," Lennon posted on Facebook. "It was truly amazing watching Heath interact with the students and talk to them about their schools and personal academic accomplishments."
Friday, May 25, 2012
Morrison chooses South Meck zone
Soon-to-be Superintendent Heath Morrison and his family have a contract on a home in the Rea Woods neighborhood in south Charlotte, which means his daughter will enroll as a 10th-grader at South Mecklenburg High. His son, who will be in seventh grade, has South Charlotte Middle as his home school. But Morrison says Zach is interested in auditioning for Northwest School of the Arts (there was no waiting list after the first magnet lottery, so it shouldn't be hard to find a spot for the superintendent's son).
I asked Morrison if he'd chosen schools, then found a home in the desired zone. He said he left the home-shopping to his wife and daughter.
Morrison is in town to present his entry plan, which includes efforts to make sure all neighborhoods and groups have a voice in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools decisions. He's having dinner tonight with school board member Rhonda Lennon and some of her constituents from the north suburbs, and lunch Saturday with Carol Sawyer and Pamela Grundy from Mecklenburg ACTS, a group that's focused on equity for high-poverty urban schools.
Here's Morrison's schedule for this visit:
Thursday, May 24, 2012
6:45 pm Meeting with Dan Habrat
Friday, May 25, 2012
7:00 am Meeting with cabinet
8:15 am Kim Brazzell/Teresa Shipman/Vincent Smith – Orientation
10:00 am Meeting with Ericka Ellis-Stewart
11:00 am Press event with Board
11:40 am Meeting with Tom Tate
1:00 pm Principal interviews
2:00 pm Meeting with Eric Davis
3:30 pm Meeting with Mayor Foxx
4:45 pm Meeting with zone superintendents
6:00 pm Meeting with Rhonda Lennon
7:00 pm Dinner meeting with Rhonda Lennon and northern parents, businesses, etc.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
7:30 am Meeting with Ann Clark
9:00 am Meeting with Joyce Waddell
10:30 am Meeting with Richard McElrath
12:00 pm Meeting with Pamela Grundy and Carol Sawyer
1:45 pm Meeting with Sheila Shirley
4:00 pm Meeting with Tim Morgan
6:00 pm Meeting with Amelia Stinson-Wesley
I asked Morrison if he'd chosen schools, then found a home in the desired zone. He said he left the home-shopping to his wife and daughter.
Morrison is in town to present his entry plan, which includes efforts to make sure all neighborhoods and groups have a voice in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools decisions. He's having dinner tonight with school board member Rhonda Lennon and some of her constituents from the north suburbs, and lunch Saturday with Carol Sawyer and Pamela Grundy from Mecklenburg ACTS, a group that's focused on equity for high-poverty urban schools.
Here's Morrison's schedule for this visit:
Thursday, May 24, 2012
6:45 pm Meeting with Dan Habrat
Friday, May 25, 2012
7:00 am Meeting with cabinet
8:15 am Kim Brazzell/Teresa Shipman/Vincent Smith – Orientation
10:00 am Meeting with Ericka Ellis-Stewart
11:00 am Press event with Board
11:40 am Meeting with Tom Tate
1:00 pm Principal interviews
2:00 pm Meeting with Eric Davis
3:30 pm Meeting with Mayor Foxx
4:45 pm Meeting with zone superintendents
6:00 pm Meeting with Rhonda Lennon
7:00 pm Dinner meeting with Rhonda Lennon and northern parents, businesses, etc.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
7:30 am Meeting with Ann Clark
9:00 am Meeting with Joyce Waddell
10:30 am Meeting with Richard McElrath
12:00 pm Meeting with Pamela Grundy and Carol Sawyer
1:45 pm Meeting with Sheila Shirley
4:00 pm Meeting with Tim Morgan
6:00 pm Meeting with Amelia Stinson-Wesley
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