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In today’s Washington Watch column (posted here) I give a quick rundown of remarks by U.S. Sec. of Education Arne Duncan at the Institute for Emerging Issues forum here in Raleigh. Duncan was snow-bound in Washington, D.C. so appeared by video conference.

On part of Duncan’s session caught my ear. He was asked whether North Carolina’s “Race to the Top” application (background) might be frustrated by the state’s charter school laws, which limit the number of charters in the state. The Obama administration has pointed to charters as a key way schools can innovate.

In a previous post (click here) I’ve noted that charter school advocates have gone so far as to say North Carolina’s Race to the Top application should be rejected. In response to a question, Duncan said that wasn’t so. From the column:

“I think your state has done a great job,” Duncan said. “Good charter schools are a piece of the answer, bad charter schools are a piece of the problem. What we want is more innovation. So charter schools are one way to innovate. You can have traditional schools that are highly innovative, magnet programs, gifted programs, you name it. Charters don’t begin to have the monopoly on innovation.”

Gov. Bev Perdue has been saying for months that the charter school law would not be an impediment. After giving her own talk at IEI Monday, Perdue had this to say:

“Charter schools (are) not the end all and be all. We have proven to the Dept of Education that where we now have 100-plus charters, many other states that have adopted charters in the last year have as few as 30 or 40. We also have had deep discussions with the secretary and his team about the innovations that go on in North Carolina and he’s been impressed with that … So, they have really adapted to the thinking that innovation does not necessarily go by the name of charters. And we are only state, I believe, in America … to have 100 percent collaborations between all of the universities, the community colleges and all the public schools leaders.”

NB: North Carolina does NOT have “100-plus” charter schools. The number of charters is capped at 100 and rarely, if ever, hits that mark due to the turnover in charters as some close and new ones take time to open.

Click below for Duncan’s 25 minutes at IEI, which includes both his prepared remarks and Q&A. The question about charters comes at the 12:30 mark.

So 2009 is nearly gone and I thought I'd ask you lovely folks what you thought the best and worst stories related to education in the last year were.

So let's hear 'em. Was closing Oak Ridge Elementary a great idea or waste of money? Is Green a saint or sinner for investigating athletics rules violations at Northern High? Did Gov. Perdue make the best tough choice she could when she asked school districts to return millions or did she put education first...on the chopping block? 

Tell us what you think.

The school district spent $19,183 this month on a public relations firm to audit its communication with the community and itself. A group from the National School Public Relations Association spent two days holding interview sessions with various groups including teachers, administrators, community members, parents and others.

The meetings were not public.

When asked about the purpose of the meetings, Nora Carr, Superintendent Mo Green’s chief of staff, said; “The purpose was to gain more insight into what’s working, what’s not, what can be improved re. communications at the school and district level.”

Carr notes the audit is part of Green’s strategic plan.

The National School Public Relations Association is a non-profit association of public relations experts who work with school systems "to advance education through responsible communication," according to their website. 

So what do you think? $20 grand is a drop in the bucket, but it’s still a drop. Could it have been spent on something more important?
What’s communication with your school(s) been like? How about with the district or your school board member?
 

First off, what does that headline even mean? It's what I get for trying to be creative.

Mission Possible, the district’s program that pays some teachers incentives and bonuses to teach in historically low-performing, high turnover schools has been discussed quite a bit of late.

The grant that pays for nearly half the program runs out after the next school year so finding the cash to fill that massive whole – about $1.8 million this year - could prove pretty hard.

No one’s talking about what the future holds but the program could get cut back in some fashion, either fewer bonuses or cutting back the incentives or maybe dropping the number of schools where the cash is offered. There are 30 Mission Possible schools right now.

Problem is, while the program hasn’t shot grades through the roof at every school, the majority are showing growth. The bigger change is that retention rates are getting better at Mission Possible schools.

High school teachers can make $15,000 more year, so you can see why that might be. And while school officials and board members might like to talk up the altruistic nature of teachers, every Mission Possible teacher I’ve spoken with has said the money is a major reason they are where they are.

All this comes at a time when the Obama administration is stressing the idea of tying teacher pay to student performance and paying teachers who take on those historically poor performing schools something extra.

I’ve written about the Race To The Top grant program that could mean between $200 million and $400 million to the Old North State. But in order to get the grant states have to show that their schools are tying student performance to teacher pay in some way.

Some on the Guilford County Board of Education have shown apprehension about signing on to the state’s grant bid, fearing Bev and Co. are willing to jump through all sorts of hoops to get money to fill budgets that could potentially mean the state shortchanging the school system in the long run.

Alan Duncan – totally spitballing figures for the sake of argument – guestimated that if North Carolina won $300 million in Race To The Top money Guilford County could net about $3.7 million a year for four years. Duncan noted “With all due respect, $3.75 million is not even going to be a drop in the bucket to transform a district of this size.”

He wanted to know more about what’s in the grant, if the state could use it to supplant funding and if accepting the short-term fed dollars comes with long-term commitments that could prove costlier.

All that said to come to this point, early results show that paying teachers a fair bit more to work in schools and subjects that have sent others packing works on some levels. More districts are implementing incentive pay and pay for performance models and it’s one of a handful of things that finds supporters on both sides of the aisle in Washington and at home.

But these are lean times and the question is simple; where do we find the money? Where do we get the money to continue or expand Mission Possible? Should we continue or expand it? If we cut the number of schools, how do you choose who to cut? Should all teachers pay be tied to student performance? Should any?
 

Northwest Guilford High (and Weaver Academy) senior Neil Shah and his partner Yekaterina Shpanskaya, a Raleigh sophomore, are the first runners up in the team division of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology.

The pair studied fusion reactor data by using advanced computer technology to simulate a fusion reactor. The analysis won Shah and Shpanskaya a $50,000 shared scholarship.

There were 20 national finalists in this year’s competition including six teams and six individuals.

A team of three students won the team division prize of a $100,000 scholarship with their work in graph theory. The research tackled a math problem that has been open since 1978.

Interesting note, the bio info from Siemens says that Shpanskaya tutors N.C. State students in math. That's gotta be humbling.

I sat in on David Hebert’s 8th grade social studies class at Northern Middle today for a feature piece I’m working on about paperless education. I’m looking at how education is shifting from pens, paper and books to computers.

I saw something that will probably make it into my article but I wanted to share it here with you guys to see what you think.

The kids were working on a project about American western expansion on their computers in groups of three. Hebert is one of those teachers that believe you can’t have learning without a little noise but when the kids got too loud and he felt they were off task he went over to his computer and clicked the mouse one time.

With that one click, an act that took milliseconds, he turned off the monitors to every desktop and laptop in the room. As soon as the screens went black there was a uniform, “awwww” followed by silent, swiveling heads looking at Hebert.

I’ve been in a lot of classrooms and I can say I’ve never seen a teacher snap students to attention like that without making a sound.