CMS vs. Observer: Battle of brains

Forget about the Broad Prize. The real contest for academic bragging rights took place last night at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

That's where POST (Partners in Out-of-School Time) held its third annual "Are You Smarter Than a Middle Schooler?" competition to raise money for after-school and summer educational programs. Businesses and community groups form teams to test their skills on questions drawn from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' math, science, technology, language arts and social studies curriculum. The answers are revealed by real CMS middle schoolers on video, making the adults feel even dumber when they realize they've muffed an answer.

The Observer sends two teams, headed by editor Rick Thames and publisher Ann Caulkins. Last year, when I was out of town, Thames' team claimed victory. This year I was enlisted for the publisher's team.

The first familiar face I saw among the race cars was Cindy Moss, who's in charge of math and science for CMS. In addition to knowing the curriculum inside out, she's one of the smartest people I know. She was joined by Chief Academic Officer Ann Clark and performance pay guru Andy Baxter, who were with Moss on a team called BTCO. They gleefully explained this new acronym: Beat The Charlotte Observer.

Seems there had been a bit of trash-talking back and forth between Caulkins and Clark, who serve together on the POST board.

I wish I could relate a tale of victory for the Fourth Estate, but dang, those middle school questions are hard! By the second round, it was pretty clear that the best we could hope for was for BTCO not to win.

As it turns out, CMS did claim the victory, but in a much more satisfying way. The trophy went to Team McPIE, or McClintock Middle School Partners In Education. I've written about this school and its groundbreaking partnership with Christ Lutheran Church and other groups, and we couldn't have been defeated by a better crew.

So, hats off to McClintock teachers George Beyer, Zachary Chapman and Chris Hill and partners Jessica Beyer, Eric Pickersgill, Bruce Buckley and Kevin and Amy Daniels. Say what you will about the rest of us, but apparently middle school teachers actually are smarter than their students ... and their bosses.