Guilford County Schools has paid a Denver consulting firm almost $40,000 to do a simulation of the Broad Prize for Urban Education judging, according to a district news release.
The release says the researchers who did the Broad-based "diagnostic report" described Guilford as "a rising district nationally," but noted that it "still has more work to do before it can join the elite ranks of Broad Prize winners."
This year's winner is Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, where Guilford County Superintendent Maurice "Mo" Green got his start as an administrator. He was Peter Gorman's second-in-command before taking the job in Greensboro in 2008.
Like real Broad Prize judges, staff from RMC Research Corp. analyzed data and did a three-day visit that included classroom visits and focus-group interviews. The group rated Guilford on the Broad Prize Framework for School District Excellence and suggested improvements, such as more rigorous curriculum and more support for teachers.
The $38,600 cost, which includes follow-up services, was split between a Broad Foundation grant and money raised by the local Businesses for Excellence in Education.
Guilford, North Carolina's third-largest district after Wake and CMS, was one of four in North Carolina that was eligible for this year's Broad Prize, based on size and having at least 40 percent of students from minority groups and eligible for federal lunch aid to low-income families. Wake, with a 33 percent poverty level as measured by lunch subsidies, was not eligible.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Prepping for the Broad Prize
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19 comments:
...another worthless story predicated upon worthless school lunch subsidy numbers....
So now we have Broad Prize Prep courses just like SAT and ACT Prep courses? And so reasonably priced.
Although I am not inherently opposed to Broad, I am amazed that now they are paying districts to help them try to win the Prize. Why not just donate money to help kids? Oh wait, Broad Prize's focus is not on actually helping kids, its about PR.
Put the money in the CLASSROOM where it will do the most good.Does anyone in an administrative role have any common sense anymore?
This is a sad state we find ourselves in in the education community. More focus on the outside, the fad, etc., than on the inside. As this is Mo Green, I become increasingly more aware of the fact that Gorman was a pestilence and a blight upon education in not only our community, but everywhere else he goes. Every time he opens his mouth about CMS now, he spews all kinds of everything that is wrong. Is this just an effort to pave the way for him to pander his Murdochian wares? This Broad Foundation and Superintendent-making Machine is truly frightening... and pretty pathetic narcism at its worst... the kids are going to ultimately lose.
When will the public wake up to the evil machinations of the Broad Machine. It is never about kids - it's about marketing.
Wow so Guilford County wants to take our TITLE 1 BELT away? Nobody is going to take that from CMS Rick Flair (Eric Davis) will not stand for it ! We are the nations rising the lowest common denominator with childrens test scores. Just ask you Charlotte Chamber and Timmy Morgan!! Bananas for all says Bobby Morgan along with your tax dollars !!
Best of the worst?!
Ann
How about a report on only principals receiving bonus money for student scores. There is not ONE principal that is not gulping the Broad kool-aide.
10:26, tell me more. I'm pretty sure state ABC bonuses went away for everyone; is there a CMS program that rewards principals but not teachers?
Ask the top CMS administration if any principals have received any money over their salary during the past 3 years. Follow the money!
This from Ann on April 24th of 2011:
....Educators in some of the district's most challenging schools have collected a total of $2.8 million in bonuses, while central-office administrators have gotten none.
.....By 2014, Gorman plans to change the way teachers are paid, so student achievement counts more than experience and degrees. During the past year, 864 employees received some bonus payment, most of them educators in high-poverty schools that are pioneering experimental versions of performance pay.
Thirty-three received payments of at least $10,000, the amount awarded as recruitment bonuses for high-performing teachers and administrators who volunteer for duty in "strategic staffing" schools. Ashley Love, a math teacher at Martin Luther King Middle, got $14,900, the top bonus listed.
Wiley's right that the various pilot programs include teachers, though that's only in select schools (and who knows what will happen when grants run out and new superintendent arrives). But I'm wondering if the previous commenter is saying test-score increases factor into ALL principals' evals and pay? It's something I'll try to check on, though it's on a pretty long to-do list.
Had to redo my math...
$2.8 million in bonuses, 864 received bonuses, 33 received $10K and 1 $14.9K for a total of $344,900.
That leaves $2,455,100 million and 830 employees for an average bonus of $2,958 each.
I've still don't see why we have to pay any bonuses to teachers or principals to go to low performing schools.
Assign them there and if they don't go, fire them.
Following the money should be FIRST on the list. It is the only way to get to the truth in CMesS.
Anon 2:42...
CMS has so many buckets of money I don't believe they can keep them straight.
When you have no idea who the students are that need help based on FRL and you can't even audit the system to verify them, the whole system has a base built on waste and fraud....
All CMS and the BOE will do is throw up their hands and say "we can't do anything about it", which is a lie.
Why doesn't CMS try to get other large school districts and our statewide congressional delegation to petition the White House to allow them to be able to fully audit the program?
Because it isn't in their interest to do so because they stand to lose a significant amount of money they currently get based on that fraud.
As a teacher, I can think of so many valuable things I could have done for my students with $40,000!
YES, Check on the principals bonus pay these past 3 years. You may find it very interesting.No pricipal in CMS wants a student to receive an F anymore.
What about the bonus that NC awarded to only 4 CMS schools for making high growth on last year's End Of Grade tests? I believe each employee at the school was awarded $1500 (before taxes, of course). Where did that pot of money come from?
Why are only some educators being acknowledged for their efforts to achieve "high growth"? Other schools in the district achieved that status too, yet their efforts were not recognized with a bonus.
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