Lucrative majors and governor prep

Gov. Pat McCrory's comments about getting public universities to focus on majors that provide the best job prospects has me wondering:  Will he discourage students from becoming teachers?

N.C. education majors with a bachelor's degree averaged an estimated $36,245 a year,  well under the average earnings for grads who got two-year degrees in health or STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields,  according to a recent national analysis of the economic benefits of college degrees.  If you want young people to get a lot of earning power for their tuition bucks,  it looks like you need to warn them off teaching  --  or make the profession pay better.

In fact,  we'll probably hear more about proposals to change the way universities prepare teachers and to revise the way teachers are paid.  But whether there will be more money in the pot remains to be seen.

McCrory's remarks about philosophy majors and gender studies also got me wondering what's the best major if you're aiming for the governor's mansion.  Turns out that's hard to say.  Here are the academic credentials of North Carolina's last five governors.

McCrory:  Education and political science degree from Catawba College, a private, church-affiliated liberal arts school in Salisbury.

Bev Perdue:  Bachelor's in history  (University of Kentucky),  master's in community college administration,  doctorate in education administration (both University of Florida).

Mike Easley:  Undergraduate degree in political science from UNC Chapel Hill,  law degree from N.C. Central.

Jim Hunt:  Bachelor's and master's degrees in agriculture-related fields from N.C. State,  law degree from Chapel Hill.

Jim Martin:  Bachelor of science from Davidson College,  doctorate in chemistry from Princeton.

Education politics a-poppin'

Now that all the swearing-in is done,  the wrangling over education and politics is firing up.  New Gov. Pat McCrory grabbed the headlines and internet buzz with his on-air comments about liberal education at UNC Chapel Hill.  And consider some of the other developments just this week:

* The National School Boards Association is holding a conference in Washington, D.C.,  with Charlotte-Mecklenburg board members Ericka Elils-Stewart and Amelia Stinson-Wesley in attendance.  The group is pushing legislation that would,   in the words of the group's news release,  "protect local school district governance from unnecessary and counter-productive federal intrusion from the U.S. Department of Education."

Allison

* Darrell Allison,  president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina,  is making a media tour of the state,  touting school choice.  Not surprisingly,  he's excited about the opportunities created by having a Republican governor and a GOP-dominated state legislature.  PEFNC is pushing for a continued expansion of charter schools,  with a focus on quality as well as quantity,  and tax credits for businesses that donate to "opportunity scholarships,"  such as those offered by the Children's Scholarship Fund,  that help low- and middle-income families pay for private school.

Allison says his group doesn't want to undermine traditional public schools,   which he says are are likely to remain the option of choice even as the menu expands.  He says his group supports one key point being advocated by CMS and other school districts:  Greater flexibility for traditional public schools on such issues as hiring and firing teachers.  The CMS legislative agenda seeks "one set of rules for both charters and traditional public schools to follow."  Amen,  says Allison.

* Meanwhile,  Public Schools First North Carolina is voicing a counterpoint.  "North Carolina’s equitable, diverse, and thriving public school system is under siege. Privatization efforts such as vouchers and tax credits threaten to drain resources from our schools, as growing numbers of charter schools siphon off active families,"  says the introduction to the PSFNC video laying out the case for keeping resources focused on traditional public schools.

Read more about PSFNC and other coalitions gearing up for legislative action from the (Raleigh) News & Observer, along with details about PSFNC in the WakeEd blog.  Mecklenburg ACTS is among the groups that created PSFNC.

* Just today, I got a news release from the Durham-based N.C. Student Power Union saying they're mobilizing students "to oppose the far right agenda the new legislature will pursue."

* Political reporter Jim Morrill reports that CMS board Chairman Mary McCray and Vice Chairman Tim Morgan are in Raleigh meeting with legislators today.  I don't have any details,  though the afore-mentioned legislative agenda would be a pretty safe guess.

* And McCrory today nominated three people for the state Board of Education,  hoping to get them approved before next week's state board meeting.

CMS performance pay: Plan is coming

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is putting the final touches on a performance-pay proposal that will be sent to state officials by March 1.  On Thursday,  there's a public meeting from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at River Gate Elementary,  15340 Smith Road,  for people to get an update,  ask questions and make comments.

It's not clear to me how much detail will be disclosed about the work in progress.  The CMS announcement  talks about getting input on a compensation proposal,  but when I tried to get a copy of the draft proposal Chief Operating Officer Millard House answered that  "a plan does not yet exist, there are only ideas so we are unable to fulfill this request."  There's a Power Point presentation that was shown at a public meeting on the compensation proposal last week,  which I missed,  and House says a plan will be made public on Feb. 26.

We know the state's Race to the Top proposal,  which won a four-year federal grant of almost $400 million, calls for using student gains on test scores to help rate teacher effectiveness.  And we know state and CMS leaders are talking about using other measures as well,  such as student surveys and classroom observations.  Still to be seen is how CMS proposes to link this kind of evaluation to pay  --  and where the money might come from.

Plans created by CMS and other participating school districts will go from the state Board of Education through the state's Fiscal Research Division and various legislative groups.  I haven't been able to track down a clear answer about next steps, but it sounds like we're still quite a ways from changing the way teachers are paid.

The group that has been working on a CMS proposal since last fall is made up of teachers and principals,  including representatives of such groups at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators and the Classroom Teachers Association.  This group has been described as one of the 22 task forces Superintendent Heath Morrison announced in November,  but it's not listed on the rosters released earlier this month. That's because CMS plans to expand the task force in March to build on the work of the current group.

"The second phase focuses on the larger compensation piece that will be centered around how we pay ALL of our employees,"  House explained.  "This will include employees from other departments in the district, licensed employees from our schools (including teachers that were involved in phase one of this work), at least one student and community members that were recommended by our leadership or those community members who expressed an interest in this work. The work from phase 1 will inform part of the second phase of this work."

CMS early dismissal: Thanks for memories

When I asked you all to help figure out the last time Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools let out early for bad weather, I got a flood of winter memories.

Most of you seem to agree it was about 10 years ago, though individuals' memories vary about the details.  Turns out that's harder to verify than you might think.  Several of us tried checking archives,  using a variety of search terms and time frames.  We found a lot of stories about winter storms and school closings,  but none after 1987 that specified an early dismissal.

Late starts and early dismissals are common in surrounding school districts.  But CMS is so much bigger, with complex bus routes serving several schools on morning and afternoon runs,  that the standard wisdom has been that the only options are closing school or keeping to a normal schedule.

Most of the folks running CMS now are too new to be tied to those practices. They decided to try letting schools out two hours early. Unlike a closing,  that doesn't require a makeup day.

"It's going to be a nightmare.  No question,"  one local mom tweeted shortly after the decision.

But with all the buses back in the garage and all the kids home,  it seems to have been more of a minor inconvenience.  There was a glitch with the ConnectEd automated calls that sent people who hit callback buttons to Dilworth Elementary School's phone.  But from what I and the CMS folks have heard so far,  no wrecks and no major problems with the exodus.

Keep me posted  --  I realize there could still be developments.  Stay off the roads if you can,  drive safely if you can't,  and enjoy the latest blast of winter.

Cyberguide for parents

Do you know how SnapChat can protect your teens' privacy or lead them into trouble?
Do you have pass codes to your children's digital accounts?
Have you thought about setting up a cell-phone contract with your kids?

Thomas

If any of those questions pique your interest,  you might benefit from the special "cyber awareness edition" of Bailey Middle School's Bronco Times.  The Huntersville school is one of Charlotte-Mecklenburg's  "bring your own techology"  pioneers,  and Principal Chad Thomas and technology facilitator Chasidy Parker have been working hard to keep parents up to speed.

I learned a lot from the newsletter.  I'd never even heard of SnapChat,  an app that lets people share photos that are erased in a few seconds.  "Users can send time limited photos that might be embarrassing or just silly without a significant fear that it will find its way to other social media sites where it might live forever,"  according to an About.com column included in the Bailey newsletter. But that can tempt teens to send explicit photos,  the article warns,  and recipients can capture a screen shot that survives after the photo "self-destructs."

The newsletter includes a sample cell-phone contract,  and this list of questions for parents to ponder:

1. Does my child's device have restrictions set with a second pass code that only I know?
2. Are my child's social media sites private or public?
3. Does my child have multiple social media accounts (some public and some hidden)?
4. Do I know all of my child's pass codes?
5. Do I limit the number of hours my child spends on a device or online daily?
6. Do I communicate with my child by phone or text more than in person?
7. Does my child communicate with others online through Xbox Live or other gaming ports?
8. Do you allow your child to load any apps (free or paid) or do you preview them first?
9. Do I have open access to my child's phone at any time?
10. What is "sexting" and does my child know about this activity?

Mentors at Myers Park: Yes, there's a need

When Kimberly Roseboro tries to recruit mentors to work at Myers Park High, she knows she's likely to meet with incredulity.

Myers Park is one of Charlotte-Mecklenburg's most prestigious schools, with a well-earned reputation for helping high-fliers excel and get into the best colleges.  Why would such a school need help,  when so many other high schools face high poverty levels and low academic performance?

Roseboro

But that's precisely the challenge,  says Roseboro,  founder of the nonprofit Firm Foundations of the Carolinas.  A reputation never tells the full story.  Just as the lowest-performing schools always have outstanding students,  the highest-performing have students who struggle.

Consider Myers Park,  which has a poverty level of 33 percent  -- on the low side for CMS high schools.  But the school has more than 2,700 students,  so that represents just over 900 kids.  And as Roseboro discovered when she reviewed this year's school report cards,  those students aren't faring nearly as well as people might think.  The low-income students at Myers Park had a 59 percent pass rate on state exams,  well below CMS and state averages for low-income students and far beneath the 95 percent pass rate for Myers Park students who don't qualify for lunch subsidies.

That's been the case at Myers Park for as long as I've covered this beat.  Despite a strong overall performance and a thriving International Baccalaureate program,  the school's low-income,  black and Hispanic students,  on average,  trail their classmates by large margins.

Roseboro,  whose background is in nonprofit groups such as the Boys and Girls Club and YWCA,  says she decided to focus her mentoring program on Myers Park precisely because the school doesn't get the government and community support that higher-poverty schools do.  She's holding a  "lunch and learn" session at the school on Tuesday,  Jan. 29,  for people willing to commit to spending at least six hours a month providing support and career guidance to students  (RSVP by Sunday to kroseboro@firmfoundationsinc.org).

Roseboro gives Principal Tom Spivey credit for not trying to hide his school's weak spots.  She talked to him before going public with her plea,  she says,  and he and his administration thought it was more important to help the students than burnish the image.

It's recruiting season for a number of mentoring groups,  so if that time or place doesn't suit you,  there's also a Communities in Schools volunteer orientation coming up Feb. 11.  CIS places mentors and other volunteers in a long list of CMS schools,  from elementary to high school.  And the Mayor's Mentoring Alliance serves as a clearinghouse for about 50 groups that provide mentors to students in need.

New calendars raise new questions

Board members voiced enthusiasm for the year-round calendars they approved Tuesday for four Project LIFT schools,  but they also had questions about some of the details.

For instance:  Faculty at Druid Hills and Thomasboro will have their students for 19 extra days next year.  They'll get an extra month's pay,  spread out over 12 months instead of the standard 10.  Meanwhile,  those at Bruns and Byers will work the same number of days as other Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teachers but have their breaks redistributed to shorten the summer vacation.  Their pay will also be spread over 12 months.

As a Bruns teacher noted at Tuesday's public hearing,  that means they'll have smaller monthly paychecks and less opportunity for summer work to boost their income.

Superintendent Heath Morrison said CMS will work with teachers who have problems to try to place them in the five LIFT schools sticking with the traditional calendar for  2013-14.

LIFT Zone Superintendent Denise Watts said teachers at Bruns and Byers will have a chance to work for extra pay during  "intersessions,"  or breaks.  She said principals are especially interested in getting strong teachers to work with students during the three-week spring break,  which falls closest to end-of-grade exams.  But Watts said there are concerns that teachers working through those breaks will burn out without time off.

Board member Tom Tate asked about options for families who aren't happy with having their students report to class in July,  five weeks before the rest of the district starts the 2013-14 school year.  CMS is taking magnet applications through Feb. 11.  Watts said officials are still discussing whether there will be any additional options for those who want out and don't get seats in the magnet lottery.

Board member Ericka Ellis-Stewart asked about absenteeism.  If students don't take the summer schedule seriously,  the benefits would be eroded.  Watts said her staff will be working constantly to make sure students and their families understand that the new July starting days are just as real as the Aug. 26 opening is for everyone else.

Bottom line:  A change like this is complicated.  But the Project LIFT donors are betting a little over $2 million a year that the challenge will pay off for about 2,700 kids who need an extra boost.  And board members say they're eager to see that bet pay off.