Can grants make CMS schools safer?

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is seeking a little more than $7 million in federal money aimed at making schools safer,  and that launched some interesting discussion about risks and strategies.

The school board approved a $2.5 million request to the U.S. Department of Education to "expand the district’s capacity to assist schools in high violence communities in breaking the cycle of violence,"  the summary presented Tuesday says.  "The 13 CMS Project Prevent schools serve a total of 11,035 students. A position will be developed that relieves school counselors and social workers from the non-specialized duties that frequently monopolize their time. In addition, student services staff will receive training and consultative support in the delivery of evidence-based counseling methods to support children who have experienced trauma."

Waddell

The 13 schools are Garinger High in east Charlotte,  Harding High in west Charlotte and the elementary and middle schools that feed into them.  Board member Joyce Waddell asked why Hidden Valley Elementary and Martin Luther King Middle School weren't included,  given that the Hidden Valley neighborhood in northeast Charlotte has been notorious for gang activity.  (She didn't mention it,  but Hidden Valley Elementary was the site of the state's only at-school homocide in 2012-13,  when police shot a teenager in the school parking lot during a drug sting gone bad last summer.)

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police reviewed crime in high school zones and found that the highest rates were in the West Charlotte,  Garinger,  Harding and Vance zones,  in that order,  according to the staffer making the report  (I think,  but am not certain,  it was Karen Thomas,  who is retiring as executive director of student support services.)  West Charlotte High already gets support from the public-private Project LIFT,  she said,  so the grant focuses on the Garinger and Harding areas.  Note that this refers to crime in the neighborhoods the schools serve,  not to crime in the schools themselves.

Hidden Valley is in the Vance zone.  The staffer said Vance and its feeder schools will be part of another request approved Tuesday,  for almost $4.6 million from the Department of Justice to "develop knowledge about the specific programs, activities and interventions that improve school safety in a sustainable and cost-effective manner. The researcher will collect evidence and evaluate intervention approaches that enhance school safety,"  the summary says.

Olympic's support squad keeps growing

Almost six weeks before the kids report back to school,  dozens of business people,  faith leaders and educators gathered at a southwest Charlotte church Thursday to plot strategy for Olympic High and its eight feeder schools.

I've been hearing about Olympic's partnerships for several years,  since the school split into five smaller schools with career-focused themes in 2006.  Almost everyone talks about collaboration,  but this effort has grown into something that's making a tangible difference for a growing number of students.

Rucker-Shivers in 2013

I've written about how Olympic leaders have worked with nearby businesses to develop internships and apprenticeships to prepare students for high-paying jobs.  It was fun to see 2013 graduate Maceo Rucker-Shivers,  whom I interviewed as a high school student and intern,  at Thursday's event as a CPCC student and Bosch Rexroth apprentice.

Those efforts continue to pay off and expand.  In August,  Olympic's new advanced manufacturing school opens,  supported by an $80,000 grant from the German machine-parts company.  So does Pallisades Park Elementary, a new neighborhood school that will get the youngest children focused on the math,  science and technology themes that can carry through to graduation.

Realon

Mike Realon,  Olympic's career development coordinator,  has been leading seven years of summits like the latest one at Central Steele Creek Presbyterian Church. Last year he and his band of partners expanded the effort to include area elementary and middle schools.  They patterned their  "Alignment Southwest Charlotte"  effort and its  "cradle-to-career" theme on similar efforts in Nashville,  he said.  First-year results ranged from reading buddies in elementary schools to donations for teacher grants that helped start a robotics program at Southwest Middle School.

Realon likes to talk about  "finding the happy space,"  where school needs and the interests of businesses and faith partners intersect.  Dozens gathered around tables to talk about needs ranging from literacy tutors at Berewick Elementary to Hispanic family engagement at Southwest to male mentors at Olympic.

That kind of partnership network,  which links elementary,  middle and high schools and gets a community deeply invested in its schools,  is something Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools hopes to cultivate across the district.  LaTarzja Henry,  the assistant superintendent in charge of partnerships, said the Southwest Charlotte group is a success story but not necessarily a model that can be replicated for every area.  The needs and resources are different in,  say,  the Governors Village schools in the UNCC area or the McClintock Middle/East Meck zone,  which she cited as other areas leading the way.

The key is finding the right people,  inside and outside of schools,  to locate those happy spaces.

Study cites CMS for reshaping principals' role

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is among six school systems cited for innovative leadership in a recent study of the changing role of principals.

Cotswold Principal Alicia Hash

The Center for American Progress,  a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C., says the changing demands on school leaders has created a stream of early-career departures and early retirements, especially at the most challenging schools.  "The Changing Role of the Principal:  How High Achieving Districts Are Recalibrating School Leadership" looks for ways to make the job more meaningful and manageable while providing better support from central offices.

"Attrition due to resignations and early retirements, along with a shortage of qualified candidates for open principal positions, is leading toward a crisis of leadership in American education,"  the report says.

CMS has had its share of principal churn lately,  but the Southern Methodist University researchers who did the work looked to CMS;  Gwinnett County, Ga.;  Denver;  Washington,  DC;  Uplift Education in Dallas-Fort Worth and the Northeast Leadership Academy at N.C. State University for promising strategies  (read the CMS case study here).  CMS gets credit for creating  "super standards"  that go beyond the required state principal evaluations,  for working with nearby universities to help develop leadership and for providing supports such as  "opportunity culture"  classroom leaders and deans of students,  who can keep principals from being spread too thin.

In an aside following up on my recent post about cumbersome school names,  the STEM/STEAM acronym popped up for discussion on the Education Writers Association email list Wednesday.  An EWA staffer shared this New York Times essay urging writers to shun the "didactic and jargony" term for science,  technology,  engineering and math  (with or without art).  A Florida reporter noted the emergence of B-STEM,  adding business.  I figure with the local enthusiasm for entrepreneurship,  it's only a matter of time until we have Education in Science,  Technology, Engineering,  Entrepreneurship and Math,  or ESTEEM schools.

Summer student shuffle gets serious

This week's word that Carolina STEM charter school doesn't have enough students to open this year illustrates a challenge facing Charlotte-area schools and families:  More choice brings more uncertainty.

The state approved 11 new charter schools to serve about 3,200 Mecklenburg and Cabarrus county students in 2014-15.  A court cleared the way for the Opportunity Scholarship program to proceed,  offering low-income families tax-funded scholarships to switch from public to private schools. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools countered with more magnets and other options.

This spring,  families interested in a change could put their kids' names in for various schools, see where they got in and make a choice. Now,  with a little less than six weeks remaining until most students go back to school,  everyone's trying to figure out what those choices are.

For the folks who have spent the last four years trying to make Carolina STEM Academy a reality,  that meant realizing that 170 applications translated to only 66 confirmed enrollments,  according to a letter sent to families and posted on the school's website.  That was 40 to 60 short of what the board believed was necessary to open,  so rather than push things to the wire they called it quits for this year.

Carolina STEM was the second Charlotte-area charter school to drop out of the 2014 opening;  Stewart Creek High had earlier gotten a one-year deferral because of problems getting its building ready.  The question is whether it will be the last.  Many are still recruiting students,  working on facilities and holding information sessions.  The state is monitoring readiness of the remaining schools,  and could defer or revoke charters for those that don't seem to be set for a successful opening.

CMS,  meanwhile,  is trying to staff its schools appropriately.  Last year the district underestimated charter growth and overestimated its own enrollment.  This year planners project that most of the county's enrollment growth will be in charters.  We can only hope that the state's PowerSchool data system works better this year,  allowing everyone timely information about where students land.

McCoy

In an unrelated nugget,  Wake County Schools Public Relations Director Renee McCoy left that job Tuesday and word is she's coming to CMS,  presumably to fill the gap left by Tahira Stalberte's departure for Union County Schools.  According to her LinkedIn profile, she's a former TV journalist who has also done PR for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

The school name game: Keep it simple

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has plenty of serious plans for the coming school year,  but I couldn't help noticing the district is also engaging in the time-honored tradition of spiffing up school names.

I was updating my spreadsheets for 2014-15 when I came across the names of the reorganized Olympic High schools:
   *Olympic Biotechnology, Health and Public Administration.
   *Olympic School of Executive Leadership and Entrepreneurial Development.
   *Olympic School of Technology, Entrepreneurship and Advanced Manufacturing.
   *Olympic Math,  Engineering, Technology and Science (the school predates the trendy STEM acronym).
   *And even the once-simple Olympic Renaissance has become Olympic Renaissance School of Arts and Technology.

Olympic students

Whew! Thirty-five words to name a school the size about the size of Mallard Creek High.

If I were queen of the world, I'd limit school names to one or two descriptive words,  plus the clearest possible label  (such as elementary,  middle or high school,  though I realize the proliferation of mixed-level schools complicates that).  I'd remind everyone involved that a name is not a syllabus,  a mission statement or a marketing slogan.  It should be simple and clear enough to define a community and stand the test of time.

Yes, I'm being crotchety about something that's an annoyance when I'm trying to get names right on deadline and make stories fit limited space.  But there's a serious point here, too.

If you're a newcomer moving into the Olympic zone,  what would you make of the list above?  There are three schools of technology and one of biotechnology,  one that offers entrepreneurship and another offering entrepreneurial development,  and nothing about literature or writing or history,  which I'm certain all the schools teach.  Would this entice or confuse you?  (Whether the five-school structure itself is a help or hindrance is a question for another day.)

Long-timers know it's a challenge to keep up with what schools are called from one year to the next.  Cynics suspect that adding trendy twists to names can be a substitute for real action.  Newcomers may struggle to figure out that Irwin Academic Center is an elementary school magnet,  that iMeck Academy is the high school portion of Cochrane Collegiate Academy,  and that terms such as "Collegiate" and "University" (in Harding University High) simply reflect a college-prep aspiration shared by all district schools.

I don't blame CMS for trying to keep up with a changing world and a competitive market.  Flexibility and innovation are great.  I'm just not sure it works to cram too much into school names.

If nothing else,  I can be grateful for the new Palisades Park Elementary School,  which resisted the temptation to put  "STEM"  into its name.

Senate walkout a first for Morrison

Heath Morrison came to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools with a reputation for his work with the Nevada state legislature, and he's worn out the pavement between here and Raleigh since taking this job two years ago.

But Wednesday morning's Senate walkout as Morrison prepared to speak to the budget conference committee was a first for him.

Morrison

The senators weren't objecting to the CMS superintendent personally.  They were protesting the House members' insistence on summoning three superintendents to talk about the harm that would come from the Senate proposal to cut teacher assistants.

Morrison voiced gratitude that the Senate,  House and governor's plans include teacher raises,  but said the Senate plan would cost CMS 817 assistant jobs.  Assistants average about $19,000 a year,  he said,  describing them as  "some of the best bangs for our buck that we have in our state."  If they lose their jobs,  Morrison said,  they could end up collecting $14,000 a year in unemployment and health benefits from the state.  Giving up their skills to save $5,000 a year is  "not a good return on investment,"  he told the House members who remained.

Tillis

House Speaker Thom Tillis,  R-Mecklenburg,  asked Morrison whether he'd prefer to keep the two-year budget approved last summer,  which includes no raise for teachers and other state employees,  or get a revised budget that includes raises but eliminates 800 teacher jobs that were promised for 2014-15.  Morrison compared that question to the movie "Sophie's Choice,"  in which Nazis force a woman to choose between her two children.  "I don't think either of those are particularly appealing,"  he said.

In response to another question from Tillis,  Morrison said that the Senate plan,  which provides the largest teacher raises,  would require going back to Mecklenburg County commissioners for more money or cutting $6 million to $7 million from the 2014-15 budget to match those raises for teachers paid with county money.

When Frank Till,  Cumberland County's superintendent,  spoke about the importance of teacher assistants,  Tillis posed what he described as  "a slightly fairer choice:"  Would he prefer the House plan,  which gives raises averaging 5 percent,  or the Senate plan,  where raises average 11 percent but teacher assistants and other aspects of public education are cut?

"I'd rather not make draconian cuts and have a smaller raise,"  Till said.  He added that he'd prefer to see the state raise more revenue,  but said he understood that legislators don't consider that an option.

"We agree on that,"  Tillis said with a laugh.  (By the way,  if you want to listen in on legislative discussions,  check the House and Senate calendars near the top of the General Assembly web page, then find the appropriate audio link.)

Morrison said afterward he wasn't offended by the walkout:   "I had a number of Senate members come out and chat on the way out, and thanked me for what we are doing in CMS and for coming up to testify,"  he emailed in response to my query.  "They wanted me to know that their issue was respecting the rules they had established (with) the House not a lack of respect for the superintendents and teachers speaking." 

CMS/Meck talk on sales tax sparks war of words

A meeting scheduled today between leaders of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and Mecklenburg County sparked allegations by Commissioner Bill James that it's a  "secret meeting"  to plot strategy for a November referendum on a sales tax hike.

School board Vice Chair Tim Morgan and Commissioners' Chair Trevor Fuller say it's simply a session for county officials to brief their CMS counterparts on the plan for a quarter-cent increase that would go toward teacher raises.

Morgan

Morgan,  a Republican,  says he and CMS board Chair Mary McCray requested the meeting after commissioners approved the sales tax referendum in May.  He said they had been reading about the plan in the newspaper but hadn't gotten a first-hand report.  If approved,  the hike is expected to raise up to $35 million a year,  with 80 percent for CMS salaries and the rest divided among CPCC,  the Arts & Science Council and libraries.

A meeting was set to include Morgan,  McCray,  Fuller,  commissioners' Vice Chair Dumont Clarke,  County Manager Dena Diorio and Superintendent Heath Morrison.

Morgan said commissioner Matthew Ridenhour,  also a Republican,  texted him to ask if such a meeting was happening.  "I said 'absolutely,' "  Morgan said Tuesday.  "It's not a secret to our folks."

Ridenhour

Ridenhour said he contacted the board services office and was told it was a leadership meeting which he couldn't attend. He then emailed Fuller and other commissioners,  saying he understood that it was a meeting to craft a memo that commissioners would eventually vote on.

"Given the subject matter of the meeting,  the allocation of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars,  I had hoped to sit in on this meeting so I could be fully aware of what was being discussed. ...  I was quite surprised to learn that I am not allowed to attend the meeting, nor are any other Commissioners allowed to attend,"  he wrote.  Ridenhour asked that the county clerk take minutes for the full board to review.

James,  a Republican,  took the matter further in an email copied to news media:  "This meeting sounds like a secret planning meeting to figure out how to present the sales tax proposal to the media/public without them knowing about the details in advance.  If the Democrats want to do that they should just go somewhere else other than the government center to hatch their plans. They certainly shouldn’t involve the County Manager and sup(erintendent)."

James

"I would point out that government resources of ANY kind can’t be used to promote or support a ballot initiative,"  James added.  "Ultimately, what is the reason for meeting with CMS and the various managers but to coordinate ballot support in violation of state law."  He said Morrison and Diorio count as such resources and their participation is  "ill-advised and I believe illegal."

Fuller,  a Democrat,  responded that Ridenhour's message was riddled with inaccuracies.  There is no plan to draft a memo,  he said.

Fuller

"The unremarkable fact is that the chair of the school board asked (and I agreed) for us to meet so as to better understand the meaning and intent of the County Commission's policy concerning the sales tax referendum. Since you oppose this policy, I don't understand what legitimate reason you have to insist on being part of the meeting,"  Fuller said.  "In any case, since this is not an official meeting of the Board of County Commissioners, it is inappropriate for a single commissioner to request that the Clerk of the Board serve as a personal stenographer."

A note:  It's neither uncommon nor illegal for small groups of elected officials to meet to discuss business.  However,  if a meeting involves a quorum of the board,  it becomes subject to the N.C. Open Meetings Law,  which requires public notice and an opportunity for the public to attend.

Dunlap

George Dunlap,  a Democrat who was a school board member before he became a county commissioner,  emailed that some of his colleagues seem to have suddenly  "gotten religion"  in taking umbrage at such meetings.

"The meeting is not a secret if you know about it,"  Dunlap said in a reply to James.  "Every one of us has meetings or has had a meeting with folk the (sic) we want at the table,  and we didn't open it up to anyone else."

Morgan said his goal is to get information to report back to the full school board.  "This is the proper role of leadership of the boards to have this conversation,"  he said.

Student assignment, crime and moving vans

A couple of recent academic studies provide intriguing looks at the impact of  "resegregation"  in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools 12 years after the district gave up race-based student assignment.

In a newcomer-rich community like this one, the 2002 demise of court-ordered desegregation and the long legal battle that led up to it may seem like ancient history.  But researchers take the long view,  and both papers used years of individual data for CMS students before and after the switch to a race-neutral system.

For those who missed it,  CMS used school boundaries to achieve racial balance from the 1970s to the 1990s.  At that point,  magnets began to play a growing role in efforts to encourage voluntary desegregation.  Lawsuits by white families seeking to end race-based assignment  led to the end of court-ordered desegregation. The ensuing assignment plans, which combine neighborhood schools and magnets, created a rapid and dramatic increase in mostly-black and mostly-white schools. (Both papers give a more detailed history.)

Image: AtlantaBlackStar.com

"School Segregation,  Educational Attainment and Crime:  Evidence From the End of Busing in Charlotte-Mecklenburg"  draws a striking conclusion:  The strongest,  most lasting impact of sending students to high-poverty,  mostly-minority schools is a rise in crime among minority males who live in poverty.

"The results show clearly that it is the combination of race and income segregation that leads to 

increases in crime.  Minority males have significantly more arrests and days incarcerated when they are assigned to schools with more poor minorities.  However, we find no impact on crime of being assigned to schools with more non-poor minorities or poor non-minorities,"  says the study by Stephen Billings  (UNC Charlotte),  David Deming  (Harvard Graduate School of Education)  and Jonah Rockoff  (Columbia University Graduate School of Business).  It's published in the February issue of The Quarterly Journal of Economics, but the link above takes you to an earlier working paper you can read free.

The report also found negative academic impacts on all groups assigned to such schools,  but found that those disadvantages faded over time.  "Our results suggest that equal or greater resources combined with active policy efforts may be able to reduce the impact of school segregation on academic outcomes, but not for crime,"  the report says. "To the extent that crime is driven by social context and peer interactions,  it will be difficult for schools to address racial and economic inequality through means other than deliberately integrative student assignment policies."

Image: Writeforit.Wordpress.com

"Does School Policy Affect Housing Choices?  Evidence From the End of Desegregation in Charlotte-Mecklenburg"  acknowledges that housing patterns shape the racial composition of schools.  It then examines a follow-up:  Does student assignment also affect housing decisions?

The conclusion:  Yes  --  for a relatively small number of white families.

The study by David Liebowitz  (Harvard University)  and Lindsay Page  (University of Pittsburgh)  found that African American and Hispanic families are more mobile than white ones,  and their moving patterns didn't change significantly when student assignment changed. But they found differences for white families after 2002,  when moving became a practical way to seek a higher-quality neighborhood school,  "even if one criterion was racial homogeneity of the school."

Even during race-based assignment,  whites who moved  "exhibited a strong preference for communities that were less integrated than their starting community."  After 2002,  the researchers found,  "White families were much more likely to select into a Whiter but worse performing zone than their current one.  However,  they were no more likely to select into a Whiter and academically stronger neighborhood than before the new assignment policy."  Despite those trends,  the researchers found that the numbers were too small to affect the district's overall level of segregation.

Please note that I am simplifying two long,  complex papers about touchy subjects.  There's no way to crunch some combined 80 pages of academic analysis into a blog post and catch all the nuances.  I can't find a free version of the second article,  which is published in the American Educational Research Journal, so it may be tough to read the full thing.  Just know that both papers contain a more sophisticated analysis than I can summarize here.

Opportunity Culture still evolving in Project LIFT

Opportunity Culture jobs may be the hot thing for Gov. Pat McCrory and the N.C. House, but in the Project LIFT schools that pioneered them they're still a work in progress.

Zone Superintendent Denise Watts talked about the quest to create higher paying jobs for great classroom teachers as part of a Project LIFT update to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board Tuesday.  A couple of things are clear,  she said during the presentation and in a conversation afterward:  The jobs continue to attract a lot of interest,  and they can be effective in retaining the best teachers.

Watts

Watts said her office got 800 applications for a small number of jobs at five schools in 2014-15.  It was interesting to see how those numbers broke down,  though:  140 of them passed an initial screening and 65  "elite candidates"  got through three interviews and a data review.  So far 27 have been hired,  her report said,  joining nine who remain from 2013-14.

So how many does that leave still to hire?  Well,  that's where things get murky.  Watts said everything from enrollment projections for her nine schools to the General Assembly's decision on teacher assistants will shape the number of jobs available.  Why assistants?  Because some schools have used assistant positions to bolster pay for teachers taking on extra duties,  so if the legislature eliminates those posts it could become more difficult to make the new jobs work.

Bertrand

When I asked about the teachers who took on the first jobs in 2013-14,  coaching colleagues and/or using technology to reach more students,  Watts hesitated again.  Even during that first year,  she said,  some principals redefined jobs.  And some teachers sought changes.  Watts cited the example of Ranson Middle School math teacher Romain Bertrand,  who took on the responsibility for supervising math instruction in two grade levels,  with about 800 students.  She said he asked to cut back to one grade level in 2014-15,  even though it means a pay reduction,  in hopes of being more effective.

The ultimate question  --  Did those teachers boost student success?  --  has yet to be analyzed.  But Watts said that while the opportunity culture approach may not be proven yet,  the change doesn't mean it's failing.  In fact,  she urged West Charlotte to create some opportunity culture jobs for the coming year in hopes of keeping some academic standouts who were being recruited elsewhere.

The Project LIFT schools will join with 17 more CMS schools in continuing to work on the system next year.  Cabarrus County schools has also signed on with the Public Impact,  the Chapel Hill firm leading the national experiment,  to launch the opportunity culture in 10 schools next year.

And if plans in the governor's and House budgets prevail,  more counties will get state money to start their own pilots over the next couple of years.

Watts said she thinks the additional ventures would be a good thing:  "I don't think it will be a perfected model until we do it a few times."

Study: Get more creative in recruiting principals

Urban school districts aren't doing enough to recruit and pay great school leaders,  according to a new study by the Thomas Fordham Institute titled  "Lacking Leaders:  The Challenges of Principal Recruitment,  Selection and Placement."

The DC-based education research and advocacy group  (funded by the usual list of reform philanthropies) studied five urban districts that have been working to improve their principal processes.  I was guessing Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools might be among them,  especially since the institute teamed up with Public Impact of Chapel Hill, which has worked with CMS.  But the descriptions of districts,  which are given pseudonyms such as Reformville and Urbanopolis as part of an anonymity agreement to ensure candor,  don't match.

Still,  the issues loom large here as the summer leadership churn cranks up.  "Leaders must deal with everything from overstretched budgets to mediocre teachers to unruly (and potentially dangerous) students, not to mention heavy pressure to boost academic results (without, of course, 'teaching to the test,' much less engaging in even more dubious practices),"  the report says.  They get little autonomy,  often make little more than classroom teachers and face grueling accountability demands,  it continues.

The researchers conclude that the five districts,  which they describe as pioneers,  are too quick hire from within,  rather than making an energetic and systemic search for the best candidates from other districts and sectors.  Some officials told researchers they'd had limited success with finding outsiders who understand the local culture and stick around,  while others said tapping outsiders over assistant principals in the district hurts morale.

The Fordham Institute and the Broad Foundation issued a 2003  "manifesto"  urging districts to look for noneducators with strong leadership skills.  The latest report also pushes the idea that a strong corporate leader could make a great principal,  so long as there's an instructional expert on the administrative team.

"We acknowledge that private firms do not face the same licensure constraints as school districts, so cross-sector recruitment in public education is apt to be harder" than in corporate hiring,  the report says. "But policymakers could change those licensure rules. And the takeaway is the same: great leaders can succeed across sectors."

I don't think I've seen CMS recruit a principal from outside education,  and the district had some setbacks with a couple of HR directors hired from corporate America.  Superintendent Heath Morrision does seems to be searching outside CMS for principals:  A scan of announcements this spring and summer shows seven from within CMS,  three from adjacent districts and one from Tennessee.

The report also calls for compensation that's more in line with corporate pay,  turning principalships into  "phenomenal job opportunities."

"Districts should also see the principal’s job as the year-round position that it is and treat  —  and 
compensate  —  it more like the executive role that it’s become,"  the report says.  "Too costly, you say? Think of it this way: the United States employs roughly 100,000 principals. If we gave each of them a $100,000 raise, the total price tag would amount to $10 billion—obviously not chump change. But that’s less than 2 percent of the K–12 public school budget—and $5 billion less than the total new cost estimated to fund President Obama’s pre-K plan."

Update: The Wallace Foundation,  which has been working with CMS on its  "principal pipeline"  since 2011,  announced today that it will provide additional money to support principal supervisors in hopes of developing a larger corps of strong principals.

Check details of CMS school time survey

People who care about Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools bell schedules care a lot,  and there's a lot to read in the results of surveys of 11,000 parents,  5,000 parents and 2,000 students.

Susan Plaza

The School Time Task Force that generated the surveys voted Monday to shorten the elementary day and move back the controversial late bell schedule,  undoing changes that were launched during the recession to save money on busing.  The report will go to Superintendent Heath Morrison;  presumably any changes with significant costs would have to be worked into the 2015-16 budget plan.

Susan Plaza,  one of the parents on the task force,  says CMS opted not to send a press release summarizing the survey results.  The online reports,  prepared by the K12 Insight consulting group,  present the raw data in an number of formats and groupings.

In Nashville, a different way to do charters

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Heath Morrison often talks about charter schools authorized by school districts,  an arrangement that isn't allowed in North Carolina.  I recently got a chance to see that model in action at Cameron College Prep,  a charter authorized by Metro Nashville Public Schools to take over a failing district school.

The tour was part of the recent Education Writers Association national seminar,  and it gave us a chance to see something I hadn't heard of before:  A charter school with an attendance zone,  and one that's being phased in as the traditional public school phases out.

Cameron College Prep

Some background:  Cameron began life as an all-black high school in south Nashville in the 1930s.  In recent decades the neighborhood and the school changed.  Cameron Middle School  (that's grades 5-8 in Nashville)  had an international population and a history of low academic performance when the district's Office of Innovation asked for takeover proposals in 2010.  The district chose the plan presented by LEAD Academy, a charter school authorized by MNPS.

Charter leaders had a year to get to know the community and try to build support for the new approach,  which involves a heavy emphasis on getting all student ready for college.  College banners and motivational slogans line the halls  (a common approach with college-prep charters I've seen).

Mitchell

Cameron College Prep opened with fifth-graders only,  while grades 6-8 attended Cameron Middle.  By the time we visited in May, the third year of the phase-in,  grades 5-7 were in the charter school while only the eighth-graders remained in the MNPS school. Sharing the building can be awkward,  Shaka Mitchell of LEAD acknowledged:  "It works like you getting a roommate you didn't ask for."  But it also brought vital support for the fledgling charter.  Like N.C. charters,  those in Tennessee don't get money for busing or buildings.  But the district is providing both,  though LEAD will have to take over expenses for the aging school once the last district students leave.  "That's going to hit our books,  and that's pretty serious,"  Mitchell said.

Useted

Cameron Middle teacher had options as their grades phased out:  They could apply to stay as charter faculty or be given first crack at other jobs in the district.  As LEAD employees,  they lose tenure,  make a little more money and work more days during the school year.  Most opted to stay with the district,  but the handful who applied with LEAD were hired,  LEAD officials told us.  Because of the extra days and hours,  "they're getting paid less on an hourly basis,"  Chief Operating Officer Adrienne Useted said.

The original LEAD school,  which is also a middle school,  took students by application,  as most charters do.  Because of the unique partnership with the school district,  students who live in the Cameron zone automatically go to the charter school unless they apply for another district or charter option.  In other words,  it's a charter neighborhood school.

Danhausen

School officials say that's a mixed blessing.  Families associate Cameron College Prep with a system they don't trust,  said school director Tait Danhausen,  and motivating them to get involved has been a challenge.  He said his biggest surprise with the school has been the deep distrust of educators that seems to be a part of generational poverty in Nashville.

The school and its relationship with the district is still evolving.  LEAD now has six schools in Nashville,  including one that's part of the Tennessee Achievement School District,  which was created to take over the state's lowest-performing schools and come up with new strategies for them.

Cameron College Prep has  "done OK"  so far,  MNPS school board member Will Pinkston said during a separate session on authorizing charter schools  (see an 8-minute video of that panel here).

"They're not knocking it out of the park,"  Pinkston said.  "They're good people trying hard,  but it's not outperforming other charters or district schools."

Pinkston and MMPS spokesman Joe Bass steered me to this school rating chart,  which also strikes me as something that CMS and/or North Carolina might want to look at.  It provides an easy-to-scan comparison of test results  (growth and proficiency) and student and teacher survey results for Nashville district and charter schools.  It's not as simplistic as the letter grades North Carolina plans to assign all schools,  but easier to use as a comparison point than the state's detailed school report cards.

Morrison has talked about creating something along these lines for CMS since his arrival two years ago,  but with the data delays and glitches created by the conversion to PowerSchool,  nothing has appeared yet.  Presumably,  anything created by CMS would not include charter schools because they do not report to or have any formal relationship with the district.

Tenure, crowds and absent teachers: A roundup

This week has been so busy that I'm spilling into the weekend to catch up:

Carlson

* Financial planner and insurance agent Dennis Carlson says he proctored state exams at a high school and was struck by the confusion over the Senate's proposed pay plan,  which asks teachers to trade tenure for raises.  He wrote this blog post calculating the value of what teachers are getting in return for surrendering their job protection,  ranging from $18,900 for a teacher with 25 years' experience to $130,500 for a five-year teacher.

* Bolyn McClung,  a regular at Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board meetings,  warns that anyone planning to attend Wednesday's public hearing on the Mecklenburg County budget had better line up early to get through the Government Center's security screening.

"Each person now takes about 30 seconds,"  McClung wrote in an email to county commissioners and media. "An example of the zealousness is that the next person in line cannot go through the metal detector until the first person’s personal possessions in the little white basket have been meticulously inspected.  Big purses, of which there surely will be a lot, are going to be an issue."

He's right.  The line was long and slow at the school board's public hearing,  and I barely squeezed in to cover the meeting.  The screeners have been known to unzip the change compartment on my wallet and peer at my pennies,  so be prepared and don't bring pocket knives or anything else that resembles a weapon.

* Finally, retired educator and substitute teacher Jim Thomas sent these thoughts after reading about a study on teacher absences (I've edited for length):

Part of the problem is teachers take "mental health days" at will. Teachers who know they won't be back the next year start taking their "sick leave" and personal leave days, some to hunt for a new job.  First, Fridays seemed to be the day of choice. Then Mondays became popular.

Many times there are not enough subs. Teachers have to cover the absent teachers using their planning periods.  My wife, a high school teacher, went many weeks without having a planning period.  I have to admit that there are legitimate reasons for being out of school, like jury duty,  sickness,  child sickness and other things that can't be done during the school day.  But when teachers take a day off to have their dog groomed,  due to a hangover, get their nails done, or go to the beach, that hurts the entire educational process.  Veteran teachers who are conscientious can tell when a person isn't coming back to teach the next year before it's announced.   And, of course, the high absenteeism hurts school morale.

Teachers are tired and overwhelmed by unnecessary paperwork, regulations, and countless meetings.  Teachers are blamed for students' lack of performance.  Student behavior is considered the teacher's fault and not the student or his family.  In other words, the absenteeism is a symptom of a much bigger societal problem and the best scapegoat is the teacher.

One doesn't need a blue-ribbon report to tell what the problems in schools are.  I don't know many occupations where blame is so personal to a specific position like a teacher.  Policeman and fireman are often said to have stressful jobs but they aren't blamed for starting the fires or causing criminal activities.  It's only natural to cope the only way one can and that is sometimes get away from it.  

CMS school demographics are here

Yes, the school year is almost over, but you can finally see the racial breakdowns for Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools.

After requesting the numbers all year,  I got a link to the raw numbers in mid-May and finally found time to calculate and map percentages. Click here to see the results for all schools.

These numbers normally come out in October but were delayed by persistent problems with the state's new PowerSchool data system.  There are no dramatic changes from previous years.  As noted before,  the district is now 41.2 percent black,  30.8 percent white,  19.4 percent Hispanic and 5.5 percent Asian.

Look for a story Monday with more analysis.

Teacher survey shows frustration with CMS discipline

Teachers in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools are generally less satisfied than counterparts across North Carolina,  according to the 2014 teacher working conditions survey.

In most cases,  the differences between CMS and state results are fairly small,  and CMS has an edge on some items,  such as resources for professional development.

But CMS lags significantly on items related to student behavior.  For instance,  about 60 percent of CMS teachers agreed that students follow rules and administrators consistently enforce those rules,  compared with about 72 percent of all N.C. teachers. Seventy-two percent of CMS teachers and 82 percent of N.C. teachers say school administrators support teachers' efforts to maintain classroom discipline.

As usual,  it's hard to know exactly what to make of the numbers because CMS teachers were also less likely to fill out the survey.  The state had a participation rate of almost 89 percent,  compared with 69 percent for CMS.  Charter schools were even lower at 60 percent.  Eighteen CMS schools,  including Butler,  Hopewell and Vance high schools,  fell below the 40 percent response rate required for school results to be posted.

To get results,  go to the website and click on any district name to get a list of schools.  The icon with horizontal bars gives a detailed breakdown of each response,  ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree.  The icon that looks like a grid gives the percent who agreed or strongly agreed on each item,  with a comparison to state average and district averages.  And the one that looks like a square split in two compares 2012 and 2014 results.

So check it out and let us know what you see.  

Effective teaching: First step is showing up

A relatively small number of chronically absent teachers in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and 39 other large districts account for over a third of all teacher absences,  according to a new study by the National Council on Teacher Quality,  a nonpartisan reform group based in Washington, D.C.

"While policymakers have been directing considerable attention to teacher effectiveness, one basic aspect of effectiveness has received relatively little attention: teacher attendance,"  says the report.  "No matter how engaging or talented teachers may be, they can only have an impact on student learning if they are in the classroom."

"Roll Call: The Importance of Teacher Attendance" compiles some interesting data from 40 large districts  (CMS was the only one in the Carolinas).  Across all districts,  teachers averaged 11 absences per school year,  with CMS landing close to that average.  Long-term leaves of more than 10 consecutive days weren't counted, but time off for professional development was. 

Sixteen percent of teachers nationally and in CMS missed 18 or more days,  which the council labeled chronically absent,  and they accounted for 34 percent of the absences.

CMS fell below average on teachers with excellent attendance,  defined as no more than three days missed.  Sixteen percent of the whole group fell into that category,  but just over 9 percent of CMS teachers did.  

The problem might be clear  --  children lose ground when they're constantly taught by substitutes,  and the districts spent a combined $424 million on subs last year  --  but solutions were not.  The council found no consistent effects linked to leave policies or incentive programs designed to boost attendance.

Even the expected link between school poverty and absenteeism didn't materialize:  "The
difference between the average days absent in the highest and lowest poverty schools was under one day and was not statistically significant."

The conclusion:  Keep looking for answers.

"Anecdotally, teachers and principals often cite school-based norms that shape the culture and tone around teacher attendance  –  perhaps more effectively than the broader and more distant formal district policies,"  the report concludes.  "Something as straightforward as principals expecting their teachers to call them directly when they must take leave can often shape school culture concerning teacher attendance."

Educator salaries: Charter schools and new CMS data

Salaries for Charlotte-area educators are finally ready.  It took a bit longer this year because we are publishing charter school salaries for the first time,  and got more extensive information from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

The charter list was challenging,  and not only because of the state's misfire in initially saying charter schools weren't required to provide the data.  Each charter school is essentially its own district,  which meant that even after that mistake was corrected and schools provided the data,  it came from different sources in different formats,  often with different job titles and abbreviations.  That can make it difficult to sort and compare,  but it's a good start toward giving the public a look at payrolls in a form of public education that has extra flexibility and plays a growing role in our region.

In past years,  I've requested salaries and bonuses from CMS.  This year,  after working on an article about pay at community colleges,  I realized there are additional sources of income,  including state longevity pay.  So I requested all of those sources.  The result:  The CMS information is more complete,  but it's not comparable to prior years.

CMS provided total compensation from salaries,  bonuses,  longevity pay,  overtime,  stipends for extra duties,  allowances and fringe benefits that are reported as income to the IRS.  That means some people's pay looks bigger,  even if they got no raise in salary.  Meanwhile,  some listings will look unusually low because the district provided actual earnings from April 1,  2013,  to March 31,  2014,  rather than listing an annual salary as they have in the past.  That means someone who started after April 1 won't have a full year's pay listed.

Even the total number of employees  --  18,515 this year,  compared with 18,665 in 2013  --  isn't comparable.  As you might recall,  CMS changed the way it accounts for people who are not actually being paid but have the option to return to district jobs.  That happened after people raised questions about a Providence High teacher who had been appearing on the salary listings and the school website year after year,  despite the fact that he hadn't set foot in school for a decade  (turned out he was getting worker's comp,  not a district paycheck).  After that flap,  about 200 people on leave or other inactive status were removed from the CMS roster.

Which brings us to the perennial question:  Why name names?

Most agree that salaries for the folks at the top should be public,  but over the years many have questioned why we would list individual information for teachers,  assistants,  bus drivers and others who are public employees but not public figures.

The answer:  It lets people see if something is amiss in public spending.

Are relatives of those who influence spending holding public jobs,  and if so,  are their salaries reasonable?  Remember First Lady Mary Easley and her lucrative job at N.C. State?  Or, conversely,  the false rumors that Superintendent Peter Gorman had his wife on the CMS payroll?  How about this year's revelation that an administrator at StudentFirst Academy,  a new charter school, had family members on the payroll,  with other staffers raising questions about whether they were qualified or showing up for work?

Lawyer Richard Vinroot,  who represented the StudentFirst board when that administrator contested her firing in court,  is now representing Sugar Creek and Lincoln charter schools in fighting the Observer's request to disclose salaries by name.  Lawyers, legislators and maybe judges will sort out the legality of that position.

The schools have provided names and salaries of a few top administrators,  and salaries with names redacted for the rest.  Vinroot says if there are specific questions about lower-paid staff  --  for instance,  are charter employees related to board members or administrators?  --  the schools can answer without having to reveal everyone's names.

But you don't know what you don't know.  It might be obvious  (at least in hindsight)  to check on the governor's wife.  But without seeing the individual teacher's name,  no one would have thought to ask if Providence High had a  "phantom teacher"  on the payroll.  It turned out that he wasn't being paid for work he wasn't doing,  but isn't that exactly the kind of thing the public ought to question?

And while schools that are trying to do the right thing might answer questions honestly and completely,  can we trust those who have something to hide to do the same?  Providing details on those paid with public money lets us all do our own checking,  without having to guess or trust.

Finally,  to answer the questions that are sure to follow release of these salaries:  We're working on 2014 updates for regional school districts,  the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.  Stay tuned.

Maybe there is a free lunch ...

Starting next school year, about 59,000 students at 72 high-poverty Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools will automatically get free lunch through a new community eligibility provision of the federal school nutrition program.

The provision covers schools across the country where at least 40 percent of students are on public assistance,  in foster care or fall into other categories that automatically qualify them for lunch subsidies,  according to a presentation to the CMS board.  The goal is to eliminate the need for high-need schools to collect applications and process payments  --  and to make sure students get the nutrition they need to be ready to learn.

Breakfast at Elizabeth Traditional Elementary

CMS already rolled out a universal free breakfast program this year,  though participation hasn't been what officials had hoped, child nutrition director Cindy Hobbs told the board.  The district aimed for a 50 percent increase in kids eating breakfast;  so far it has been about 20 percent.

The free lunch program should save some time and money for participating schools  --  including, Superintendent Heath Morrison said, write-offs for lunches that children eat and parents fail to pay for.  "The reality is many of these families simply can't afford to pay,"  he said,  even if they don't meet the income cutoffs for free meals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture,  which already supports CMS students to the tune of about $50 million a year,  will pick up the tab for all students at the designated schools.

Of course,  there are complications.  Eligibility for federal lunch aid is used to gauge school need and qualify students for a waiver of athletic and other fees.  Families will still have to fill out income paperwork for the fee waivers,  CMS officials said,  and the district will have to find another method of tallying the number of  "economically disadvantaged students."

Regular blog readers may be amused to hear that board member Rhonda Lennon noted the perennial comments from "Wiley Coyote"  raising questions about the free lunch program.  "Mr. Coyote will want to know:  What alternative methods for determining student eligibility were used?"  The answers were fairly complex;  those who are really into this can find the child nutrition discussion on video at this link,  starting at the 1:47 mark.  Lennon's questions about Wiley Coyote (and comments about the tastiness and fat content of Takis hot snacks) starts at 2:03.

Vice Chair Tim Morgan asked about the prospects for the federal government to just pay for lunch for all students.

Hobbs said it won't happen soon,  but it should:  "If you can give a child free transportation and you can give them free books,  why can't you give them free meals?"

On the Raleigh roundup,  I'm not finding any new education-related bills on the General Assembly listing for Wednesday.  But Pamela Grundy of MecklenburgACTS says the Senate education committee is taking up changes to the Read to Achieve act,  which mandates consequences for third-graders who fail to prove they can read on grade level.  Read her group's critique here.

Do charters play on a level field?

When I wrote about the latest round of charter school approvals,  reader Carrie Diane posted a series of questions about charter schools.   "Before I get anyone upset, I'm just asking questions here because I honestly do not know the answers,"  she began.

That's a challenge. Discussion of the pros and cons of charter schools has been going on for more than a decade in North Carolina.  Some people have strong views and come out sniping.  Meanwhile,  others are just entering the conversation and get frustrated when they read articles that don't include all the background.

This reader posed some good questions that require more than an online comment section to answer.  So here's my stab at them,  and I'm sure the rest of you will jump in.

First:  When I read that charter schools get on average $2,000 less than public schools my first thought was that isn't that supposed to be because they are marketed as being more effective and efficient than a public school? I realize it is less money, but I was truly thinking that wasn't that part of the allure of creating charter schools? 

I wasn't covering education when the state launched charters in the 1990s,  but my understanding is that rather than saying  "Let's see if we can do the same job with less money,"  the founders wanted to see if charter operators could do a better job with roughly the same money.  The most recent study I've seen pegs the gap at just over $1,700,  but most of that comes from the fact that counties don't have to provide money for facilities, as they do for district schools.  The system is set up to give charter schools the same per-pupil state allotment for operating costs that all other public schools get on average,  and requires counties to do the same.  Of course,  needs and spending vary dramatically from school to school,  whether they're charters or traditional.

Next: Are we comparing apples and oranges when it comes to testing and measuring success? My impression is that charter schools do not have to follow the same EOG testing measures and Read to Achieve that a public school does. 

Charter schools have to give the same state exams and report the same results.  Check state school report cards (where you can also find per-pupil spending reports) or click the School Data links at the right of this column to see mapped results for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and Mecklenburg charter schools.  Charter schools get more flexibility under Read to Achieve to deal with third-graders who fall short on reading skills.  But unlike district schools,  charter schools face closure for repeated poor performance on state exams.

And this: Are charter schools and public schools working along the same guidelines when it comes to teacher qualifications? 

No.  All teachers in traditional public schools must be licensed,  but charters can fill up to 50 percent of their teaching spots with unlicensed teachers.

And finally,  Carrie Diane questioned why charter schools don't have to offer busing and free lunches and how that affects serving low-income students.

This one gets complicated.  Charter schools have to have plans to ensure that no student is denied admission because of transportation or meals.  But that doesn't have to mean busing and cafeterias.  Some charters cover transportation by helping families connect for car pools and expect families to send or buy lunches.  They say they'll provide individual meal assistance and do what it takes to ensure that students from low-income families can get to school.  But some say disadvantaged families don't apply to charter schools that make it difficult.

Advantage charters?  Well,  not so fast.  CMS has a large and expanding menu of magnets and other opt-in schools with limited transportation.  And those schools often set admission requirements,  which most charters can't do.  Finally,  the biggest factor in school demographics is location.  Schools in east and west Charlotte tend to have high poverty levels and low white enrollment,  whether they're charters or district schools.  Those in Mecklenburg's suburbs and surrounding counties generally have much lower poverty levels and more white students,  regardless of who's running them.

So no,  charters and districts aren't playing on a level field.  But it's not always clear who's got the edge.

Technology, playgrounds on CMS 'opportunity' list

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools budget plan that district leaders and county officials will review today includes a $46.2 million increase in county spending.  But there's also a page detailing almost $69 million in additional  "one-time funding opportunities"  should the county find itself with money left over.

Superintendent Heath Morrison says County Manager Dena Diorio asked the district to list such projects,  which wouldn't be an ongoing annual expense,  for consideration based on the county fund balance.  The list  (on p. 72 of the budget book) includes:

$1 million would get playground upgrades

*$28.9 million in environmental upgrades,  most of that to be spent improving indoor air quality at schools  --  work such as increasing fresh air flow or cleaning ducts.

*$22.8 million for technology,  most of it for  "devices/cases and charging trays"  for  middle school students.

*$9.8 million for  "general deferred maintenance."

*$3.5 million for bus video cameras and vehicle replacement.

*$2.6 million for roof replacements.

*$1 million for playground upgrades.

County commissioners will hear from CMS and CPCC officials at a special budget meeting at 3 p.m. Monday,  May 19.  It's in Room 267 of the Government Center and it's open to the public.  But Commissioner Bill James wants to discourage the massive turnout and testimonials that have marked meetings to discuss teacher raises --  and a recent commissioners' meeting that wasn't about the budget.

James

"Given the disturbance at the last County Commission meeting it might be a good idea to outline to the public and CMS that this is NOT a public hearing,"  James emailed Diorio and other county officials last week.  "The meeting is for the Boards to talk to each other, not listen to prepared speeches from students, presentations from MeckEd or other groups (PTA or teachers)."

I'm guessing the mid-afternoon timing will discourage a crowd.  But based on the email and social media traffic I've seen already,  we can count on another big mobilization for the county's June 11 public budget hearing.