CMS projecting to have about 750 more students

It's T-minus 12 days until the start of school, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools leaders proclaimed at the school board meeting last night that they are ready.

They also presented a grab-bag of numbers and statistics regarding what they're expecting for the first day, and I thought I'd share them here.

More students coming. CMS is expecting to have 754 more students this year than it had at the 20th day of school last year. The vast majority is coming from high school students, which Deputy Superintendent Ann Clark attributed to keeping more students from dropping out and promoting more from 9th to 10th grade. Interestingly, they're projecting a decrease in enrollment in elementary school (albeit only by one student). They didn't address why this is, but my guess is it's because most charter schools target early grades.

More buses, too. CMS is projecting to add 27 buses to its fleet this year, bringing the total 1,020, even as the number of students they expect to ride them will fall a bit. The district says this is because of new academic programs at schools around the county.

Less out-of-school suspension. The district has made changes to the code of student conduct, and one emphasis is on keeping students in the school even when they're being disciplined.

Still looking for teachers. CMS has 421 teacher vacancies, though 266 of those already have a recommendation. Superintendent Heath Morrison said that having 155 teacher openings without recommendations is ahead of where the district was at this point last year. The largest number of vacancies, 59, are in elementary school.

PowerSchool should be ready. The portal parents use for updates should be functional this year after many malfunctions last year as CMS shifted to a new system.

Discipline disparities: A national push

Last year West Charlotte High and Martin Luther King Middle School reported more than 90 suspensions per 100 students. Providence High and Robinson Middle had fewer than four per 100.

Those are extremes within Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, but I doubt anyone is surprised by the pattern or needs a hint about the demographics of those schools.  Across the nation,  African American students are far more likely than white classmates to be sent home from school.  And the schools where low-income and nonwhite students are concentrated tend to have the highest suspension rates of all.

This week a national team of researchers, educators and policy analysts who have spent three years studying this phenomenon released a series of briefing papers summing up their findings.  The Discipline Disparities Collaborative,  founded by Indiana University's Equity Project and financially supported by The Atlantic Philanthropies and Open Society Foundations,  concludes that the disparities are driven by flaws in school discipline more than by differences in behavior.

Some will say that black students get suspended more because they behave worse,  and that changing policies to reduce that trend amounts to giving a free pass to troublemakers.  This group says that's a myth.  If African American students were actually doing more bad things,  the researchers say,  they'd be more likely than white students to be suspended for serious offenses such as bringing guns,  drugs and alcohol to school.  But they cite data showing that racial gaps disappear for those offenses but open up when judgment is involved,  with offenses such as disrespect or disruption.

The group also says it's wrong to believe that suspending the  "bad kids"  is the best way to protect the learning environment for the good students.  In fact,  better alternatives for dealing with minor offenses  --  or creating environments where such clashes are less likely to occur  --  benefits all students,  they say.

All of this is consistent with what Heath Morrison has been saying since he was hired as CMS superintendent in 2012.  The challenge,  he says,  is helping educators learn better ways to deal with cultural differences without labeling anyone a racist or making teachers feel like they're expected to overlook serious offenses.  Those discussions are going on in various schools and with other community groups,  such as the Race Matters for Juvenile Justice Initiative.

To look up suspension rates for N.C. schools,  go to the school report cards and select the  "Safe, orderly and caring schools"  tab.

And on the data front,  CMS has posted school poverty levels for this year.

Project LIFT teachers: Absent more than students

Teachers in Project LIFT schools averaged 9.9 absences last year  --  a higher rate than the student average of 9.1 absences.

That was one of the most shocking bits of data in the first-year report on the $55 million five-year project  presented at Tuesday's board meeting.  But you won't find it in the presentation posted online,  and you didn't hear it discussed if you watched the meeting.  Instead,  you might have caught a quick reference to a paper handout distributed to board members.

I got a copy from Denise Watts, the Project LIFT Zone superintendent, after the meeting. It contains the actual data that's available so far to measure the results of the first year.  Many of the items are blank,  to be completed when 2013 test results are released or new parent surveys are completed.

The 71 percent graduation rate at West Charlotte High exceeded the 2013 goal of 66 percent.  This year's target is 78 percent.  And last year's students overwhelmingly topped the goal to earn a total of 100 recovered credits  (essentially makeup courses, often taken online).  They earned 301.

But teacher absences at the nine LIFT schools came in well above the 2012-13 target, which was to average six missed days per teacher.  Apparently based on last year's reality,  the 2013-14 goal has been bumped up to 7.9.  For students,  the goal is to bring the average down to 8.1 days this year.

Another bleak spot:  Students in the nine schools, which include the elementary and middle schools that feed into West Charlotte,  averaged 1.7 out-of-school suspension days per student.  That would equate to 170 per 100 students, using the calculation for  N.C. school report cards. That's similar to the rate reported for West Charlotte High in 2011-12  (176 per 100) and well above the rates reported that year for the  schools with younger students.  This year's goal is to bring the zone average down to one suspension per student.  (That doesn't mean each student gets suspended;  some students earn multiple suspensions and run up the total.)

CMS report: Fine print is fascinating

How many teachers from the schools that closed this year lost their jobs with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools?  How much Title I money are high-poverty schools getting , and how do they spend it?  What do the numbers show about students being suspended?

All of those items are in the data tables that came with a report interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh presented to the school board in December.  (Read the full report here.)  The report focuses on 42 schools that saw change this year because of closings,  mergers and other changes related to the 2011-12 budget.

The answers:

*Of 341 teachers in 10 schools that closed,  61 did not return to CMS this year.  Only eight of those left because their contracts were not renewed.  Among 36 schools CMS categorizes as "impacted" by changes,  243 of 1,704 teachers did not return to CMS,  and 44 of those were "nonrenewals."

*Three high schools that hit the 75 percent mark for students receiving lunch aid  (Harding,  West Charlotte and West Meck)  got more than $600,000 each in Title I federal money to aid high-poverty schools.  For elementary and middle schools listed,  the Title I budget is generally in the $200,000 to $300,000 range.  The report lists how each school is using the money.

*The numbers show a significant jump in suspensions at many of the schools that saw change,  from South Meck High to Alexander Graham Middle to Barringer Elementary.  The increase is far more than changes in enrollment would predict,  and CMS officials aren't sure why that's happening,  other than to say this is a transition year.  A couple of schools bucked the trend:  West Meck High lost students and saw a reduction that's out of proportion to the change  (but the schools that got those students have seen suspensions spike).  And Alexander Middle merged with Davidson IB,  which closed;  so far Alexander has fewer suspensions than both schools combined during the same period last school year.