A Letter from Phil Kirk

Let's Finish the Job of Building Better Schools

North Carolina public schools have made some very strong gains over the last 10 years. Student achievement is up. Our accountability model is strong; the Princeton Review recently rated North Carolina’s testing program as the best in the nation. We continue to strengthen and improve our curriculum. North Carolina’s legislative leaders remain committed to supporting the recruitment and retention of quality teachers. Class sizes have been lowered, particularly in the primary grades.

It is time to finish the job of building superior public schools.

The report issued recently by the Governor’s Education First Task Force, on which State Superintendent Mike Ward served as one of its three co-chairs, focuses attention on finishing this critical job. The recommendations of this report, developed by 41 North Carolinians who served on the task force, are based in research and are ambitious and bold. Importantly, these recommendations build upon the work that has already been done to make our schools the best that they can be.

Although North Carolina is fortunate to have a great deal of citizens who strongly support public education, even the most fervent advocates may wonder if this is the time to intensify our efforts. The economy is poor and public education will absorb cuts this year just as other parts of state government. We believe it is even more important at such a time to continue our investment in education so that future adults will be as productive and useful as they can be.

The task force endorses Gov. Mike Easley’s agenda for education, including: the expansion of the More at Four pre-kindergarten program to serve the state’s 40,000 at-risk 4-year-olds; reducing class size in K-3 to 18 students in all schools and to 15 or less in low-performing and high-poverty schools; continuing efforts to exceed the national teacher salary average to help in teacher recruitment; and providing quality information to parents and communities through the N.C. School Report Card. In addition to this immediate agenda, the task force has identified six key strategies and 31 recommendations that we believe North Carolina must address to create a system of superior schools. These six strategies are briefly outlined below.

• Intensify the focus on reading. Develop a massive training effort in reading instruction that begins with K-3 teachers. The goal is to ensure that children finish third grade reading on grade level.

• Ensure a high-quality and stable teacher corps. Focus on retaining good teachers by incorporating teacher retention efforts into evaluations of school leaders. Expand recruitment programs and create pay incentives to attract teachers to places and subjects of the most need.

• Develop superior leaders for superior schools. Expand the Principal Fellows Program and local leadership development efforts. Make quality professional development more accessible by expanding the Principals Executive Program and other efforts.

• Reform high schools. Establish a public-private High School Innovation Fund to create small and workforce-focused high schools. Create “early college” opportunities with community colleges and four-year institutions. Develop the next generation of high school assessments to focus on entrance needs for post-secondary education and the workplace.

• Strengthen the home-community-school connection. Create a State Cabinet for Children and Youth, bringing together the governor, heads of major state agencies and other state-funded initiatives focused on the needs of young people and families. Put a home-community-school coordinator in high-poverty schools and develop high-quality parent training resources for all schools.

• Invest more resources; demand more accountability. Implement a system of graduated or “earned flexibility” for local schools and school systems to allow greater flexibility for schools that perform well above state standards and direct low-performing schools to research-backed strategies for improvement. Provide more resources for at-risk students based on poverty and performance. Prepare for another school facilities bond to meet the $6.2 billion in school facility needs. Make eliminating gaps a priority by revising the ABCs performance bonus structure.

This ambitious list of strategies and activities is not a short-term plan. These strategies are designed to address North Carolina’s educational needs over an eight-year period with a cost of approximately $90 million in new spending each year. (It is important to note that 16 recommendations do not require new funding at all.)

Citizens can review the entire report of this important task force. It is available online at www.ncpublicschools.org under “What’s Going On.” This plan provides a powerful tool for all of us to work together to finish the job of building superior schools.

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