COUNTY LEADERS DECLARE JUNE 9 “BILL MCNEAL DAY”

Friday, June 9, has been proclaimed Bill McNeal Day in Wake County by the Wake County Board of Commissioners and the Wake County Board of Education in honor of Superintendent Bill McNeal. Having begun in 1976 as a teacher at Carroll Junior High, McNeal will retire at the end of the month after six years as superintendent and a career devoted to Wake County schools. McNeal's leadership and achievements resulted in his recognition as the 2004 National Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators. The commissioners and board established Bill McNeal Day to honor the retiring school superintendent for his 32 years of dedicated service, effective leadership and excellent stewardship.

ASSET PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPS TEACHER LEADERS

The Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ), Wake Education Partnership and the Education Foundation of the Orange County Schools are working to reduce teacher turnover by developing teacher leadership for transforming schools and improving student achievement. Through the Achieving School Success through Empowering Teachers (ASSET) partnership, funded by a grant from the Wachovia Foundation, we will develop an innovative distributed leadership model that fully taps the expertise of principals and teachers to transform their schools and improve student learning. In the selected schools, teachers and principals will learn and share best practices and resources with each other in a variety of way, including a virtual learning community.

SUMMER TIPS SEMINAR

Parents and educators are invited to a Summer Tips Seminar on June 24 from 10 a.m. to noon at Martin Street Baptist Church (1001 East Martin Street). The seminar, sponsored by the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children, is designed to give parents a guide and information packets to help them prepare their children for the upcoming school year. Edie Pierce, WCPSS Senior Testing Director, will present the seminar. For more information, contact Calla Wright at cccaac@nc.rr.com.

PEACE COLLEGE OFFERS TEACHING PROGRAM

Peace College will begin training prospective teachers to work with elementary and special education students. Students who complete the program, which was developed in partnership with WCPSS, will be licensed to teach elementary school students as well as special education students in K-12. Organizers say the training program will help with the teacher shortage and is the only one of its kind in the state. For more information, contact Jean Murphy, program director, at jmurphy@peace.edu or (919) 508-2000.

WAKE NAMES PANEL TO ADVISE ON SCHOOLS

The Wake County Board of Commissioners and the Board of Education have appointed 12 people to a new advisory committee on school construction. Both boards agreed to form the facilities advisory committee as a way to boost public confidence in a November school bond issue. The committee includes Partnership Board members Roddy Jones, contractor; Russell Killen, attorney; John Mabe, attorney; and Rob Weaver, banker; as well as Fred Atkins, retired DOT deputy secretary; Sepi Asefnia, engineer; Glenn Blackley, retired facilities manger; Justus Everette, engineer; Billie Redmond, president of a real estate management company; Jim Smith, architect; Terry Stoops, policy analyst; and Eddie Truelove, contractor.

WAKE SCHOOL BOARD TO RANK FACTORS FOR YEAR-ROUND CONVERSION

Wake County school board members are working to rank the 12 possible criteria that could be used to pick which 16 to 30 elementary schools will be converted to a multi-track year-round calendar in 2007. Board members will have to weigh, among other factors, whether it would be preferable to convert the fewest number of large schools or to convert more small schools to avoid overloading any one area with the year-round calendar. The year-round conversions are part of a $1.06 billion construction plan to keep up with record growth. Read the article from The News & Observer for more information.

N.C. SCIENCE TEST SCORES STAGNANT OR DECLINING

The 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Science results show that North Carolina fourth-graders are on par with their national peers in science, but eighth-grade students performed slightly lower than the national average. NAEP assesses science in two major dimensions: fields of science (earth, physical, and life) and knowing and doing science (conceptual understanding, scientific investigation, and practical reasoning).

SCHOOL START AGE MAY SHIFT

To improve kindergarten and to discourage children from falling behind, some lawmakers want to stop more 4-year-olds from entering kindergarten in North Carolina's public schools. To attend kindergarten in the fall of 2008, children would have to turn 5 by Aug. 31 of that year. Ultimately, the effort's aim is to reduce high school drop-out rates by preventing younger students from lagging throughout their school years. The new rule would have exceptions: Academically gifted children and 4-year-olds who have completed preschool still could get a head start. Only four states have later birthday cutoff dates than North Carolina’s current Oct. 16 cutoff. The downside of the new proposal is that some parents will be forced to pay for another year of day care or preschool, and the move could delay schooling for some of the state's poorest children, who often benefit from an early start. Read the article from The News & Observer for more information.

INDIA BRIEFING SOUNDS WAKE-UP CALL

The Public School Forum and the Center for International Understanding recently released the findings of the North Carolina delegation that studied how education has contributed to positioning India to emerge as a major factor in the global economy. The 26-member delegation focused their examination on top Indian high schools and colleges. Their major conclusions include:
• North Carolina's schools should place a far greater focus on math, science and technology.
• North Carolina should invest far more in its top students and ensure that they are going as far educationally as they possibly can.
• North Carolina schools should place a far greater emphasis on coursework that will help students function in an increasingly global world.

"What we saw and learned should serve as a wake-up call to us all. India has made a long-term investment in education, especially in the areas of mathematics, science and technology, that is now paying huge dividends,” said John Dornan, the Forum’s executive director. “More and more American companies are looking to Indian firms to do highly technical jobs requiring a solid educational background in areas as diverse as medicine, marketing, banking and technology.”

ACT REPORT SHOWS SAME SKILLS NEEDED FOR WORK, COLLEGE

What do an electrician, construction worker and plumber have in common with college freshmen? According to a study recently published by ACT they all need comparable reading and math skills to succeed. The new report, "Ready for College and Ready for Work: Same or Different?” compared 476,000 Illinois high school juniors' results from 2001 to 2004 on two exams: the ACT college admissions test and WorkKeys, an assessment of employability skills. ACT determined that similar reading and math skills are required to pass first-year college courses as are needed to succeed in entry-level "family wage" jobs. The ACT recommends that all high school students should experience a common academic core that prepares them for both college and workforce training, regardless of their future plans.

STUDY FINDS STUDENTS OF NBCTS ACHIEVE NO BETTER THAN PEERS

Students of teachers who hold certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) achieve, on average, no greater academic progress than students of teachers without the special status, a long-awaited study using North Carolina data concludes. The study found that there was basically no difference in the achievement levels of students whose teachers earned National Board Certification, those who tried but failed to earn it, those who never tried to get the certification, or those who earned it after the student test-score data was collected. The study, conducted by William L. Sanders, the statistician who pioneered the concept of "value-added" analysis of teaching effectiveness, examined more than 35,000 student records and more than 800 teachers in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Wake County districts. Read the article from Education Week for more information. Visit the Center for Teaching Quality to read Barnett Berry’s blog entry on the evidence that shows the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is good for the profession.

GROWING IMMIGRANT POPULATION CHANGING FACE OF U.S. PUBLIC EDUCATION

Nearly half of the nation's children under age 5 are racial or ethnic minorities, and the percentage is increasing mainly because the Hispanic population is growing so rapidly, according to a new census report. Experts say immigrant families are becoming more concerned with the quality of their children's early education, aware that it can affect their future academic success. Read the article for more information.

In a recent issue of Education Week, Eileen Gale Kugler writes about the valuable lessons taught in diverse classrooms where American-born students sit side by side with immigrant students.

LEGAL CHALLENGES CONSIDER ISSUE OF RACE IN SCHOOL ASSIGNMENTS

The U.S. Supreme Court this week agreed to consider the constitutionality of weighing race as a factor in assigning students to public schools, combining appeals from two cases involving voluntary racial-diversity plans in urban school districts. Justices will hear appeals from a Seattle parents group and a Kentucky parent, ruling for the first time on diversity plans used by a host of school districts around the country. Arguments will likely take place in November. The court's announcement followed six weeks of internal deliberations over whether to hear the appeals, an unusually long time.

In a separate case, the Nebraska Legislature voted to divide Omaha's public schools into racially identifiable districts, prompting the NAACP last month to file a lawsuit against the state arguing that the law "intentionally furthers racial segregation." The breakup, which would not occur until July 2008, creates three districts -- one mostly black, one predominantly white and one largely Hispanic. Supporters said the plan would give minorities control over their own school board and ensure that their children are not shortchanged in favor of white youngsters. Opponents charge that the plan reverses more than 50 years of efforts to desegregate the nation's schools.

EDUCATION DATA AVAILABLE ONLINE

The Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released its annual report on the condition and progress of education in the U.S. "The Condition of Education 2006" includes 50 indicators in five main areas -- participation in education, learner outcomes, student effort and educational progress, elementary and secondary education contexts, and postsecondary education contexts -- and a special analysis on international assessments. Trends show "both promises and challenges."

American School Board Journal presents a state-by-state report card on student enrollment, teacher salaries, per-pupil expenditures, assessment scores, and other gauges of the health and well-being of our nation’s schools. Other articles explore international comparisons of student performance, preschool education, high school graduation, student health, education law and finance, and the No Child Left Behind Act.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Oct. 12: Annual Meeting from 7:30-9:30 a.m. at the McKimmon Center. Special Tribute and Celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the Merger of the Raleigh City and Wake County School Systems.