How will CMS magnets screen students?

If CMS sticks with the test-score requirements that are posted on the web site,  a whole lot of students could find themselves shut out of IB,  math/science and world languages magnets next year.

Those magnets require grade-level scores on end-of-year state exams.  In years past,  that screened out a relatively small percentage of students who weren't ready to keep up with advanced academic programs.

This year a whole lot more students, in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and across North Carolina,  fell below grade level on new tests designed to measure more complex skills. If the 2013 trends hold for 2014,  about three-quarters of black and low-income students could find themselves ineligible for some of the most popular and rigorous magnets.

There's no way CMS will let that happen.  Some cities have highly competitive academic magnets,  but CMS magnets have always been designed as an open system, serving the largest possible number of students who can do the work.

The new iMeck Academy magnet at Cochrane plans to give students who fall short on the state exams the option to be admitted with high grades in core subjects,  technology facilitator Kim Leighty told me.  I'm guessing other magnets will have similar backstops,  but I couldn't confirm that Monday.

CMS seems to be scrambling to get ready for the Jan. 11 start of the 2014-15 application period.  The school board,  which normally has its work done by November,  gave itself an extra month to approve new programs for the coming school year,  and will vote on 12 of them Wednesday.

Magnet director Jeff Linker retired this summer and has been replaced by Akeshia Craven-Howell, executive director of the CMS transformation office.  She didn't respond to my request for information about the admission requirements Monday.

Best I can tell,  some families in southwest Mecklenburg will get letters in January telling them their kids are assigned to an unnamed elementary school.  The board normally names new schools before the application season begins,  but there's nothing on the agenda to name the "Winget Park relief school"  in the Palisades area.  There's an engineering magnet at that school up for a vote, and it's unclear how that will be described on the menu of options.

It's not clear whether CMS will have school data online on time for parents to do their research,  and some schools may be glad of that.  The lower scores on the 2013 exams pose a marketing hurdle for schools like Cochrane  (17.6 percent overall proficiency)  and McClintock  (23.1 percent)  that will be trying to persuade high-performing students to apply for seats.  And yes,  all of us in the public are still waiting for enrollment numbers,  poverty levels and demographic data,  which has been delayed by PowerSchool problems.

We'll soon see how some of these issues are handled.  CMS has promised to have magnet lottery instruction letters in homes the first week of January.

When is a magnet not a magnet?

By the time Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools rolls out its School Options Fair in January,  it needs to come up with new,  clear labels for its menu,  Superintendent Heath Morrison said this week.

If you've been around CMS,  you know it has neighborhood schools  (or  "home schools"  or,  in Morrison's recent terminology,  "local schools")  and magnets,  where students apply for admission and go through a lottery if demand exceeds supply.  But many of the new schools and programs outlined this week don't fit either category.

Two-year middle college high schools on CPCC campuses,  a four-year early college high at UNC Charlotte and a small health-science high school at Hawthorne seem a lot like magnets.  They won't have attendance zones;  instead,  students will apply to get in.  The difference is that selection won't have to follow the CMS policy for the magnet lottery.  (By the way,  that policy is being revised.  Check out the proposed changes here and the priority policy here. The changes look fairly minor to me, mostly reflecting the end of Title I choice,  but I'm interested in others' views.)

Cato Middle College High: Like a magnet, but not

Then there are opt-in programs that are open only to students in one school zone,  such as the proposed academy of advanced manufacturing and entrepreneurship at Olympic High.  None of these approaches are new  (think Cato Middle College High and Performance Learning Center, which are non-magnet magnets, or Myers Park High's IB program and Olympic's five mini-schools, which are zone-only choices).  But they're proliferating.  And Morrison said it'll be important to help families understand them.

Details about the new plans,  including costs,  will come at the board's Nov. 12 meeting.  Morrison said the Nov. 5 bond vote will shape some of the proposals.  And while he says there will be some cost to taxpayers,  it may not be as great as people think,  he said.  Some proposals,  such as the new Olympic school, will come from rearranging current resources,  he said.  There's state money to help with the college-based schools,  and Morrison said CMS is seeking grants and support from business partners and higher education.  At Hawthorne,  for instance,  he said students will use CPCC medical labs so CMS won't have to build new ones.

It was interesting to hear board member Tom Tate critique the cost-efficiency of charter schools at Thursday's MeckEd candidate forum.  He noted that CMS can education around 2,000 students at a high school,  while a charter school might require the same administration for about 200.  "They money just doesn't work,"  he said.   The same critique would seem to apply at the small schools CMS is creating,  which Tate voiced enthusiasm for.  Here's hoping those questions get aired in November.

 

Magnet results in: Morehead stands out

Results from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools magnet lottery are in,  and if there were a prize for most popular,  Morehead STEM Academy would take it.

Students at Morehead STEM Academy

The K-8 math-science magnet in the UNC Charlotte area has just over 1,100 students placed,  with another 927 on the waiting list after the first lottery. After last year's lottery the school had just under 1,000 students,  with an overflow of 624.  (See results from previous years here.)

The second-longest wait list is for perennial favorite Park Road Montessori,  which has 397 wait-listed for a school with just under 500 students.  Montessori schools,  unlike other magnets,  accept students in prekindergarten.  Park Road had 279 pre-K applicants,  and only 45 got in.

Overall demand for magnets is up this year,  as Superintendent Heath Morrison,  the school board and a citizens task force mull whether future expansions and revisions are needed.  The number of students placed for 2013-14 is just under 19,000,  little changed from the current year.  But the waiting list is up by more than 20 percent,  from 3,547 after the 2012 lottery to 4,348 this time.

As usual,  lottery results show that in magnet schools,  as in real estate,  the key is location,  location,  location.  The International Baccalaureate magnet at East Mecklenburg High pulled 845 students and had 71 on the waiting list.  None of the others had waiting lists. North Meck's IB magnet drew 583 students,  Harding's 393 and West Charlotte's 229.  (Myers Park,  as you may recall,  still has an IB program,  but it's no longer considered a magnet because it doesn't take students from outside the attendance zone.)

Harding's numbers hint at an ongoing challenge for the school,  which was a popular and high-performing magnet school just a couple of years ago. At its peak, Harding's IB magnet pulled more than 700 students,  with a math-science magnet comprising the other half of the westside school.  Then the school board closed Waddell High,  a struggling high-poverty neighborhood school,  and sent most of those students to Harding,  while moving the math-science magnet to Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology.  Interest in the IB magnet quickly slumped,  as academic and disciplinary challenges rose. Last year's lottery saw 451 IB students placed at Harding;  this year's report shows a significant decline in students moving on to the next level there.  However,  ninth-grade placements are up from 77 to 162,  so if Harding can hold onto those students that could signal a revival of its IB magnet.

There's still a second lottery coming up for students who didn't register in time for the first one or who want to try for schools that still have seats available.  Check here for dates and details.

Shooter drill and CMS-TV school

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is working with county officials to plan a safety drill simulating an armed attack.

Superintendent Heath Morrison would like to see a high school partner with the newly-revived CMS-TV station to air student-produced programs.

And the cultural competency task force is exploring what an expanded diversity office might do to help students.

Those are a few of the tidbits I picked up at Butler High last night,  at the last of three CMS town hall sessions designed to give the public a voice in budget planning and a chance to check in with the district's 22 advisory task forces.

Plenty of CMS officials and task force members were on hand,  but there wasn't much public.  Attendance has been light throughout,  several people said,  and Monday's was so anemic that everyone went home 20 minutes early.

Some people may have opted for more convenient outlets,  such as a recent online budget poll that got more than 11,000 responses.  And most of us know that the public seldom mobilizes on a big scale until specific proposals are on the table,  especially proposals that upset people.

"Compared to 2009-10,  the crisis mentality isn't there,"  CMS magnet director Jeff Linker said,  referring to school-closing plans that drew big crowds and angry protests.

On Monday,  his task force on magnets, choice and alternative schools drew one parent unhappy with his middle school options.  They'd gotten about a dozen visitors at an earlier town hall held at Waddell Language Academy.

Joel Gilland,  a Mountain Island Elementary parent who co-leads the group with Linker,  said the task force has talked about ways to help neighborhood schools work with their communities to become schools of choice.  They're thinking there should be a way for CMS staff and people with ideas to work together to explore academic specialties,  partial magnets or alternative structures  (such as turning Mountain Island into a K-8 school)  that might boost interest.

Morrison's mention of creating a video-production academy,  which would give students experience that could translate to a career,  ties in with a push to explore stronger career-tech programs throughout the district.  Linker said the task force is also looking at areas with  "pent-up demand"  for magnets  (the suburbs have mostly been left out)  and new themes that might serve new needs.

At the session to talk about cultural competency Monday,  it was just me and three staffers there to lead the discussion.

"It's been a little bit disheartening,"  said co-leader Maria Petrea,  interim East Zone superintendent and former principal of Collinswood Language Academy.  "For whatever reason,  I don't think the public has seized the opportunity to be involved."

Reports on Morrison's interest in working with racial equity consultant Glenn Singleton have stirred plenty of online commentary,  but apparently folks who love or hate that idea aren't turning out to talk in person.  Petrea said the task force has been asked to explore options for a diversity office that would recognize the district's cultural and linguistic diversity and encourage a staff pool that reflects that diversity.  She said the group hasn't been asked to weigh in on whether CMS should work with Singleton's Pacific Educational Group and doesn't expect to make recommendations for the 2013-14 budget.

The budget overview that launched the meeting had the biggest crowd,  with all the task force members and other staffers in the audience.  Morrison's comment about staging an  "active shooter drill"  sometime this year came in response to a question about mental health and school safety.

The town halls are over,  but there will be two more public sessions to comment on the budget after Morrison presents a plan:  April 16 at West Charlotte High and April 22 at Rocky River High.  You can keep up with budget developments on the district's web site.