CMS early college is off to a good start, principal says

Ever since the new Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools early college high school at UNC Charlotte was linked to Superintendent Heath Morrison's resignation, we've heard some concern and confusion from parents who were hoping to enroll their kids there.

Would the fact that the school board was concerned that Morrison (allegedly) misled them about the costs of the project impact the program?

Principal Will Leach says not to worry.

The school -- formally known as Charlotte Engineering Early College -- opened this fall with 100 students, all in ninth grade. The winter lottery will give them 100 more students for next year's freshman class.

The school is based out of a 12-classroom modular building on the UNCC campus. The students aren't taking college classes yet. But they have gone to see Nobel laureates speak and used the campus library.

As the students progress, they'll begin taking more college-level classes. By the end of the five-year program, they can earn up to 60 hours of college credit. That's roughly two full years worth.

"We're open. We're operating," Leach said. "Teaching and learning continues. It's just been an amazing opportunity."

Brace yourself for new test scores

There's a wild week ahead for supporters of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, with a bond vote, school board election and release of state test scores coming.

We'll get election results Tuesday night. My guess is that backers of the education bonds for CMS and Central Piedmont Community College will be celebrating.  I went to the North Regional Library in Huntersville Tuesday to talk to early voters,  then got pulled off for another story before I could flesh out a full report.  But that small sample was consistent:  The people I talked to knew little or nothing about the bonds going in,  but voted yes because they support education.

"I always support anything to do with the schools,"  said Tara McAlinn of Huntersville,  the mother of a 4-year-old.  It's a sentiment I heard repeatedly,  from young parents to retirees.

However the election goes,  Thursday morning will dash a bucket of cold water in people's faces when the N.C. Department of Public Instruction releases long-awaited results from 2013 end-of-grade exams.  State officials have made it clear that there's going to be a big drop in proficiency rates  --  not because kids got dumber or teachers got less effective,  but because there are more rigorous new tests, new  "cut scores"  for passing and no second try for students who fell below grade level.  Many schools will see hard-earned gains disappear.  If past changes in testing are any predictor,  gaps between the highest- and lowest-performing groups of students will widen.  (One interesting feature:  For the first time,  the state will break out performance for academically gifted kids.)

CMS Superintendent Heath Morrison said this week that he supports tougher tests that are designed to more accurately reflect students' readiness for college and careers.  "Every time we set the bar higher,  our kids respond, our teachers respond."  But he worries that critics who tout the failure of public education will use the new results to say  "See,  I told you it was broken."

There are actually three phases of the test-score release.  Teachers have already started getting  "value-added"  ratings based on the new exams,  which is bound to be a source of some stress.  "You get this information and it's really confusing,"  said one caller,  who had just gotten her report and declined to give her name.  "It's hard to read and it's hard to understand."

Proficiency and growth for schools and districts come out Thursday.  And within 30 days of that,  families are supposed to get reports on how their own children did last year.

If you want to get prepared for the testing data,  DPI has a background brief posted.

If you want to prepare for Tuesday's election,  you can find details about the bonds and the candidates on the Observer's voter guide.

And if you've still got energy left at the end of that crazy week, you can turn your gaze to the future at a Nov. 9 forum on "What's next for public education in Charlotte metro?"  From 10 a.m. to noon at UNC Charlotte Center City,  panelists from CMS,  charter schools,  the state legislature and higher education will talk about choices,  challenges,  changes and coordination.  The session is sponsored by Staying Ahead Carolina and UNCC.  There's no charge,  but registration is required.

Urban Institute maps grad-rate trends

UNC Charlotte's Urban Institute recently posted an interactive map that helps people look at graduation-rate trends for N.C. school districts over the last eight years,  since the state started using a four-year tracking method.

Graphic from Urban Institute report

The overall statewide trend has been upward,  though as the report notes,  there have been variations by district.  Wake,  the state's largest district,  has been fairly flat,  while Charlotte-Mecklenburg has caught up.

When it comes to education data,  it seems like there's always a footnote.  CMS changed the number of credits required for graduation,  starting with the class of 2013.  As I reported Monday, it's hard to gauge how much that influenced this year's gain,  which continued an upward trend that preceded the change. About 1,475 seniors availed themselves of the new option to graduate with fewer than 28 credits, but CMS officials note that an unknown number of those likely would have met the higher credit requirement had it been in place.

Full-time teacher and student: Race for a master's degree

Elizabeth Cranfill wants to devote her energy to the children with autism she teaches at W.M. Irvin Elementary in Cabarrus County.  But she's also taking five graduate courses this semester at UNC Charlotte's College of Education, in a desperate effort to earn her master's degree in time to collect the 10 percent raise the state had promised when she enrolled.

I caught up with Cranfill shortly after I finished a recent story on how legislative actions,  including the elimination of the bump for advanced degrees in 2014,  are affecting teachers.

Cranfill

Under normal circumstances,  it would be nuts to take on 12 credit hours and defend a thesis while working full time.  That's a heavy load for a full-time student.  But earning her degree at the end of fall semester provides her only guarantee of being grandfathered into the current pay scale.

So Cranfill,  25,  got permission from UNCC,  her principal and her district to cram in the classwork and research to earn a master's in working with autistic students.

"I love school.  I like being a student as much as I like being a teacher,"  she said last week.  But she's taking on a load that means everything else  --  including planning her June wedding  --  will be pushed to the sidelines.

Cranfill says she followed her big brother into teaching because she loves kids.  But that doesn't mean she's not concerned about earning a living.

She and her brother both got N.C. Teaching Fellow scholarships, designed to entice top high school students to become teachers and stay in state.  Cranfill also got a grant to cover her grad school tuition because she's working in a field where teachers are desperately needed.  Special-ed teachers are among the hardest posts to fill.  Cranfill teaches children who have the capability to work at grade level,  but it takes special skills to help them cope with their autism.

Cranfill says her brother has fulfilled his required teaching stint in North Carolina. He's working on a graduate degree, too  --  a business degree that will let him find another career.  She wants to stick with education,  but she's not sure.

"It's not a good time to be a public school teacher right now,"  she said.  "I wish I didn't have to say that."

Lawmakers who eliminated the supplement for master's degrees say it makes more sense to reward teachers for classroom results.  But so far there's little money for that.  The 2013-14 budget sets aside money to give $500-a-year raises to 25 percent of teachers starting in 2014-15,  with a state task force studying a more comprehensive performance-pay plan.

Ellen McIntyre,  dean of UNCC's education college,  is trying to get as many students as possible across the finish line in time to get a raise this year. That means adding extra sections of classes for fall semester and counseling students about how to juggle their obligations.

Long range,  she says,  schools like hers will doubtless have to adapt what they offer teachers who want graduate education.  She worries that eliminating an incentive for higher education will not only discourage  teachers who want to add to their skills but erode North Carolina's reputation for valuing education.

"The long-term effect?"  McIntyre said.  "It could possibly be devastating."

Master's degree pay: Nasty surprise ahead?

We know the N.C. legislature has eliminated extra pay for teachers who earn advanced degrees after 2014.  But like so many things coming out of this summer's rapid-fire session,  details are still being sorted out.

It's not even clear what the deadline is for completing a master's degree to qualify for the 10 percent pay hike that's now part of state's teacher pay scale.  The state budget bill says teachers are grandfathered into the old pay scale if they earned the salary supplement  "prior to the 2014-15 school year."  Currently,  the deadline for earning master's pay in 2013-14 is April 1,  2014.

But Tom Tomberlin,  a human-resources official with the N.C. Department of Public Instruction,  said today that his department will ask the state Board of Education to consider pushing that back "to accommodate those teachers finishing their masters in the spring of 2014."

The bigger question,  Tomberlin says,  is what happens after 2014,  when everyone converts to one pay scale.  Teachers who are grandfathered into the current master's scale have been assured their pay won't be cut,  he said,  but it's possible they'd be frozen in coming years until their pay comes in line with the new scale. For instance,  a teacher with 10 years' experience and a master's degree made $40,820 on the 2012-13 state scale  (many local districts supplement state pay),  compared with $37,110 for a teacher with only a bachelor's.  The bachelor's scale doesn't hit that level until Year 17.

 "We don't know the answer to that,"  Tomberlin said.  "It's a point we've got to get clarity on from the legislators."

Meanwhile,  teachers in grad school and the universities that serve them are scrambling to figure out how to meet the new deadline  (whatever it turns out to be).  One teacher who had been enrolled in UNC Charlotte's graduate program forwarded an email sent Friday by Dean Ellen McIntyre.  The College of Education is  "strategizing to find ways to help as many of you as possible complete your programs with integrity by December 2013," the email says, adding that more information will arrive in the coming week.

Teachers are resorting to dark humor to cope with what Annie McCanless,  a veteran teacher at Providence High,  dubs "the summer of misery for education in North Carolina."  Shortly after the budget passed last week,  she sent me her Ten Reasons Why Teachers Don't Need an Advanced Degree in North Carolina.  Among them:  "If teachers get an advanced degree they will leave NC so they can work in a state that rewards the educational achievement,"  "Paying all teachers the same salary simplifies the salary charts"  and  "Teachers don’t need the knowledge and skills learned in an advanced degree. All they needed to know they learned in kindergarten."

There's one bright spot for teachers:  Legislators didn't touch the 12 percent supplement for those who have earned National Board Certification.  "I think  'for now'  is the operative word,"  cautioned Tomberlin.

Diane Ravitch coming to Charlotte

If you care about education,  chances are you have a strong opinion about Diane Ravitch.

Ravitch

She certainly has strong opinions about education.  And she'll be sharing them in Charlotte on March 20,  when UNC Charlotte brings her to town.  A community conversation with Ravitch is open to the public at no charge, from 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. in McKnight Auditorium, Cone Center, main campus. Register here to attend.  Later that evening she'll give the TIAA-CREF lecture for an invitation-only crowd that. It's titled "The Death and Life of the Great American School System," echoing the title of one of her best-known books.

 Ravitch is a professor, researcher, author and former official in the U.S. Department of Education, under President George H.W. Bush. She has emerged as one of the nation's most vocal critics of test-driven accountability,  the privatization of public education and the influence of philanthropists and foundations she dubs  "the Billionaire Boys' Club."

And at 74,  she has embraced digital communication and social media with zeal.  She tweets prolifically  (@DianeRavitch),  posts on her blog and contributes to many others.  So even if you miss her appearance,  chances are you can keep up with what she thinks of her visit to a city where all of her favorite issues are alive and vigorously debated.   

CMS drama as performance art

I walked up to the Levine Museum of the New South Wednesday night for a forum on changing demographics and public schools, and found myself at one of the most unusual education events I've encountered.

The organizers from UNC Charlotte decided to forgo a traditional panel discussion in favor of performance art. School-related headlines spanning decades flashed on a screen, while performers read excerpts from court rulings, newspaper articles and personal essays. Civil rights lawyer James Ferguson, one of the readers, interspersed the prose with a cappella verses of Jacob's Ladder, with lyrics such as "Tell me, do you love all children? Leaders of our youth."

And so, 48 hours after covering an NAACP meeting with a crowd fired up to fight school closings in 2011, I watched a headline that was obviously decades old flash on screen: "Negro Groups Complain About School Closings."

Katie McCormick with the UNCC library said she'd started planning this session about a year ago, before the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board launched the student-assignment review that has people up in arms over proposed closings. "It turns out that this topic was more timely than we imagined," she said.

The historians were quick to incorporate breaking news. It was surreal to hear the final few minutes of the performance, where Ferguson and another reader turned quotes and snippets from articles I wrote last week into a sort of point-counterpoint poetry.

The discussion that followed wasn't exactly the bullet-point, solution-finding exercise that you see at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools forums. A mom about to send her child to kindergarten mused about feeling overwhelmed. A more experienced CMS parent commiserated: "It's always been overwhelming to get your kids in CMS."

Older speakers talked about living through desegregation. A Mallard Creek High School student gave his take on resegregation. Northerners and Southerners traded barbs over who was responsible for racial separation.

There was a strong sense of repeating history. A teacher at University Park Elementary, an arts magnet that's slated for closing next year, said it feels like we're going in circles, but as an artist she prefers to think of spirals.

"We can spiral upward," she said, "or we can spiral down."