Jan. 8, 2009

Midterm report: No Excuses

The slipping economy is certain to affect Wake County’s public schools in 2009, but that doesn’t excuse the district from meeting its academic goals, Superintendent Del Burns told board members this week.

“By all indicators, we are experiencing a serious recession,” Burns said in a midterm report to the school board. “But our students’ needs do not change in the middle of a stormy economy. In fact, our students’ success has become all the more critical.”

The district cut $11.2 million from its budget in December due to declining state and local revenues. More cuts are possible. Burns, however, returned several times to the theme of pushing ahead regardless of challenges.

In the process, he singled out efforts to close the achievement gap and meet the district’s long-term goal of graduating all students by 2014 prepared to compete globally.

“Our current rate of steady performance isn’t good enough, especially in light of heightened expectations,” he said.

And all schools, regardless of location, deserve quality programs because “we are a school system, not a system of schools,” he said.

Given the sometimes tense relations between the school board and county officials earlier this year, it was also notable that Burns went out of his way to thank County Manager David Cooke and the county commissioners.

Burns and Cook are working closely to keep the district’s building plans on track at a time when the economy has hindered the county’s ability to finance new schools.

Push for common standards

Efforts to come up with national standards in math and reading that also give educators an understanding of how U.S. students compare internationally got a big boost just before the end of the year.

The National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers and the school reform group Achieve Inc. released a report urging states to work together to generate common standards that are benchmarked against international exams.
The groups were joined by the Washington-based Alliance for Excellent Education and the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership in Chapel Hill.

Given its historical bias toward local school control, the United States isn’t expected to adopt national standards anytime soon. But the stature of the groups involved in calling for international benchmarks combined with a growing number of state and local efforts to revamp student testing programs suggests this effort isn’t likely to fade away.

Echoing concerns of other groups, the report points out that U.S. graduation rates were the best in the industrialized world 40 years ago. Today the country ranks 18th out of 24.

“The real purpose of this report was to say to states that it’s not enough to look internally anymore,” Gene Wilhoit, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, said during the report’s release Dec. 19.

In addition to making common state standards globally competitive, the groups’ other recommendations include:

• Working together to ensure textbooks, digital media and classroom lessons are aligned with international standards.
• Revising state policies for recruiting, developing and supporting teachers.
• Holding schools and districts accountable through monitoring, interventions and support drawing from international best practices.
• Measuring student achievement in an international context to ensure students can compete in the current economy.

Equity vs. Equality

Equity means treating people fairly. Equality means providing exactly the same thing to everyone. It was fairly easy for Wake County school board members to agree on that much during their first meeting of 2009. Then things got harder.

Board members want to craft a policy that guarantees all students equal access to a quality education through the equitable distribution of resources. In other words, they want to say all schools will have enough money and skilled teachers to make sure students excel in the classroom.

In a district that has promised to graduate every student by 2014 and close achievement gaps in the process, putting a policy like this in writing is more than a rhetorical exercise. It’s a public pronouncement that will guide dozens, if not hundreds, of decisions about how Wake County runs its schools.

Should every school offer the same menu of Advanced Placement classes? Should the schools spend more to educate poorer students? How much more? Is it acceptable if minority students fail classes or get suspended at higher rates than white students? How can teachers be enticed to spread their talents equally throughout the system? Should every high school have an International Baccalaureate Programme? What about Wake’s magnet schools where programs are specifically designed to attract certain types of students with different offerings?

School leaders will spend months working their way through these questions. The debate will probably flare into headlines at times. Various groups with the schools will mobilize if they feel they are being shorted.  Equity vs. equality. It’s fairly easy to understand in theory.

                                               
Noteworthy

…The Wake school board will continue to hold public hearings through January on the new three-year student reassignment plan. A final decision is expected in February.

... A key meeting among county officials is expected this month to determine whether the county can resume bond sales this spring. The county’s ability to issue debt could determine whether the district can carry out its long-term reassignment plans.

… School budgets across the country are continuing to erode, with some districts reporting significant problems. Budget gaps totaling more than $30 billion are being reported in 31 states, according to a fiscal report cited in Education Week. The total doesn’t include $3.6 billion in cuts made by some states earlier in 2008.