Cover Story Are We There Yet? Halfway to the 2010 deadline of having America's best schools, public education definitely has improved but many battles lie ahead By Lisa H. Towle Learn more: The next step in reinventing our schools Higher ed bonds: On time and on budget Davie County bets its future on pre-k School calendar bill stirs wide debate Schools bank on business help with IT

Director Travis Lewis helps students at the Pitt County Health Sciences Academy, where high school students take community college courses.

Like a photo mosaic, the many and complex pieces of the state’s public education system seem a jumble when viewed separately. But step back and suddenly a whole and definite picture emerges. It’s clear that over the past 20 years North Carolina has evolved into a laboratory for what is economically and politically possible in education reform.  And while it admittedly has yet to find ways to effectively address some important gaps in the system, it has in notable fashion hit on solutions to other very thorny problems.  The results have been impressive enough to move the state to the head of the class in key areas and toward the educational Holy Grail: seamless integration of curriculum, standards and classrooms in grades K-12 and beyond.

Change in SAT Scores Year     N.C.    Southeast    U.S. 1990     948    973    1001 1991     952    972    999 1992     961    974    1001 1993     964    978    1003 1994     964    978    1003 1995     970    984    1010 1996     976    983    1013 1997     978    984    1016 1998     982    986    1017 1999     986    986    1016 2000     988    990    1019 2001     992    993    1020 2002     998    995    1020 2003     1001    999    1026 Change    5.6%    2.7%     2.5%

“I have worked as a teacher, principal and superintendent for 26 years in three school systems, and I’ve been in this job for (eight) months,” states Dr. Jim Causby, executive director of the N.C. Association of School Administrators, whose slew of honors includes being named by Executive Education magazine as one of the 100 outstanding superintendents in the United States. “I’ve seen where we’ve come from in three decades and my belief is that schools today in North Carolina are the best they’ve ever been; students are learning at very high levels.”

Causby, a product of the state’s public schools, doesn’t mean to imply there isn’t room for improvement. Not at all. He is by nature a realist and a pragmatist who understands, “Schools are like any other organization, they change slowly,” and acknowledges that “some of the criticism (leveled at the schools) is certainly justified.” What he and other change-agents ask for is some perspective, for with that, they believe, comes an appreciation for a level of innovation and educational entrepreneurialism matched by few others.

In the fourth fastest growing K-12 system in the country, where 1.3 million students speak 150 different languages, statewide curriculum and testing programs have been instituted. After almost a decade of data gathering and interpretation, teachers and administrators have developed an extremely sophisticated understanding of accountability systems. The state’s fourth- and eighth-grade students topped the national and Southeast average scale scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress 2003 reading and mathematics assessments; no other state or jurisdiction scored significantly higher than North Carolina’s fourth-graders. North Carolina was the first state to require computer proficiency before graduation. And in North Carolina, one of the top SAT-taking states in the country, scores on the college entrance exam have improved more than in any other state.

Says John Dornan, president and executive director of the Public School Forum of North Carolina, “All things considered, the progress, especially at the elementary level, has been remarkable.”


Taking the Long View

In April 1983, after 18 months of intense study, the National Commission on Excellence in Education fulfilled its charter by publishing “A Nation At Risk.” The report hit with the intensity of a category 4 hurricane. It concluded, among other things, that, “The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people. What was unimaginable a generation ago has begun to occur — others are matching and surpassing our educational attainments.”

Suddenly it seemed the entire country, from public and private schools to parents and policy makers, legislators, the media and kings of commerce, were talking about the state of education. And there was a lot to talk about. “A Nation At Risk” was at once ominous — “history is not kind to idlers,” it warned — and prescient: “Knowledge, learning, information, and skilled intelligence are the new raw materials of international commerce and are today spreading throughout the world as vigorously as miracle drugs, synthetic fertilizers, and blue jeans did earlier. If only to keep and improve on the slim competitive edge we still retain in world markets, we must dedicate ourselves to the reform of our educational system for the benefit of all — old and young alike, affluent and poor, majority and minority. Learning is the indispensable investment required for success in the ‘information age’ we are entering.”

In North Carolina, explains Phil Kirk, president of NCCBI and the immediate past chair of the State Board of Education, the report was a catalyst for action. Reaction to it was swift and strong as it clearly articulated threads of thought and concern that had begun to arise in various groups. The business community, acutely aware that the majority of their employees would continue to come from public schools, was energized. Its members moved from the important but more passive role of fund-raising for education to an active involvement in a nascent movement for higher standards and more accountability in the schools.

Further, says Kirk, Jim Hunt “saw the need to link economic development and education (and) emerged as one of the strongest public education leaders in the country.” During his first two terms as governor (1977-1985), Hunt, once a teacher, laid the groundwork for North Carolina’s education reform efforts for decades to come. He set up the primary reading program, reduced class size, created dropout prevention programs, and established the N.C. Business Committee for Education as well as the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM). An affiliate of the UNC System, NCSSM, located in Durham, was the country’s first public residential high school and would eventually serve as a model for 16 similar schools around the nation and world.

During his second series of terms (1993-2001), Hunt, a Democrat, approached education issues with ever greater entrepreneurial-minded gusto and gained a higher profile at both the state and national levels. He helped start and served as founding chair of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, led a national commission on education, and in 1993 began the pre-school program known as Smart Start, a public-private initiative that provides early education funding to all of the state’s 100 counties. In 1996, responding to a call by the General Assembly for a rigorous school-based management and accountability program, the State Board of Education developed the ABCs of Public Education, which emphasizes the basics and high standards. That same year came the charter school initiative, offering publicly funded alternatives to traditional public schools. The Excellent Schools Act, approved in 1997, aimed to improve student achievement and reduce teacher attrition through a series of career and finance enhancing incentives for principals and teachers.

Such was the momentum that Hunt, dubbed “the education governor,” chose his 1999 State of the State address to announce an ambitious goal: “By the year 2010, North Carolina will build the best system of public schools of any state in America. By the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, we will be the first in education.”

Eddie Davis, president of the N.C. Association of Educators, believed in Hunt’s vision then and he continues to believe in it. “You know, it doesn’t have to be Connecticut or Iowa that is No. 1,” says the longtime English teacher at Hillside High School in Durham. “Somehow, despite North Carolina’s great progress over the last decade, people have little or no confidence that we can lead the nation. We can do it by maintaining what has stood us well — a focus on the basics and accountability, and respecting the fact that the sanctuary of teaching and learning should not be disrupted.”


Making the Grade

It fell to the N.C. Education Research Council (NCERC) to design a system for tracking the state’s progress in reaching what’s come to be known simply as First in America. The council’s original report was issued in 2000 and will be updated annually until 2010. Assuming the reports, which measure performance in five areas — high student performance; every child ready to learn; safe, orderly and caring schools; quality teachers and administrators; strong family, business and community support — are accurate, then Davis’s conviction is not unfounded.

Frustrating to the advocates of public education reform in the Tar Heel State is the propensity of people, including certain journalists, lawmakers and others who have minutely chronicled the past system’s failings, to single out ratings numbers instead of looking at the trend. Without evaluating the relationships between numbers, they argue, there’s a real risk of reaching faulty conclusions; see the trend and see that in many evaluative models it’s clear there’s a steady, upward trajectory.

Example 1: The 2003 SAT results showed North Carolina’s average total SAT score moved up three points to 1,001, breaking the 1,000-point threshold for the first time. (In 2002 the average score had moved up six points to 998.) The national average total SAT score increased by six points to 1,026. The state’s average total SAT score remains above the Southeast average and went up even as the participation rate of students increased.

Example 2: In the 2001-02 school year, a total of 24,084 North Carolina public school students took one or more of the Advanced Placement examinations, an increase of almost 15 percent.

Example 3: According to the NCERC, between 2000 and 2003 North Carolina’s system of education moved from average (scoring B minuses and C’s) to above average (all B minuses). The grade for high student performance — often considered the single most important goal — rose by three points between 2002 and last year, from 80 to 83 percent.

“If system performance continues to improve at the current rate each year through 2010,” wrote the council in 2003, “the grade for high student performance will rise to an A+ by the 2010 deadline.”

Considering all that, particularly the good and sustained performance levels on the ABCs, Howard Lee, chair of the State Board of Education, feels “it’s time to evaluate the effectiveness of the ABCs plan, which when initiated promised to ratchet things up as certain levels were reached. Is it time to raise the bar again?”

When he took office in 2001, Gov. Mike Easley embraced the First in America goal and then proposed his own strategies to accelerate movement toward the objective. There was, for instance, More at Four. Funded by the General Assembly, it is a community-based, voluntary pre-kindergarten program designed to prepare at-risk 4-year-olds for success in school. And there was also the N.C. School Report Cards initiative, which not only tracks each school’s progress in reaching the First in America goal but gives parents and educators ready access to detailed performance information about their schools. These annual school-by-school reports were first issued in May 2002.

 Meanwhile, the federal government was developing its own set of accountability standards. In January 2002, George W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires states to measure and report annually on student achievement and teacher quality using student data broken down by gender, ethnicity, economic disadvantage, proficiency in English, migrant status and disability. Suddenly faced with issuing three separate reports, the governor’s Education Cabinet (composed of the chair of the State Board of Education, the superintendent of public instruction, the president of the Community College System, the president of the University of North Carolina system and the president of the state’s independent colleges and universities) opted to combine them into a single series of reports about education at the school, district and state levels.

Just prior to the end of August when he left the position of superintendent of North Carolina’s public schools in order to move with his wife to her new job in Mississippi as the Bishop of the Methodist Church, Mike Ward reflected on the triumphs and challenges of his eight years in office. He was pleased that “North Carolina and the nation have settled into a more comfortable mindset about school accountability”; he was proud that the state had “earned a reputation as having the nation’s most rapidly improving system of public education”; and he was “most encouraged by the focus placed on the most vulnerable kids in our system.”

“However,” he cautions, “our place of greatest progress is also our place of greatest deficit as well. We can’t close these gaps fast enough, for public schools must serve all kids if they do their job well.”

Leveling the playing field for all students is a raison d’etre for accountability models such as the ABCs of Public Education and No Child Left Behind. But does it make sense to piggyback such programs? “No Child Left Behind added value to the ABCs model because we’d already been talking about enhancing it. However, in some ways, yes, it’s an awkward fit,” says Ward. “I think the single biggest flaw in the federal legislation was a presumption on the part of Congress that all states were equally slow in developing accountability models. A state like North Carolina, which already had a superior model, wound up in the difficult circumstance of trying to preserve the existing model while implementing another.”


A Model for the Nation

Jim Causby, in demand across the U.S. as an educational consultant and speaker, is more blunt when he compares and contrasts. “For the past eight years North Carolina has worked to develop an authentic accountability system, one where teachers and schools really focus on curriculum and testing, one with consequences and rewards,” says the leader of the state’s school administrators. “It’s the most brilliantly put together accountability model in the nation, one based on growth so schools start from where they are, not from where others are. As a result, the vast majority of teachers, 80 percent-plus, are on board with the ABCs. Conversely, there are great problems with No Child Left Behind because it’s nothing but consequences; it’s too rigid, too one-size-fits-all.”

Well conceived or ill conceived, what’s not up for debate is that these models have testing in common, and testing is not without political consequences. It can be costly in terms of dollars (North Carolina foots the bill for more than 70 percent of school expenses, more than any other state but Hawaii) and constituent goodwill (vocal parents worry about educators “teaching to the tests” and class time spent on multiple rounds of test taking). Lee, who during his tenure in the state Senate gained a reputation as an education advocate and led efforts to improve school safety, accountability and teacher quality, says these issues are legitimate cause for concern. In light of the State Board of Education’s five priorities, especially effective and efficient operations, “We as a state should step back, take a broader look at where we’ve been and see what there is to learn from what’s been done. It’s reasonable to ask, ‘Does our school financing formula serve us well?’ ”

NCCBI’s Kirk, who at one time was a state senator, understands the pressures put on lawmakers. He’s aware that even in recent and difficult economic times the legislature managed to maintain education funding levels, but he worries that that “backward sliding” on some performance measures will start to erode the state’s successes. Notably:

In 2002-03, the seventh year of the ABCs of Public Education for K-8 schools and the sixth year for high schools, 80.8 percent of students in grades 3-8 were considered proficient in reading and mathematics, up 19.1 points from 1996-97. Achievement gaps among different racial groups narrowed significantly and across all groups with African-American students and American Indian students recording the largest gain — approximately 10 percentage points each. In addition, 61 percent of all schools, or 1,359, are either Schools of Excellence or Schools of Distinction, the state’s two highest recognition categories.

North Carolina once again in 2003 placed in a group of states receiving the overall highest grades on Education Week’s seventh annual 50-state report card on public education. North Carolina was one of six states to receive a B or B+ on “improving teacher quality” (in two recent years, the state ranked first in this area) and, for the first time, improved its grade on “school climate” to a C+, likely the result of statewide efforts to lower class sizes in primary grades and in needy schools.

For his part, Causby thinks “we’ve gone as far as we can go with the number of tests we give. We really need to get to the point where we have authentic assessments beyond paper and pencil.” Actually, he says, “I’m very optimistic about things. But we must ask, ‘Will we have the stamina and will to stay the course?’ And, ‘will we continue to put dollars in the program or will we nibble away at the edges?’” This kind of debate reflects a maturing system, one that’s evolving to the next level even as other states work to institute similar innovations in the first place. Indeed, in the evolution of education in North Carolina the next Big Thing is “seamlessness” — the uninterrupted, interrelated flow of standards, classrooms and curriculums from kindergarten all the way through the 12th, 14th or 16th year of formal schooling.

It’s a worthy aim, says Eddie Davis of the N.C. Association of Educators, because “it means no matter who’s in charge and no matter what the resources of a place are, an infrastructure for fairness and greatness exists.” He concedes that the conversations about seamlessness will be “intense” and by necessity multi-part. However, the state has a leg up on the process. Think, he says, of the constituencies of those who make up the Education Cabinet and the example set by the community college system.

Already the links in the chain are being strengthened. There was the news, announced with little fanfare earlier this year, that North Carolina had launched a statewide computer grid initiative covering 180 public and private institutions, including K-12 schools, colleges and universities. The system, hosted by the non-profit MCNC’s Grid Computing and Networking Services Co., connects the schools to high-speed Internet access, voice and data services, and computing infrastructure without individual entities having to purchase costly equipment. The UNC system is providing the computing.

Given that the N.C. Business Committee for Education has for the past two decades been involved in the state’s major education initiatives, it stands to reason there will sooner or later be input on the topic of seamlessness. The NCBCE’s areas of focus this year mirror the challenges facing the state — an achievement gap, high dropout rates, a workforce gap, teacher recruitment and retention — and align with the priorities of Gov. Easley: Building the More at Four program, reducing class sizes through grade 3, teacher quality, high school reform and increased access to higher education.

Created to bring both business support and perspective to K-12 education, NCBCE has been an incubator, nurturing Communities in Schools, Baldridge Quality Management Programs, school-to-work partnerships, adopt-a-school projects, and more recently the teacher recruitment campaign www.teach4nc.org, a web resource that provides information on pursuing teaching as an initial career or as a mid-career change. It also has provided advice and guidance to educators and lawmakers on how to adapt curriculum and programs to the current economy.

“When NCBCE was created, the K-12 education system in North Carolina was somewhat of a deterrent to economic development,” says Joe Freddoso, chairman of NCBCE and director of Cisco Systems’ Research Triangle Park site operations. “Companies saw the K-12 education system as a potential disadvantage when contemplating relocating or putting major operations in the state. Now, our schools are among the best in the Southeast and on a path to become among the highest rated in the nation. Our education leaders, elected officials, and business leaders have all had a role in this significant improvement.”

But, he adds, “it’s fair to say none of those groups feel our work is done.”




Taking the Next Step in Reinventing Our Schools
Good news, bad news. Bad news first: North Carolina’s public schools are facing some tough challenges — achievement and workforce gaps, teacher recruitment and retention, and too-high dropout rates, especially among ninth-graders.

Good news: Promising solutions are at hand, including one shining example in Pitt County that not only is aiding the education process but is helping develop healthcare professionals for an industry short on workers. Health Sciences Academy is a two-year-old high school curriculum program that provides four-year courses of study for students who plan to pursue health-related careers.

The academy partners with all of the major players in the region, and its goal is to develop a foundation of knowledge and skill that supports advanced education or entry-level employment in a health career. Enrollment is open to ninth- and 10th-graders, and 307 came on board in last year’s inaugural class and another 210 began their course of study this fall. “The response among students and parents has been overwhelming,” says Randy Collier, health careers coordinator for University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina and the liaison for each of the academy’s partners. “It’s been everything we expected and more, and the future is extremely bright. We are currently doing research at the national and regional levels to look at curriculum enhancement strategies that we can put into place for the 2005-06 year.”

Travis Lewis, formerly a lead guidance counselor at Ayden-Grifton High School, was hired this fall as the academy’s director. “He came on board already knowing high school curriculum and having a vision for knowing what needs to be done,” says Collier, who oversaw the hiring process. “The fact that he came to us already being credible in our schools was a big plus in that he hasn’t had to prove himself.”

Health Sciences Academy helps eliminate the above-mentioned problems before they arise, which no doubt pleases John Dornan, president and executive director of the Public School Forum of North Carolina, a nonprofit profit policy think tank that is a partnership of the state’s business leaders, education leaders and government leaders. “The high dropout rates and achievement gaps, among other things, are telling us we haven’t yet begun to effectively connect counseling and curriculum to the real world,” he states. “Too many students do not see the relevance of what’s happening in high schools to their lives. Too much of the system is geared to the minority of students who will go on to complete a four-year college program.”

Since ninth grade is the year students are most likely to drop out, and North Carolina has one of the nation’s worst attrition rates between the ninth and 10th grades, an increasing number of high schools are establishing “academies” for freshmen similar to what’s in place in Pitt County. The New Schools Project, of which Health Sciences Academy is a part, began in July 2003 as a $30 million initiative of Gov. Mike Easley and his Education Cabinet. Backed by a five-year, $11 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the money did not have a matching requirement. However, an incentive was offered. If during the lifetime of the grant an additional $10 million was raised in any combination of public and private money, the foundation would match it.

New Schools is headed by Tony Habit, Ed.D., and housed at the Public School Forum. It’s a deliberate step away from large “comprehensive” high schools where many students, feeling as if they’ve been set adrift, can’t adequately prepare for higher learning, work or citizenship. The aim is to create 40-50 more personalized high schools across the state. The first round of funding for the project focused on the creation of health science schools in eight systems, including Pitt County, and the next round of New Schools funding will focus on so-called “middle colleges.” These schools create a learning environment for high school students on the campuses of community colleges and sometimes colleges and universities.

Martin Lancaster, president of the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS), notes that one goal of the middle college program is to provide a seamless transition from high school to college for students. In fact, the NCCCS, the third largest in the country after California and Texas, has led the way when it comes to seamlessness, the idea of completing integrating curriculums and standards throughout the public education system in North Carolina.

Seven years ago, at the urging of the legislature, the 58 community colleges began a “reengineering,” agreeing on a core curriculum, redesigning courses with common numbering, negotiating transfer agreements and moving to a year divided into semesters instead of quarters so students could rely on consistency more easily move between community college campuses and four-year schools. It was all part of what became known as the Comprehensive Articulation Agreement, also signed by nearly two dozen private colleges. “Unfortunately,” says Lancaster, “historic as it was, the University of North Carolina system has not embraced a similar scheme that would further enhance seamlessness.”

Career-Technical Education, for nearly 90 years a part of North Carolina public school’s academic curriculum, finds itself with an ever-higher profile as educators seek ways to make high school relevant. It also offers, especially through College Tech Prep with its blending of higher level academic and technical courses for students interested in increasingly sophisticated technical occupations, a rigorous though seamless move through the system, says Kenneth W. Smith, a CTE section chief in the Department of Public Instruction. Because of partner relationships with various entities, including the state community colleges, CTE, too, has dual enrollment/dual credit programs such as the Pitt County Health Sciences Academy for ninth through 12th graders.

And at the community colleges, where workforce development remains the primary mission, there’s also a movement to help address North Carolina’s teacher shortage. It’s estimated that up to 80,000 new teachers will be needed during the next decade. Currently, the state’s teacher training colleges are turning out less than a third of what is needed each year. More than 1,000 teachers have been recruited from overseas through exchange programs like Visiting International Faculty. Last February, East Carolina University, which has the largest teacher education program in the state, received $1.25 million from Wachovia to combat the shortage of teachers through a partnership with community colleges.

Through Partnership East, centers or “hubs” have been established at Craven, Edgecombe and Wayne community colleges with a fourth proposed at College of the Albemarle in Manteo. Aspiring teachers are able to take all their course work at the hub. The first two years are taught by community college instructors, and the last two years are offered by ECU faculty members, either face-to-face or through distance-education. Because the students do not have to move or commute to ECU to complete their university degrees, they face fewer disruptions in their lives.

ECU’s College of Education and the community colleges within the partnerships are working to create seamless articulation agreements. Key to the success of the program is attracting non-traditional students to the teaching profession.

Another high-profile business-education partnership — termed High Five — is under way in the Triangle and involves the Wake, Johnston, Durham, Orange and Chapel Hill-Carrboro school systems. Designed to restructure high schools and reduce the dropout rate to zero, the multi-million dollar effort is funded by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, Progress Energy, Capitol Broadcasting, SAS and the News & Observer. Vann Langston, a veteran educator, was recently hired as executive director. -- Lisa H. Towle




Higher Education Bonds: On Time and On Budget
In 2000, after a widespread and bipartisan lobbying campaign led by NCCBI, nearly 74 percent of voters in all of the state’s counties approved a $3.1 billion higher education bond referendum. The vote was extraordinary because it put the stamp of approval on the largest capital bond issue for higher education in U.S. history. Now, midway through the six-year building program there are alternate ways of evaluating it.

By the numbers. Directly impacted by the bond money are 3 university affiliates, 16 universities, 58 community colleges, 183,000 university students enrolled statewide, and 800,000 community college students enrolled statewide. As of December 2003, 31 projects in the Community College System had been completed. costing $134 million. Another $425.4 million has been approved for future projects. Of the UNC system’s 316 projects valued at $2.5 billion, 41 were finished, 154 were under construction and 86 were in design.

Behind the numbers. As North Carolina moves from an assembly line past to interconnected future, the bond program is paying for the facilities in which the next generation of workers are educated. The thinking is that a good number of them will be in fields requiring a strong science background – biotechnology, computer technology, engineering, nanotechnology, pharmaceuticals, genetics/proteomics/bioinformatics, environmental sciences, materials science, optoelectronics, life sciences, nursing and allied health, teaching – as nearly half of all funding to date has been for science-related projects. These projects include new laboratories and the modernization of and additions to science facilities.

When the bond issue was approved, North Carolina ranked third nationally in the number of projected high school graduates. It’s expected that over the next 10 years, enrollment at both universities and community colleges will skyrocket by tens of thousands. Classroom space for students of everything from education and textiles to metal fabrication and welding is being built, as are those facilities which sustain the everyday life of students: housing, health services, public safety and administration.

Maintenance of state-owned buildings was deferred for years. Now those buildings, stretched to the limits of capacity, are being renovated, oft times by local construction workers. Thus, more money is pumped into area economies. The numbers given to the Higher Education Bond Oversight Committee by the UNC president’s office and the NCCCS show that bond projects provided more than 33,000 jobs in the first three years of the program. To date, design contracts have totaled $218 million while construction contracts add up to nearly $1.4 billion.

Better yet, according to the bond committee, the building program is progressing on time and on budget. — Lisa H. Towle



Davie County Bets Its Future on Pre-K
The facts are these: In the 2002-2003 school year, 67 percent of 4-year-olds in Davie County were not enrolled in any kind of pre-kindergarten program. Ninety-four school districts of 117 in North Carolina have at least one pre-kindergarten classroom; Davie County is not in one of those districts. In August 2003, only 493 children in the county entered kindergarten, and of those 19 percent had multiple risk factors for potential school failure. The numbers don’t impress, that’s for sure. But help is on the way, and with it comes hope for a better educated workforce and economic development.

In August 2003, the Mebane Charitable Foundation in Mocksville issued a $750,000 challenge grant to the Davie County school system. To get the money, citizens of the county had to pass a school bond referendum and raise an additional $1.5 million in private support over 12 months. The challenge was accepted, the referendum was passed and the fund-raising began last April. A portion of the money is earmarked for the construction of six pre-kindergarten classrooms, one at each public elementary school site in the county. They are scheduled to start opening in September 2005.

Meanwhile, the foundation has awarded a $1.05 million grant to the Hill Center in Durham and Research Triangle Institute in RTP for a study on the literacy needs of preschool children in Davie County. A curriculum based on the study will then be implemented in local child care centers as well as in the pre-K classrooms built with the challenge grant monies, and offered at low or no cost.

Everyone connected with this public-private partnership has made the connection between the number of children who fail to learn to read by the end of the third grade and drop out rates. And they’re willing to think long term. Davie County Commissioner Ken White, says, “I believe that if you look at any ill in society, education can help get rid of it.” Adds another commissioner, Michael Allen: “This project will help set us apart as we attempt to recruit major business and industry into Davie County. Economic development is a multi-layered strategy. Having an educated workforce is just one piece of that puzzle.” — Lisa H. Towle



School Calendar Bill Stirs Wide Debate
The General Assembly has enacted several laws making radical changes in the state’s public schools – requiring students to pass end-of-grade tests before they can be promoted to the next grade, for example – but none stirred up as much public passion as the measure stipulating that schools cannot open before Aug. 25 each year and most close by June 10.

The action by the legislature to take some control over the school calendar was pushed by an unusual coalition of teachers, parents and the state’s travel and tourism industry. While parents and teachers had largely philosophical or personal reasons for pushing the measure, the $6-billion-a-year tourism industry’s financial arguments for the change seemed to carry the day. Industry leaders pointed out that August tourism revenues – once the second-strongest month in beach house rentals – had dropped precipitously in recent years.

The measure, sponsored by Rep. Connie Wilson (R-Mecklenburg), was the subject of several public hearings, rallies and protests from the time it was introduced in the General Assembly on May 13 until it finally was approved by the legislature on July 18. Several school systems around the state already had opened their doors by the time Gov. Mike Easley finally signed the bill into law on Aug. 9. The new law will take effect with the 2005-06 school year.

Two of the most controversial aspects of the new law are how it will impact year-round schools and those systems that usually lose several days to snow and ice. To address those concerns, the measure does not apply to year-round schools and those that have been closed eight days per year during any four years in the last decade because of severe weather, energy shortages, power failures or other emergency situations. That later category includes school systems in Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Davidson, Forsyth, Granville, Haywood, Madison, Mitchell, Person, Stokes, Surry, Vance, Yancey and Watauga counties and city schools in Lexington, Thomasville, Chapel Hill-Carrboro, Rowan-Salisbury and Mount Airy. School boards in those areas will continue to have the freedom to begin and end the year as they choose.

Another controversy surrounded the reduction in teacher workdays, a step that was necessary to fit the continuing requirement for 180 instructional days between the new Aug. 25 to June 10 school year. Teachers currently are allotted 20 workdays each year for planning, meetings and professional development activities. The new law reduces that to 15 days. The new law doesn’t reduce teacher salaries to reflect the fact that they will work five fewer days next year, meaning they will get the equivalent of a 4.8 percent raise in their daily pay rate.

The reduction in teacher workdays bothered Gov. Easley, although he said it eventually will benefits all concerned. “I believe at the end of the day this legislation will be a win for education, a win for travel and tourism and most importantly, a win for our school children,” he said at the bill-signing ceremony. “North Carolina is the sixth most visited state in the nation and this bill should help to bolster tourism, which is an important part of our economy. However, there can be no compromise on teacher quality, and there will be none. I will never waver from my commitment to ensure this state provides a superior educational system for all of our students.”

The governor delayed signing the bill into law while he sought assurance from the State Board of Education that teachers would continue receiving the necessary time to prepare their lessons, meet with parents and develop their skills as professionals. He signed the measure only after the State Board of Education wrote†a letter to him saying it would still have†the administrative ability to enforce whatever amount of time is necessary for teacher development.

The governor also asked the State Board of Education to work with other education groups such as the Public School Forum, the N.C. Association of Educators, the N.C. Association of School Administrators, the N.C. Association of School Boards†and others to develop recommendations for maximizing professional development opportunities for teachers both during and outside of the school year.


Schools Bank on Business Help with IT
Carolina schools are becoming more high-tech by the day, as evidenced by two initiatives that were highlighted late this summer.

A $250,000 grant from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation is making SAS inSchool’s educational software resources available to classrooms across the state. The foundation and SAS inSchool, along with the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, launched a two-year plan at the beginning of the 2003-04 school year, and this latest grant will ensure its continued success.

“We’ve been pleased at the response from educators and students across the state to the innovative curricula offerings from SAS inSchool and believe these resources are helping our schools,” says Howard Lee, chair of the State Board of Education.

 “The Bank of America Charitable Foundation grant is the type of public-private partnership that will help us meet the ambitious goals we’ve set for our children through the ABCs program.”

Lee’s reference is to the state’s primary school-improvement and accountability program created by law in 1986. Furthering the cause, says BofA North Carolina President Graham Denton, is good for North Carolina. “This educational software continues to have a profound impact in our schools and, in turn, in the future of our communities,” Denton says.

The partnership between the three entities has been lauded nationally, says Jim Goodnight, CEO and president of Cary-based SAS. “This grant has generated interest across the country, and the state can be proud of its status as a leader for implementation of technology in education.”

The same can be said for SAS inSchool. Its standards-based resources are receiving growing acceptance across the country by middle schools, high schools and virtual schools, plus community colleges and universities. The software offers a web-based planning environment for teachers and it promotes problem solving and critical thinking skills for students.

The other news came from IBM, the technology giant with deep roots in North Carolina, which announced that beginning this fall it will offer free access to its software, plus course-development assistance to any interested U.S. college or university.

In addition to allowing professors to download software for course use, IBM will permit them to use software courses developed by consultants in IBM’s services group for training within the company.

And in some cases, schools will be allowed to use IBM hardware over the Internet under a “virtual loaner program.”

IBM’s offer seeks to guarantee that computer-science programs will teach students about open-source software and Java programming languages as well as IBM’s proprietary software.

“We’re getting strong signals from schools that they want an alternative to Microsoft,” says Buell Duncan, IBM’s head of developer relations and the person responsible for overseeing the company’s academic program.