Education Exchange Meeting Tonight in Knightdale
Join the Conversation about Growth Projections and School Site Selection
Knightdale Town Hall – 950 Steeple Square Court
March 22 from 7-8:30 p.m.

This first meeting in the Education Exchange series, hosted by Wake Education Partnership, provides Wake County citizens an opportunity to learn more about how student enrollment growth is projected and how Wake County school sites are selected. Join us to hear the first of a series of reports from the Wake County Citizens’ Facilities Advisory Committee, as well as information on the new and more accurate system employed by WCPSS to project long-term enrollment growth through a partnership with N.C. State University and planners from all 12 Wake municipalities.

The meeting is free and open to the public – no registration is required. Knightdale Councilman Russell Killen, a member of the Wake Ed Board of Directors and the CFAC, will facilitate the meeting. Presenters will be Chuck Dulaney, WCPSS assistant superintendent for growth and planning, and Mike Burriss, WCPSS assistant superintendent for facilities. A short presentation will be followed by time for questions and discussion.

If you can’t attend the meeting, you can watch it on Time Warner Cable channel 22 in eastern Wake County. The meeting will be broadcast live and will be rebroadcast at 7 p.m. on March 28, April 4 and April 11. The next meeting in the series will be on May 9 from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Holly Springs Cultural Center, where the discussion will focus on how school construction in Wake compares to other districts across the country.

Education Headlines from The News & Observer

• Schools' magnet status in peril: Wake school board says schools will have to meet revised criteria in order to keep programs.
• Parent group sues Wake schools: Wake CARES claims selective year-round conversions violate the state constitution in their lawsuit against WCPSS.
• More pay weighed for some teachers: Lawmakers are talking about raises for math and science instructors, or those at high-poverty schools.
• Deal allows schools to save on sales tax: Plan could save $11 million to $13 million in sales tax from the current construction program.

Is Wake County at the Breaking Point?

Relationships between the Board of Education and the Board of Commissioners, past and future school bond campaigns, impact fees and transfer taxes, student assignment and school construction. Writer Bob Geary tackles it all in a recent Independent article titled, “Breaking Point,” where he asks whether the “growth wars” in Wake County are pulling the school system apart.

Educator Party at Borders

Borders Books in Cary (1751 Walnut Street) invites all educators (including teachers, administrators, trainers, school staff and bus drivers) to join their Spring Educator Party on Friday, March 23, from 4-7 p.m. The party includes food and wine, as well as three raffle drawings, sample massages, book signings and more. From March 22-27, all current and retired educators will also receive 25 percent off books, CDs, DVDs and more.

Author Events at Quail Ridge

Quail Ridge Books & Music (3522 Wade Ave., Raleigh) announces spring author events of interest to educators. On Thursday, March 29, at 7 p.m., the legendary Newbery winner Richard Peck will present his new book, On the Wings of Heroes, as part of Educators’ Night honoring teachers. Then on Monday, April 16, at 7 p.m., come back to hear from Rick Riordan, author of The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters. For more information, visit Quail Ridge Books & Music online or call (919)828-1588.

Wake Ed Trustee a Pioneer in Opening N.C. Schools to All

On the 50th anniversary of the start of North Carolina’s school desegregation efforts, N&O columnist Rick Martinez talks with Wake Ed Trustee Dudley Flood, a lifelong educator who facilitated the desegregation process for the state from 1969 through 1973. Flood says their efforts were successful because “we were only interested in doing what's right and not caring who was right." He looks back at the state's desegregation accomplishments with pride, but worries they may prove short-lived. "Resegregation of our schools is becoming rampant," he told Martinez. "If the schools become segregated, society won't be far behind."

Teaching and Learning Conditions Improve High School Reform Efforts

A new report from the Center for Teaching Quality and the N.C. Business Committee for Education describes how redesigned and early college high schools provide working conditions for teachers that contribute to rigor, relevance and relationships, ensuring that all students develop skills for critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration and innovation. Lessons learned from the high school reform movement can inform efforts to create more effective teaching and learning environments in all high schools so students graduate ready for the economic and civic demands of today’s world.

Study Shows 6th-Graders Suffer in Middle Schools

According to a study by researchers at Duke University and the University of California at Berkeley, sixth graders do better in elementary school than middle school. The study, released last month, focused on nearly 45,000 North Carolina sixth-graders in 243 schools in 99 districts. The researchers found that sixth-graders in middle school had more discipline problems and lower test scores than their sixth-grade peers in elementary schools. The results suggest that exposing sixth graders to older peers has negative and lasting consequences on their academic trajectories.

In recent decades, there has been a marked shift away from junior high school, toward the middle school configuration of grades 6-8, or occasionally 5-8. In the early 1970s, less than one-quarter of middle schools incorporated sixth grade. By 2000, three-quarters of all middle schools enrolled sixth grade students. North Carolina’s public middle schools, which form the basis for the study, have led the national trend of incorporating sixth grade. In the 1999-2000 school year, more than 90 percent of the state’s 379 middle schools served grades 6-8. Based on the results, researchers suggest that there is a strong argument for separating sixth graders from older adolescents.

In a related story from The New York Times, many school districts find that middle school teachers often lack expertise in subject matter and in adolescent psychology. This lack of necessary preparation leads to increased rates of turnover among middle school teachers across the country. (Link to article requires registration.)

Quality Education Provides Return on Investment

Quality education can be expensive, but poor and inadequate education for substantial numbers of our young may have public and social consequences that are even more costly. This discussion is usually framed along moral lines, but a new study has undertaken a cost-benefit analysis of five leading interventions that have been shown to significantly boost the high school graduation rates for young black males, who are educationally and economically the nation’s most at-risk population. The authors find that if the black and white high school graduation rates were equalized through interventions such as these -- an increase of 24,000 new high school graduates each year -- society could save from $3.3 to $4.7 billion for each annual cohort of 20-year-old black males in costs from crime, health care, personal income and state and federal tax revenue. More specifically, the net public benefit at age 20 for each additional black male high school graduate is between $136,000 and $198,000, meaning that for every dollar invested in raising high school completion among this group, there are two to four dollars in public benefits. The study suggests that the costs to the nation of failing to ensure high school graduation for black males are substantial.

MAKE AN INVESTMENT

Your donations make the Partnership's work possible. Please help us continue to support excellence in public education in Wake County by making an investment in the Annual Fund for Education today. When we invest in our schools, we build a better, stronger, more prosperous community for us all. And together, we all win.

UPCOMING WAKE ED PARTNERSHIP EVENTS

March 22: Education Exchange meeting at the Knightdale Town Hall from 7-8:30 p.m. Topic will focus on growth projections and site selection for schools.

March 28: Deadline for Food for Thought grant applications. Applications for Wake Education Partnership’s Food for Thought grants are being accepted online now through March 28.

April 4 : Wake Regional Education Roundtable. Topic: Student Achievement; hosted by Wake Ed and the Morrisville and Cary Chambers of Commerce. Registration required online by March 23.