Pick a school, any school

Well, not any school, but the parents of children at Central and Efland-Cheeks elementary schools are suddenly more empowered to decide where their children go to school.

On Friday, Orange County Schools sent letters to CES and Efland-Cheeks parents notifying them of the choices now available to them under its NCLB Title 1 School Improvement plan. Because the two schools are expected (final test results are not available until August) to not meet their AYP goals, federal law says parents must be given the option of transferring their children out of these "failing schools."

OCS has posted the letters on their website, albeit not in a particularly visible place. Plus, the available transfer options are buried deep within the letters parents received. After wading through two full pages pleading with parents not to choose another school for their children, parents will find a single sentence telling them which adequately performing schools the Board of Education has decided to make available to them.

Parents of children at Central Elementary School have the choice of staying at CES, or immediately transferring to Cameron Park, New Hope or Hillsborough elementary schools. Given that New Hope Elementary is having problems of its own, I find this to be a curious option. New Hope Elementary School also failed to meet its AYP goals this year and, presumably, is at risk of falling into School Improvement status next year.

Parents whose children attend Efland-Cheeks Elementary School can choose to stay at Efland-Cheeks, or immediately transfer to Grady Brown, Pathways or Hillsborough elementary schools.

Parents at both schools only have two weeks (until August 13) to notify OCS that they intend to exercise their right to send their children to an adequately performing school. If they fail to return the transfer form enclosed with their notification letter, parents will be choosing to stay at their zoned school by default.

This is an opportunity that should not be taken lightly. While the Orange County Board of Education rapidly moves to eliminate any vestige of school choice in our district, this is the best option for parents to seize control and to meet the needs of our most at-risk elementary school students.

If my son was a student at either of these schools, I would, without question, take advantage of this opportunity. I encourage every parent to seriously consider the educational options best suited to their children, and choose the best school for their individual talents, needs and interests - even if that means changing schools on such short notice.

Oh, don't worry. It will be your turn soon.

If any of you are sitting on the sidelines thankful that this whole merger mess doesn't effect you or your child's school, get ready - your turn may come next year.

One startling note not discussed in the News of Orange County's article about the release of preliminary school performance data, was the fact that in addition to Central and Efland-Cheeks elementary schools, four other schools in the Orange County School District failed to meet their AYP goals.

According to the Raleigh News & Observer's coverage of the release, "New Hope Elementary School as well A.L. Stanback, C.W. Stanford and Gravelly Hill middle schools did not meet AYP standards this year."

While only students at CES and Efland-Cheeks will be offered transfers to better performing schools this year, they will likely be joined by others in the coming years. Because, according to the Durham Herald Sun, next year it will be even tougher to make AYP goals because the bar in both math and reading will be raised.

Diane Villwock of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools gives us all an indication of what to expect in the coming years.

"I don't think that anybody in the district can do what they did in 2006-07 and make the standard in 2007-08," Villwock said. "If we do the same thing we've always done, we're not going to be very happy next year."

So, if you think the current discussions about HES, CES and Efland-Cheeks don't involve you, you may be right - but probably not for long.

Oh, there they are!

A short time ago I wrote about Orange County Schools' lack of preliminary results from this year's end of grade testing. Wake County has already announced that as many as 10 of its elementary schools will fail to meet its AYP goals. I asked "Where are our preliminary results?"

In an announcement printed in the News of Orange County, Orange County Schools have announced that they too have preliminary scores from this year's EOGs.

And, things are worse than were generally expected.

While Central Elementary School was expected to enter Title 1 "School Improvement" status under the federal No Child Left Behind law, it was something of a surprise when OCS announced that Efland-Cheeks Elementary School is now also expected to be labeled a "failing school." That label means that parents at both schools must allowed to transfer their children to a choice of two better-scoring schools.

According to the News of Orange County article, parents of children at both schools can expect to receive a letter from the school district over the weekend asking them to decide whether they want to stay at their zoned school or exercise their right to change schools.

"The district will — pending final results — send out letters to all parents at both schools on July 27. Parents will be required to return the letters indicating their choice by Aug. 13. On Aug. 20, notification of school assignment will occur. School starts on Aug. 27 for traditional calendar schools."

As many people opposed to merging CES and HES have repeatedly stated, any attempt to address the problems facing Orange County Schools should address the problems at all of the county's schools. Why has the Board of Education steadfastly insisted on being so myopic?

If a merger between CES and HES is expected to improve the situation at CES, what school will be merged with Efland-Cheeks?

The economics of public education

While researching schools my son might attend after the Orange County Board of Education eviscerates HES in 2008, I have been doing a great deal of reading about the general topic of "school choice."

In the course of my reading, I came across a report from the John Locke Foundation about the impact of "school choice" on North Carolina's public school systems.

While most people include different choices within a given public school system (magnet schools, HES, etc.) beneath the umbrella of "school choice," the John Locke Foundation only includes "charter, private and home schools" within their definition.

In effect, the report measures the financial impact of people opting out of their local public school systems.

While many school systems, like Durham County, publicly bemoan the existance of charter schools in their districts, and others express concern about the growing numbers of home schooled children, the John Locke Foundation report shows that school districts are richly benefiting from the dissatisfaction and distrust many parents have for their local schools.

According to the report, the parents of 2,134 children a year choose to seek their child's education outside the Orange County (presumably including Chapel Hill-Carrboro) public schools. By not serving these children, Orange County schools do not receive the per-student funding from the state and federal governments, but they also do not incur the costs associated with providing as many as 5 additional schools. No construction costs, no staffing costs, no transportation costs, etc.

The John Locke Foundation estimates that Orange County's school systems saved $16.6 million between 2000 and 2006, or $1,295 per student per year, on capital expenses alone.

Given that the Orange County Board of Education financially benefits by driving families out of the public schools, is it any wonder they are willing to alienate the families most likely to leave by eliminating the district's only public school of choice?

What is a politician's promise worth?

In his "Big Plan" for merging CES and HES, Dennis Whitling included a promise of extra programs and support for lower income students during the year-round calendar's frequent breaks.

I am sure similar promises were made to at-risk students in Wake County. Too bad those promises meant nothing at all when the Wake County school board started making important budgetary "compromises."

According to an article in the Raleigh News & Observer titled "Wake school board finds budget compromise," the district found a way to give pay raises to a variety of non-teaching "support personnel" and provide the county's high schools with paid lacrosse coaches.

And, the best part is that, the only people to really suffer are the at-risk children in year-round schools. What a deal!

"To make up that money, the board agreed to not pay for the 46 year-round schools to have teacher assistants to work with students during the frequent breaks in the calendar."

Given the Orange County Board of Education's previous priority setting troubles, could a similar "compromise" be far behind?

I can easily see such "frills" being cut to pay for an elementary school softball field or a middle school scoreboard.

Where are our preliminary results?

Wake County Schools have announced that it expects as many as 10 of its elementary schools to fail to make Adequate Yearly Progress for the second year in a row and enter School Improvement status.

According to the No Child Left Behind law, if a school fails to meet its AYP goals for two consecutive years, parents at the "failing school" must be immediately granted a choice of other schools for their children to attend.

According to an article titled "10 Wake schools fall short," Wake County based its announcement on "a review of preliminary data."

Where is our "preliminary data"?

Given that Central Elementary is widely expected to miss its AYP goals for the second consecutive year and CES parents will have the choice to move their children to another Orange County elementary school for this coming school year, shouldn't parents be made aware of the status of their children's school as soon as possible?

Does the OCS staff know the results of the EOG tests, or does Wake County simply have more insight into its student performance than Orange County?

If they already know how the students performed, why aren't they sharing that information with parents and the community? Did any of our other schools fail to meet their goals, and become at risk in the coming year?

Could it be that they are waiting as long as possible to reduce the likelihood that CES parents will choose to transfer to another school? Perhaps the OCS perspective is that the closer we get to the start of the new year, the less chance there will be for CES parents to visit their choices of other schools, and, in turn, the more likely they will be to stay where they are.

According to the law, families that choose to exercise their right to transfer out of a "failing school" must be allowed to stay at the new school until the child has completed the highest grade offered - even if the "failing school" improves and its sanctions are removed. That could pose a long-term problem for those more concerned with "ensuring socioeconomic balance in the district" than providing the most appropriate education for each student.

From the perspective of a school system bureaucrat, I can see why this would be an undesireable situation. Complying with the law is expensive, and the less you have to spend on actually providing at-risk students with an legally mandated adequate education, the more you can spend on elementary school softball fields and middle school scoreboards.

Can we hire him?

As the Orange County Board of Education jumps into the Superintendent hiring pool with both feet, I would like to suggest a candidate.

Charles S. Dedrick is the Superintendent of Cohoes City School District near Albany, NY.

If any Board members are interested, I've already done some research and here is his contact information:

Email cdedrick@cohoes.org - Phone: 518-237-0100 ext. 6.

A recent New York Times article profiled how Dedrick's district is using data collected to satisfy federal No Child Left Behind requirements to identify where the district is excelling and where it is lagging behind.

To do this, Cohoes employs "an increasingly popular way of analyzing test scores, called a 'growth model' because it tracks the progress of students as they move from grade to grade rather than comparing, say, this year’s fourth graders with last year’s, the traditional approach."

The growth model approach has support both from "urban educators" who feel it better measures the efforts of "poor and minority students" and from "school officials in affluent suburbs" who like the methods because "they evaluate students at all levels rather than focusing on lifting those at the bottom."

The Cohoes City School District has dubbed its growth model approach "Value Added." According to the district's website, "Value Added is a statistical method used to measure a district and school's influence on the academic growth rates of students from year-to-year. Through the program, districts examine growth data with their achievement data for a more thorough picture of their effectiveness in raising student achievement." Wow, a school district that is actually interested in tracking and raising student achievement. What a novel idea.

The NY Times article pointed out another reason why the growth model approach is gaining popularity and might draw some interest here in Orange County.

"Adding growth models as a way to satisfy federal requirements to demonstrate 'adequate yearly progress' could make it easier for some schools to avoid penalties because they would receive credit for students who improve performance but still fall below proficiency levels."

The use of growth models is being allowed by the federal government under a very limited pilot program. Only 7 states are currently allowed to employ the new approach, but lucky for us, North Carolina is one of the 7. Now all we need is a leader who understands the approach and isn't married to the old ways of doing things. Cue Mr. Dedrick.

The imminent change of Superintendents would be a great opportunity for Orange County Schools to embrace an innovative approach to measuring student performance, while also improving the District's dismal level of accountability to taxpayers for getting results.

"Cohoes school officials have spent more than $1 million on programs for their most struggling students in the past five years, and wanted to find out how much they had progressed. They learned that the lowest-level students were doing fine, while their high achievers were starting to fall behind." Does Orange County know what it is getting for its money?

"'The fact is we serve all students, and not just the lower-end students,' said Mr. Dedrick, who travels across the state to speak about growth models to school superintendents. 'If you’re just concentrating on one group of kids, it’s not fair because both sets of parents pay taxes.'"

Learning from the experience of others

I have been watching with interest how Wake County fares with its school assignment plans, in light of Judge Manning's ruling earlier this year. Their experience may shed some light on what Orange County can expect next year when it merges Central and Hillsborough Elementary schools under a year-round school calendar.

Today is the first day of school for children in Wake County's year-round schools and far fewer parents have chosen the year-round option than the school system expected.

In a Raleigh News & Observer article titled, "New year-rounds may get fewer pupils," T. Keung Hui writes, "the results haven't come close to what the school district projected. Instead of welcoming 3,000 more students to the converted elementary schools this year, only 500 more students are expected to attend."

In essence, parents are voting with their feet by either abandoning their neighborhood school because it was converted to a year-round schedule they didn't want or by being "scared away from moving to the area."

The turmoil caused by the Wake County plan goes beyond just parents and children. Hui writes, "when enrollment fell even further than expected, some teachers were transferred out of year-round schools. In other cases, year-round schools have moved teachers to other grades or between tracks, which all have their own schedules and days off. 'It's been very difficult on my teachers and staff because I've had to move teachers around at the last minute,' said Williams, the Knightdale Elementary principal."

In a hint that the Orange County Board of Education's "Big Plan" will likely be a huge waste of time, Wake County's zoned year-round schools are resulting in an "undesirable shift in the socioeconomic balance of our schools." As Hui points out in her article, the problem is that "most of the students who left the year-round schools are from low-income families."

Is there any reason to believe that low-income families in Orange County are any more enamored with the year-round schedule than in Wake County?

Plan B

What do you do when you believe your preferred plan of action is likely to fail? You create a Plan B.

But if the response to the top choice is highly uncertain, most people would develop a fall back position before actually initiating Plan A.

However, the Orange County Board of Education seems perfectly willing to initiate its "Big Plan" for CES and HES, and only consider what to do if parents resist as an afterthought.

To the Board's credit, they built into the "Big Plan" the understanding that parents will make the final decision on what to do about their children's education.

Parents will be sent a letter this fall that asks them if they are willing to send their children to the newly merged (but geographically divided), "modified" year-round school.

If not enough lower income parents are willing to adopt the year-round calendar, or not enough higher income parents are willing to send their children to the divided campus, the "Big Plan" will have to be scrapped.

But, what will the Board do then to hide its failures?

According to the Board's agenda for Monday's meeting:

"the Board approved Whitling’s plan – with the stipulation that the Board may need to act on a redistricting plan if year-round enrollment falls short of expectations and requirements."

At Monday's meeting, "Board members will have an opportunity to discuss the potential options for ensuring socioeconomic balance in the district if the upcoming parent intent responses indicate that year-round enrollment would be insufficient to support the program."

Unfortunately, the Board does not expect to make any decisions about "potential options"; this discussion is merely "informational." But they need time to talk about what to do if those pesky parents think they know better than the Board what is good for their children.

Well, we'll always have Greenville

It was announced late last week that Orange County School Superintendent Shirley Carraway, who announced her "retirement" earlier this year, will not be stepping directly from her current position in Orange County into a new one in Richmond County, Georgia.

Rather than Dr. Carraway, the "Richmond County Board of Education has chosen Dr. Dana Bedden as the new school Superintendent."

One thing I find interesting has to do with the proposed start date for Richmond County's new hire. "Dr. Bedden says the board asked for August 1." Given that she is slated to remain on the job in Orange County until October, I wonder what Dr. Carraway would have done had they offered her the position and asked for the same start date.

I can only speculate that she would have never looked back as she left Orange County in an even greater jam.

That is neither here nor there (figuratively and literally). But, at least she will still have Greenville.