I'll keep it short for now but Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta urged members of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce to cooperate with the district as it moves forward
Margiotta was the opening speaker this morning at the Chamber's Summer Leadership Conference in Greensboro. Margiotta was walking into a tough crowd considering how the Chamber adopted diversity earlier this year as one of its core principals for student assignment.
Margiotta repeatedly urged the audience to keep an open mind about what will happen after the elimination of the socioeconomic diversity policy.
“Give us the opportunity to prove that we can make it work,” Margiotta said.
Margiotta made a three-prong argument.
First, Margiotta pointed to how Wake’s graduation rates for black, Hispanic and low-income students are below the state average. He also noted how black and low-income students in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system are outperforming their peers in Wake on state reading and math tests.
Second, he said new initiatives are being planned or implemented to help improve student achievement. He cited changes in student suspension policy and the new initiatives at Knightdale High.
Third, he asked the Chambers to help out. He said they can do things like help find money to recruit and compensate principals who work at weak schools.
“The board believes that all students will benefit from the new policy,” Margiotta said. “In the best interests of students, families, the community, and businesses, the board and Chamber must cooperate in this effort.”
UPDATE
Click here to read the text of Margiotta's speech.
Comments
Weak Schools
Sun, 08/29/2010 - 13:08 — Solon77Third, he asked the Chambers to help out. He said they can do things like help find money to recruit and compensate principals who work at weak schools.
What does he think - there is an alumni association that can directly fund this kind of thing ? As far as I know there are no issues in finding principals and teachers to go to any of our schools. How does he know that we will have weak schools ?
The business community in
Sun, 08/29/2010 - 15:56 — KeungHui (author)The business community in Wake has historically helped develop compensation packages to entice new teachers, regardless of school. For instance, new teachers get preferential deals on loans or free cable service for x period.
But there hasn't been anything in Wake specifically involving getting the business community to work with specific schools to get staff to work there. Mission Possible in Guilford gets money from businesses to help fund its efforts.
One of largest
Sun, 08/29/2010 - 16:13 — Solon77WCPSS is one of the largest employers in the county. As such businesses do offer discounts on services, similar to discounts they offer other large companies. With regards to Guilford can you share details - Thanks
check out the link for more info
Sun, 08/29/2010 - 16:19 — AngelaWhttp://www.guilford.k12.nc.us/depts/mission_possible/background.htm
Mission Possible Overview
In the 2006-07 school year Guilford County Schools (GCS) launched the Mission Possible program. Mission Possible is a comprehensive teacher incentive plan that combines multiple components to keep and attract highly effective teachers and administrators for the ultimate goal of increasing student achievement in schools with critical needs.
Twenty highly impacted schools were initially selected to participate in the program that began with the 2006-07 school year. The selection of schools to participate was based on socio economic factors, their Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and ABC status, and their teacher turnover rate. The educational needs of many children in these schools selected were being highly impacted by these factors, thus their education needs were not being met.
The Mission Possible teachers and administrators receive ongoing specialized training, extensive collaborative support, reduced class sizes, recruitment incentives and become eligible for performance incentives. Mission Possible schools are professional learning communities with supportive leaders and collaborative work environments.
The Mission Possible financial incentives are based on grade levels and subjects that are part of the state and national accountability requirements. These incentives are available to kindergarten through second-grade teachers, third-through eighth-grade teachers of math, language arts or reading, high school math and English teachers, curriculum facilitators and principals.
In the fall of 2006, the US Department of Education provided an $8 million grant to expand the GCS’ Mission Possible initiative to include an additional eight schools as Mission Possible in 2007-08. Also in 2006, the UNC system and Action Greensboro awarded GCS a $2 million grant to pilot a Math Incentive program at selected high schools. This Math Pilot, called “Cumulative Effect,” includes Mission Possible high schools and two additional high schools to be launched in 2007-08.
GCS is the first school system in the state to pilot an alternative salary structure on this level. The total number of schools that are now a part of the Mission Possible program and the Cumulative Effect Math Pilot is 30. It is expected that the Mission Possible program will help keep and attract highly effective teachers for the ultimate goal of increasing student achievement in schools with critical needs.
Note: GCS will be phasing
Sun, 08/29/2010 - 19:46 — willynillyNote: GCS will be phasing out MP soon. The money was paid to ONLY math and readign teachers. The staff and faculty of schools did not see things fairly and equitably since reading and math teachers got a few thousand dollars more a year with nothing to other teachers. This caused a good deal of dissnetion when other teachers were asked to do more....the reponse was usually, "get them to do it, they get more money."
Chart I saw
Sun, 08/29/2010 - 20:42 — Solon77Initially the funding for the program was to come from reducing teacher pay, taking that $ and paying math and reading teachers more. Then they came up with - increase 5th grade class size by .5 and eliminate 30 teaching positions.
Algebra I teachers would get a $10,000 bonus, English Teachers around $4,000. The results were mixed, while Math improved, English actually went down. Other districts have tried similar plans - mixed results and I have yet to see one that was sustainable. One of the issues with these types of programs is that they are tied to grants or some donation - funding from year to year or over the long haul is not certain. Other issues cited is communication to the public - on the one hand the public wants accountability and pay for performance, however at the end earned bonuses are denied because of funding issues. Teachers have gone without their earned incentive for what 3 years now ?
Thank you for sharing
Sun, 08/29/2010 - 17:53 — Solon77Thank you for sharing this.
Year 1 funding was achieved by increasing 5th grade class sizes by .5 students - and not filling 30 teaching positions. Action Greensboro contributed -
Second, funding
from a community business group called Action Greensboro, in partnership with the University
of North Carolina (UNC) System, provided additional support for the district. This additional
support funded a program called Cumulative Effect that exists in all Mission Possible schools.
Cumulative Effect provides the mathematics teachers at these schools with a laptop, employs
five additional mathematics coaches, and pays teachers an additional $4,000 stipend for
attending a proficiency- based 40-hour content mathematics training program.
You may be interested in reading the following article;
http://www.gcsnc.com/depts/mission_possible/pdf/report/Southern%20Guilford%20High%20Year%202%20Report-Final.pdf
The data from Southern Guilford High School and the three comparison schools suggests that
the Mission Possible program is not showing a treatment effect specific to Southern Guilford High
School. However, it’s important to point out that aside from the Mission Possible program, Southern
Guilford has surpassed Guilford County as a whole in Geometry performance and trails the state
average by only 0.7 percentage points. Southern Guilford has nearly caught up to Guilford County in
terms of 2007-08 Algebra II performance, trailing by only 0.6 percentage points after starting with a
13.3 percentage point difference in 2004-05 (see Table 16). There is a similar trend for Algebra I
performance. Southern Guilford High is trailing Guilford County by 4.4 percentage points, after a 32.7
percentage point difference in 2004-05. This narrowing of the gap cannot solely be attributed to the
Mission Possible program without a comparison group within Guilford County. Nonetheless, these
positive improvements are notable.
On that point ...
Sat, 08/28/2010 - 07:45 — nancynccritical thinker posted in part: <i>As for the commissioners, all I know about them is that they like to support uncontrolled growth without considering how the schools are supposed to keep up.</i>
For reasons I will never understand, I have not been able to find a locale in this state that uses an APFO approach to growth. It makes no sense as to why they refuse to do so, except for tax revenue greed.
No growth should be allowed until public facilities needs LEAD rather than follow growth. We are working in reverse and can never catch up. It would seem that those with authority to approve growth ignore the responsibility of others to provide roads, schools, water, sewer and transportation needs.
It is the proverbial dog chasing it's tail and it never catches up.
My Own Broken Record
Thu, 08/26/2010 - 21:12 — willynillyWhere has the money gone, indeed. Well, here I go again.
Circa 1997 a former famous person had a friend in Canada that could apparently devise a Data System that could do all kinds of neat things. The entire system was designed "off the shelf." This person realized (or someone realized it for him) that he was not going to be able to finish the job. So another company took over. If what I have is correct this data system was passed between at least 3 different sets of hands. At a cost that is over $300,000,000 and still growing in costs this would have been great money to use for something else and just buy a system already developed and in use with a proiven track record like the one in use in SC.
I had a friend who worked for Oracle I believe was the name. Also circa 1997 this developement company was working to get this software up and running at Central Office. Every week the techs would show up at CO and there would be another LONG list of stuff the staff wanted added. There is now ay to know how much all of that costs.
Now to NBPTS. When I applied to perform this highwire act there was aboslutely no risk involved for anyone doing this task. All you had to do, if you knew you could not finish it, was to simply "send them something." Nothing had to be paid back then....although I do hear that practice has changed. Either way, if you look at the present 15,685 NBPTS teachers in NC at a cost of $2600 per for application then the cost (just for the applications alone) is $40,781,000 taxpayer dollars. This DOES NOT include the 10 years of a 12% pay raise. Just imagine this:
A Bachelors Degree teacher with three years of experience and NBPTS makes $3,700 a year more than just a Bachelored teacher. Now if ALL of the NBPTS teachers had the minimum number of years (3) necessary for NBPTS (NOT considering any pay raises)then over the 10 year life of their certification they will eat up taxpayer money to the tune of $580,345,000. The grand total for this is $621,126,000.
Now NBPTS boasts that for every 1 teacher who makes it 2 fail. Most of those do not retry. So with no numbers to look at about that we can only guess.
For years many have written about NBPTS with some in favor and some not. George Leef wrote a report on this process around 2002, the same year I started the process. Being a Libertarian I have no real use for government, so I am not on either of "the two sides." Now a colleague with whom I worked was a died in the wool Democrat. When I came across this report I was rather intrigued becasue I was reading my book on how to do my "products." Now this report was published by the JLF. So I gave to my friend for her to read over a weekend. I aksed her what she thought. She said that his report was right on....knowing the source. That spoke volumes to me. The report title was NBPTS, Is NC Getting Its Monies Worth? Look it up online.
Maybe we just need to have better oversight as to where all of this money is going.....like the huge amount Bev took from the Lottery to balance the budget?
interesting
Thu, 08/26/2010 - 21:32 — AngelaWof note;
If the NBPTS program
did in fact make for substantially better teachers, it
would stand to reason that independent schools
would be quite supportive. Having a better faculty
would help them to attract and retain more students.
Among independent schools, however, one finds that
NB certification is not a credential that is much valued.
Looking through the list of the 1,263 teachers in
North Carolina who received NB certification in 2001, it appears that not one is employed in
an independent school.19 In about 4 percent of the cases, the teacher did not indicate where he
was employed; in the other 96 percent, the teacher is listed as employed in a public school. In
no case do we find that the teacher is listed as employed in one of the hundreds of independent
schools in the state. Looking at other states, one sees the same thing: the NBPTS program
thrives only where it receives heavy governmental support.
How do we explain the fact that NB certification is so rarely sought by teachers in independent
schools? It might be the case that the school administration does not think that there is
any connection between NB certification and improved teaching, or it might be the case that
the school administration believes that the cost of seeking certification exceeds whatever benefit
it might bring to the school. Whatever the explanation, the indifference shown by the
private educational sector to a program that on its face should be at least as appealing to it as
to public education ought to provoke legislators to wonder if they have not been unwise in
throwing state support behind NBPTS.
Further nagging
Thu, 08/26/2010 - 21:44 — willynillyFurther nagging question........WHERE do all these millions of dollars go and what does it support? (NBPTS)
If the NBPTS program did in
Thu, 08/26/2010 - 21:40 — user12345If the NBPTS program did in fact make for substantially better teachers, it would stand to reason that independent schools would be quite supportive. Having a better faculty would help them to attract and retain more students.
Private schools are a business ... they try to lower their labor cost to increase their profits ... private schools typically pay a lower salary, don't require certification, have higher turn over .... so, don't think that private schools seek out the best teachers like say a private company ... think private daycare ... lowest cost labor ...
Uhh...
Thu, 08/26/2010 - 21:51 — Bob_SconceFirst of all, nearly all private schools are non-profit -- there's no way to increase "profits" because there aren't any. Sure, they still have to compete and sometimes they do that on price. But, they also have to compete on the quality of education they provide. You can't provide a good education if you underpay your teachers -- the good ones will leave and only the crappy ones will stay.
They also have to compete for employees and they do that based on salary and working conditions. I suggest that a teacher might be willing to take a bit less to teach a class of 20 students than one of 30.
Government, in general, has far lower turnover than the private sector, but that's not because Government has the best employees.
I think you and the post
Fri, 08/27/2010 - 07:32 — user12345I think you and the post below did not understand ... the original post assumed that highly qualified teachers would gravitate to the private sector or the private schools would poach them from public schools and I said public schools pay better than private school... than someone thought that meant private school teachers were crappy because the get paid less ($=worth) ... private schools pay less than public schools ... I hope people know that ...they don't need certifications .... the advantages of private schools are smaller classes of dedicated and motivated kids wanting to learn advanced subjects. For many teachers that is a "Benefit" worth trading salary for ....
Private schools have the
Fri, 08/27/2010 - 09:08 — willynillyPrivate schools have the same disparity as public schools. I worked in a private school for half a year (Feb-June) and took a 2500 pay cut with the verbale understanding that I would need to make up that difference. I was promsied to have a 7th grade math class in summer school in which I could make up the difference. This was in a private school located about 30 minutes north of Raleigh.
When I arrived at this school I found it to be quite dysfunctioanal. teachers were, in fact, not qualified to do their job. They were in a bubble. Old teachers set in their ways who are on retirement and supplementing their income. Using old and outdate strategies or feel good crap from the edustablishment.
I am wondering what study, if any, has been done to follow students from private school to college and graduation. I know several kids from Cary Acaedmy who faired well in college and are fairing well. I am only guessing, but I am thinking that percentage wise private schools would fair only as good as public schools if that.
I think many people worship
Fri, 08/27/2010 - 09:20 — user12345I think many people worship at the alter of private is better ... as you show private can be dysfunctional too ... private does not guarantee better ...
I forgot to mention, the
Fri, 08/27/2010 - 10:06 — willynillyI forgot to mention, the school reneged on the deal with math.....thye discouraged parents from signing up any children for 7th grade math. I was too hard (because I expected kids to work for their grades). However, they did offer me a raise to come back. The half year I worked there I was being paid 25.7 K per year. They raised that by $40. Not a month, but for the year.
Yes most private schools I
Thu, 08/26/2010 - 21:47 — starsonoursYes most private schools I know of have crappy teachers that don't know how to teach. Private schools are the "puppy mills" of education. That is how they are able to get people to pay for their childs education rather than send them to public school. (Extreme Sarcasm)
Don't assume lower $ =
Fri, 08/27/2010 - 07:35 — user12345Don't assume lower $ = crappy quality.
I know that KIPP gets
Thu, 08/26/2010 - 21:47 — willynillyI know that KIPP gets poo-poohed her a lot, but their scores are rather impressive....and consistent. The last time I spoke with KIPP in Gaston NC they did not have any NBPTS teachers. Too, if NBPTS was such a great deal to show how good teachers are then it might stand to reason that NC would be "smokin" other states.
Education on the cheap.
Thu, 08/26/2010 - 12:54 — DrActualFactualI've lived here for almost 20 years and have never understood how Wake county can do so many public museums, art affairs, parks, public buildings, and yet have this mindset that we have to do "education on the cheap." Wake is the largest school system in the state now, get rid of this way of thinking. Education is not something that we need to try to "skimp" on. There are ways to contain costs, and avoid waste, yada yada yada but for goodness sake just TAX us if you need more money to provide decent education to the kids of the system. There is no "obligation" to do education on a bottom dollar basis anymore than it has to be overly extravagent. Is there a contract somewhere that says we can never, ever ever ever raise taxes for education??? everything else--ok, but not education.
Ma'am, it isn't that simple.
Thu, 08/26/2010 - 11:46 — actnowMa'am, it isn't that simple. There are plenty of dollars in the system. It is a question of funding priorities. You have to ask yourself where do a billion dollars disappear. Opening your wallet isn't going to fund miracles however noble your gesture (for which i commend you).
Thanks, bluedaisy, for a
Thu, 08/26/2010 - 12:12 — criticalthinkerThanks, bluedaisy, for a great post.
That said, actnow, a billion dollars didn't disappear.
I'm sure we can all find better uses for it than where it actually went, but your statement is simply an opinion, and you know the old saying about opinions and rear ends...
However, I agree with you that a blanket of taxpayer money is too simplistic.
But it's pretty clear that it's going to take more money to keep the system going.
And yet voting for bonds to support the schools is unpopular on the right, and the school board majority doing their bidding aren't exactly the best money managers.
This should really be no surprise, as the Republican myth of fiscal responsibility has been blown wide open.
And let's not forget that one of the main reasons we're in this mess is that an awful lot of the people coming here are fleeing property taxes of 2-3%.
But we'd have to vote in an awful lot of bond money to end up with a similar situation (even if you argue about what bucket the money comes from - it's still about total cost of living in an area).
We live in an area midway along the East Coast, with low home prices (compared to an awful lot of places), a good job situation (ditto), and at least the promise of good schools.
I'm thinking this area will still be growing - the only question is how many new students will arrive every year.
It's going to take a compromise between California's tax-revolt disaster and the brutal tax burden from which many have fled to fund our schools.
Hats off to bluedaisy for getting real.
Bonds aren't going to solve
Thu, 08/26/2010 - 13:15 — CaryCurmudgeonBonds aren't going to solve all of our schools' financial problems, as they can only be used for construction or renovation of facilities. Right now we don't have enough operational budget to keep class sizes manageable. And I think we need to spend more on recruiting and retaining the best teachers possible.
It is clear that we should not expect any funding help from the state, in fact we should expect further cuts.
We've seen that recent budget cuts have compelled the board to start scrutinizing extraneous expenses (ie. cell phones) and staff positions (ie. lobbyist). To me, the first step should be an outside audit of our school system, justifying every staff position and expenditure. Maybe we are already running lean, I don't know. But we live in a state where government jobs and cronyism go hand-in-hand, so I think it is worth a look.
Then, the same should be done with the County budget. We have commisioners who one day wail about under-funding schools, then the next day vote to spend money elsewhere. How much is cronyism costing us in our county government?
If we can't find the funding we need in those two places, then bring on the new tax -- whatever it takes so that we can call WCPSS a "world-class system" with a straight face.
Good point, neighbor, on
Thu, 08/26/2010 - 13:49 — criticalthinkerGood point, neighbor, on what bonds can be used for.
That said, is it possible that there'd be a bit less of the transportation/scheduling/overcrowding/repair issues with that bond money available?
I agree - good luck with state funding.
As for the outside audit, do you really think it'd be truly bi-partisan/impartial?
Reminds me of the Dr. Seuss book with the watchers watching the watchers who are watching the watchers...and the audit wouldn't be free.
I do agree, again, with you that we need to spend on getting, providing continuing education to, and retaining the best teachers.
As for the commissioners, all I know about them is that they like to support uncontrolled growth without considering how the schools are supposed to keep up.
Regarding cronyism, I believe everyone (except the participants) would like more transparency.
Sounds like properly funding our schools has hit a bi-partisan chord.
Better management, more bond money, a bit more property tax money...it's the first one on this list that'll be the hardest to come by.
Fired up
Thu, 08/26/2010 - 11:40 — bluedaisyFolks - obviously this has me fired up. We have now run the well dry, (thanks g88 for saying it so plainly) and it is going to get worse before it gets better. My minimum expectations from my school system have now been crossed. The system is telling us we have run out of money, and what I personally see as the basics are being removed. I was not completely happy with just the basics, by the way, but what I was getting for my tax dollar seems to be good enough. But - this latest cut from transportation is the last straw for me. I hate to say it because I hate paying more taxes, but I think each of us needs to decide how much we are willing to lose when it comes to the kind of school system we want. I for one, have recently met my limit.. Tax me. Make sure kids who could possibly be getting into trouble after school have somewhere else to go - like football practice, which can teach them about teams and life. Tax me. Make sure kids who need the extra help and actually take the initiative to go get it in classes like Algebra and Biology - you know - those EOC scores we love to throw back and forth at each other here, can stay after school and receive it no matter where they live - tax me. Make sure kids have well rounded high school educational experiences so that they can have a better shot for getting into college - tax me. And give me a board of education that will actually ask for more money to get the minimum job done.