CMS introduces Grade 13

Four college-based high schools that are expected to get school board approval tonight introduce a concept that's new to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools:  Grade 13.

Students at middle college schools on three Central Piedmont Community College campuses and an early college high at UNC Charlotte will be able to stick around for a fifth year of high school in order to build up two years worth of tuition-free college credits.  Because that's part of the structure of those schools,  the CMS on-time graduation rate won't take a hit if those students graduate a year later than their peers.

All high school students can take community-college courses for free,  and Cato Middle College High introduced the concept of campus-based high schools to CMS.  That school always promised that successful,  highly motivated juniors and seniors could earn an associate's degree along with their high school diploma,  but the reality was very few found time to accumulate that many college credits.

When the 2014-15 application season opens Jan. 11,  rising 11th and 12th graders with at least a 2.5 GPA will be able to apply for middle college high schools at CPCC's Cato, Levine and Harper campuses.  Rising ninth-graders can sign up to pioneer the district's first early college high school at UNCC's Energy Production and Infrastructure Center.

UNCC EPIC building

CMS is still working on 2014-15 admission requirements for magnets and other choice schools, but the UNCC-EPIC school won't be  "highly selective,"  said Akeshia Craven-Howell,  executive director of CMS' new transformation office  (it incorporates magnets,  career-tech and virtual learning).  The goal is to recruit first-generation college students and female and minority students who have traditionally been underrepresented in high-tech and engineering fields, she said.

Students at all four schools with grade 13 will have the option to graduate at the end of 12th grade,  but Craven-Howell expects most to be motivated to stay for more free college classes.

Some are bound to see the extra year as a CMS bid to game the numbers and boost graduation rates.  I'm as skeptical as the next person,  but I don't think that will be the case.  Cato has consistently logged four-year graduation rates at or near 100 percent,  hardly surprising given that it caters to highly motivated students who are on track to graduate when they're accepted.  These small college-based options aren't likely to become a place where CMS can hide low-performing students while they take an extra year to master basic requirements.

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.

 

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."