Snow days and PowerSchool: Let's talk

We all know the kids love a snow day,  but I suspect this winter of delays,  early dismissals and closings is putting a strain on the grown-ups.  I've been hearing that teachers,  assistants and others are struggling with how this affects their leave time,  and I'm sure working parents are in a continual quest for emergency child care.

I'm also interested in tracking down more information about the blizzard of problems related to the state's PowerSchool data system  (I know,  lame transition).  I keep hearing about things in bits and pieces,  and some of you have voiced frustration that I haven't pulled back to do a big-picture look at what problems remain and how we got into this mess.

Let me know your thoughts,  experiences and questions on either topic or both.  Anonymous comments can be helpful in shaping queries,  but I'd especially appreciate anyone willing to talk for a story.  Email me at ahelms@charlotteobserver.com or call 704-358-5033.  If you get voice mail, leave a message.  Once the flakes start falling,  I may go outside and play.

The latest twists in testing

Charlotte-Mecklenburg third-graders will have a broader menu of reading tests to help them earn promotion without summer school,  assuming the snow-crossed school board approves at a meeting this morning (after snow canceled the Jan. 28 meeting,  tonight's regularly scheduled meeting has been bumped up to 11 a.m. to avoid a repeat).

As you may recall,  districts around the state are trying to put the Read to Achieve law into practice without sending thousands of children to summer school or drowning them in exams. The goal is ensuring that students who move up to fourth grade have grade-level reading skills.

More than 2,500 of this year's CMS third-graders can relax:  They tested at third-grade level on new state reading exams given at the start of this year,  so they don't have to worry about being retained or sent to summer school based on an end-of-grade reading score. The rest,  about 78 percent of the class,  will have these options to demonstrate proficiency:

* MAP tests being given in most elementary schools.

*  Discovery Education reading tests being used at Project LIFT schools.

* Reading 3D tests created by Amplify  (where former Superintendent Peter Gorman went to work).

*  Or the state's "portfolio"  reading tests,  which sparked controversy because they require students to pass quizzes on 36 passages.

Students who don't make the grade on any of these options will have to see if they pass the End of Grade exam.  If not,  they'll have to take summer reading camp to be promoted.

The state granted the request of CMS and 15 other districts,  including Cabarrus,  Gaston,  Hickory,  Kannapolis,  Mooresville and Union County,  to have additional testing options.  But you can see why testing is such a thorny topic in the state,  with Gov. Pat McCrory saying the volume  "borders on the absolute ridiculous."

But former Gov. Jim Hunt, hosting an Emerging Issues Forum focused on teachers, warned against a knee-jerk reaction to overtesting.  He recalled a day when too many were oblivious to how little students were learning.

"The whole issue of testing is one that we've got to do a lot of hard thinking about,"  Hunt said.  "We must figure out whether students are learning and how to help them learn more."

Documents tell tale of StudentFirst struggles

The question is bound to arise:  Why did the Observer dedicate so much time and space to a story about problems at StudentFirst Academy,  a new charter school serving just over 300 students?

The answer: Access and timing.

Certainly other public and private schools in our area have faced financial,  academic and management problems.  But in this case,  there was extraordinary public documentation of StudentFirst's high hopes and quick fall.

Recent charter applications are online at the N.C. Office of Charter Schools site,  and they provide a wealth of information about what founding boards say they'll do.  The application for StudentFirst was especially rich because it was a private-school conversion.  Testimonials from the likes of then-Mayor Pat McCrory and then-Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Cannon were among the documents submitted with the application.  You can also find the applications for Miracle Academy East and West,  an attempt to reproduce the StudentFirst plan even as the original charter was trying to get started.

A public records request produced a November letter from the state charter-school office detailing complaints about the school and a redacted copy of the StudentFirst board response.  The blacked-out paragraph presumably involves personnel matters that are confidential under state law.

Personnel privacy often becomes a brick wall in the quest to find out what went wrong at a school.  But in this case,  former head of school Phyllis Handford and deputy head Sandra Moss have sued the board.  That suit detailed allegations of illegal board meetings and made it clear the two women were being paid significantly more than the charter application had called for.

Documents filed with the board's response provided further accounts of the problems,  including a summary written by Prestige Preparatory School Network,  an affidavit from StudentFirst vice chair Jennifer Winstel and an affidavit by Prestige executive Mark Cramer.

Finally,  Observer researcher Maria David found archived video of an hour-long presentation by Handford, Moss and several supporters outlining the charter plan for the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Forum.  That offered a more personal glimpse of the plan and the people pitching it.

Moss (second from left) and Handford (right) at breakfast forum

All of this landed as questions about charter-school quality are paramount in North Carolina. The state's system for reviewing and monitoring charter schools is evolving as the number of schools expands.  As the taxpayer investment in charters rises and thousands more families stake their children's future on the independent schools, it becomes ever more important to examine the system's successes and shortcomings.

If you're still up for more reading,  the National Association of Charter School Authorizers offers a lot of information, including a state-by-state comparison of systems and a list of 10 questions to ask. Public Impact,  a Chapel Hill consulting firm,  also offers a number of publications examining charter quality.

NC teacher pay: A plan, a poll and some buzz

CarolinaCAN,  an advocacy group pushing for a better system of teacher pay,  is calling for 4 percent across-the-board raises this year and a plan to raise starting pay by more than $5,000 by 2016.

"Investing in Excellence," a report released today,  calls for a long-term investment to make North Carolina the Southeast's leader in starting and average teacher pay. The group's plan calls for front-loading the pay scale so teachers get the biggest raises in early in their career  (five years of pay freezes have accomplished the opposite effect)  and creating high-paying career pathways for top teachers,  similar to the  "Opportunity Culture"  jobs being piloted in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

"The first step to attracting and retaining excellent teachers in North Carolina is increasing base pay enough to make the profession competitive with teaching in nearby states and to put it at least in the ballpark of the other professions competing for top college graduates,"  the report says,  citing a cost of $187.2 million for a 4 percent raise.

New teachers with a bachelor's degree currently start at $30,800 on the state pay scale,  though many districts supplement that.  The CarolinaCAN plan calls for bumping that to $36,000 by 2016,  which would move North Carolina ahead of South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee if those states make no change.

The report says some reforms can come at little cost.  For instance,  the group supports the state's plan to eliminate extra pay for advanced degrees in lower grades,  but says those savings should be used to restore the additional pay in higher grades,  where graduate work in the subject area being taught often leads to higher student achievement.

N.C. taxpayers appear to be willing to foot the bill for teacher raises,  according to a High Point University poll of 421 adults from around the state. That poll found 72 percent willing to accept a tax hike to get N.C. teacher pay to the national average in four years.

The poll also asked for reactions to the many education changes the state made last summer.  Most popular were the Read to Achieve program and expansion of Teach for America.  Frozen teacher pay,  lower per-pupil spending,  cutting extra pay for master's degrees and removing class-size caps were unpopular with strong majorities of respondents.

Finally,  a handful of educators have contacted me over the last couple of weeks asking about rumors that the state is considering a  "60/30/10 plan"  that would put teachers into three career categories,  with fixed pay for each and pay cuts for many of them.

That's coming from an N.C. Policy Watch blog post about an idea drafted by Lodge McCammon,  a former Wake County teacher who has also worked for N.C. State's Friday Institute for Educational Innovation.  There's no indication that this is a formal proposal that has traction with state lawmakers.  As Policy Watch reporter Lindsay Wagner reported in a follow-up blog,  McCammon described the plan as an informal  "brainstorming project"  and the Friday Institute is not associated with it.

But as Wagner notes,  and as many around Charlotte would agree,  it's always wise to keep an ear open for the ideas that are floating around Raleigh.

Third-grade reading: Less testing, more flexibility?

A panel of educators and parents studying North Carolina's Read to Achieve program will ask lawmakers for fewer tests,  more flexibility and a one-year reprieve in mandated penalties for kids who fail exams,  the state Department of Public Instruction announced today.

The Read to Achieve Advisory Group's recommendations will go to the state legislature when it convenes in May.  Meanwhile,  the state Board of Education will consider proposals to relieve the testing burden on many local school districts at Wednesday's meeting.

The program is designed to make sure third-graders can read well before moving up,  a goal almost everyone supports.  But the specifics have proven problematic,  especially a  "portfolio"  option designed as an alternative to passing a one-time state exam.  In its current version,  students who want to demonstrate reading proficiency through the portfolio have to pass 36 small reading assessments between now and year's end.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Cleveland, Gaston, Hickory, Kannapolis, Mooresville and Union County schools are among the 16 districts seeking approval this week for alternative testing approaches  (read their proposals here; click item II-B2 for a link).

In the longer run,  the advisory panel is asking the legislature to scale back portfolio testing,  give school districts more flexibility in school calendars and summer reading camps,  and count the current year as a trial run for Read to Achieve.

Lynn Bonner at the News & Observer reports that Senate leader Phil Berger, the law’s champion, doesn’t like that last part.

“No,” Berger said in a statement. “It’s wrong to let another class of third graders slip through the cracks. Passing them along unprepared has not solved the problem before, and it is not a solution now.”

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/02/04/3590879/berger-pops-read-to-achieve-trial.html#storylink=cpy

Learn more about CMS bell schedules

The task force studying Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools bell schedules meets Thursday to continue talks about when schools should start and dismiss and how long the elementary day should be.

It's a debate that has been going for three years now,  and a topic of high interest to many families.  Yet CMS still seems to be struggling with the notion of opening these meetings to the public.

When Superintendent Heath Morrison announced the creation of 22 task forces in late 2012,  he said the meetings would be private,  although the reports would be public and town hall meetings would be held to discuss the issues.  He relented after the Observer questioned the legality of closing those meetings.

At the time,  CMS also had a group of staff and parents studying bell schedules,  but it wasn't deemed an official task force.  In October 2013,  Morrison and Chief Communication Officer Katherine Block said CMS would revive and expand the informal group,  making it an official CMS task force with public meetings.

I hadn't thought much about it until Susan Plaza,  a parent who has been pushing to shorten the elementary day and end a controversial late schedule,  posted on this blog that a meeting was set for 2 p.m. Thursday at the Government Center.  Someone else followed up Monday,  asking where to find info about the task force meetings.  I checked the CMS site and came up dry.

After I sent a query to spokeswoman Tahira Stalberte,  CMS posted this list of  "meeting times."  Except that you may notice,  as I did belatedly,  that there are no actual times,  just dates and locations. When I emailed again, Chief of Staff Earnest Winston said all the meetings are at 2 p.m.

CMS has released the 2014-15 bell schedule without any major changes from this year. The task force and CMS staff are expected to present any recommended changes,  along with academic and financial implications,  with plenty of time to prepare for 2015-16.

Meanwhile,  I also got curious about meetings of the latest CMS compensation task force.  As most of the official task forces reported their results last summer,  Morrison announced the launch of a new compensation task force,  his second and the fourth for CMS in as many years.  Here's the link that includes some information about that group,  which has concluded its work,  Stalberte tells me.

The moral:  Sometimes public bodies need public pressure to do their business in public,  whether those bodies are small charter schools or big districts.  Thanks to all of you who are pushing for full access and participation.

N.C. vouchers: Time to apply

For low-income families thinking about moving their children from public to private school next year,  now is the time to get serious about planning.

The state is taking applications through Feb. 25 for new opportunity scholarships of up to $4,200 a year.  Students eligible for free and reduced lunches,  which translates to an income of $43,568 for a family of four,  can file for the publicly-funded scholarships.  Find the application and other information,  including a list of N.C. private schools,  at this link.  There are also public grants available for students with disabilities going into private schools;  get details here.

There are lingering uncertainties about the opportunity scholarship program,  including,  as Lynn Bonner of the News & Observer reported,  lawsuits to get it blocked.  And families'  plans may be uncertain at this point, too.  But if there's even a chance your kids might benefit from this program,  it makes sense to apply  --  and to be checking out private schools to see what might work for your child and whether additional aid is available.

Allison

"It's critically important for those families that are interested.  They should get involved,"  says Darrell Allison of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina,  one of the biggest proponents of the vouchers.

Here's how it works:  The state will look at all the applications filed by Feb. 25.  If the $10 million set aside to cover the scholarships  (enough for about 2,400 students)  isn't enough,  there will be a lottery.  The state will announce recipients on March 3.  You don't have to have a private-school acceptance in hand at that point;  recipients have until July 15 to choose a school and offer evidence that the child has been accepted to claim the money.  As many have noted,  $4,200 won't cover tuition at most schools in the Charlotte area,  but if you find one that's cheaper the scholarship covers only the tuition total.

Remember,  students who are already in private schools or being home-schooled this year don't qualify.  The scholarships are reserved for those seeking alternatives to their current public schools  (that includes charters).  Qualifying for a scholarship doesn't guarantee acceptance;  private schools retain the right to reject any student.

Opponents say this program is draining $10 million in desperately needed money for public education and transferring it to schools that can pick and choose their students without meeting any kind of academic standards.  Private schools,  including religious ones,  can offer whatever kind of curriculum they choose,  and there's no standard,  publicly mandated data available like there is for public schools.

Allison says the ultimate accountability lies with families:  "They are empowered for the first time to choose.   We have to give them some credit for common sense."

Nor,  he says,  is the goal to skim 2,400 of the best low-income students from public schools.  Some families may explore private schools and realize their public school is better.  But at that point it's a choice,  not a default,  he says.

There's one more big reason to apply this month:  Once you get an opportunity scholarship,  it continues each year that the students remains in the private school,  Allison says.  In coming years,  new applicants will have to compete for the money that remains.