I N N O V A T O R
News about high school innovation
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Sept. 19, 2008
Welcome to INNOVATOR, a bimonthly report on high school change in North Carolina from the North Carolina New Schools Project. INNOVATOR informs practitioners, policy makers, and friends of public education about high school innovation in North Carolina as well as success stories and research from across the nation.
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In This Issue
Laptops tap student interests, instincts to drive learning
Learn and Earn praised by Harvard as exemplary solution
College catch-up: Report raises alarm about remediation
National group issues policy guide for 21st Century skills
NC laptop initiative adds new tool for high school innovation

Karla Tucker, who teaches science at Rutherford Early College High School, measures the impact of providing a laptop computer to every student  by the simplest of classroom observations: Her students aren't constantly asking to sharpen their pencils.

"Students are so much more engaged in what they're doing," Tucker said. "They're interested."

Rutherford is one of eight high schools statewide - all but one of them early colleges - that are part of an effort to improve teaching and learning by leveraging technology to advance high school innovation.  By arming every teacher and every student with up-to-date technology, the schools aim to raise rigor, accelerate students' mastery of 21st century skills and increase engagement.

Laura Thomas, principal of Rutherford ECHS, said the school welcomed the chance to join the pilot program, known as the 1:1 Laptop Initiative, even as that participation has demanded extra effort from a faculty already working overtime to retool their classroom practices.

"We knew how it could transform education," Thomas said, "and get students engaged."

Rutherford and the six other early college high schools are now in their first full school year with laptops in the hands of students and instructional tools such as interactive whiteboards in classrooms. But the effort is as much about instructional practice as it is about hardware, with training and support for teachers a critical component.

The pilot program was launched last year through a public-private partnership that includes the General Assembly, the Golden LEAF Foundation, SAS Institute, the North Carolina New Schools Project, the Friday Institute and the Department of Public Instruction.

Rutherford students are inseparable from their tablet-style laptops, which allow them to type on a keyboard or write by hand. They use them during class to follow lessons, do assignments or take tests. They use them during breaks or at lunch in the cafeteria. They take them home to complete assignments, do research or collaborate with other students. If they're home sick, they can still follow classroom lessons with an application that supports virtual instruction.

Alex Gladney, a sophomore who was using his laptop at lunch, said he has no doubt that it's helping him learn.

"It makes it a lot less stressful," said Alex, who hopes to study computer engineering in college. "It helps us focus better and reduces the distractions."

In teacher Dawn Laughter's geometry class, students work on problems by writing on their laptop tablets in tandem with the lesson she's projected on the classroom's interactive whiteboard. Laughter can monitor the work of each of her students from her own laptop, in real time, and take a quick survey to gauge how well her students are grasping the concept she's teaching. A pie chart on the whiteboard divides their responses: I understand well. I understand a little. I do not understand.

Laughter, now in her third year at Rutherford, said the laptops are making a clear difference, for students and teachers. They help save classroom time by putting directly on student computers the same notes that previously they might have needed 20 minutes to copy from the board at the beginning of class. They help students organize and keep their work, since their laptops hold all their assignments. They connect students to other resources that can amplify her lessons. For example, Laugher said, she provides students with links to other materials to help them see the relevancy of geometry.

"It puts learning in their hands," Laughter said. "It creates an interest. It excites them about learning. If you're excited about something, you're going to learn it."

Still, the infusion of so much technology also demands an extra effort from teachers, who often aren't as tech-savvy as their students, and who also must themselves learn how to best use the technology as a tool to improve teaching and learning. But teachers aren't left to sink or swim. Support and professional development are a key part of the laptop initiative at Rutherford and the other seven schools.

"You don't want your technology driving your curriculum," said Jeremiah McCluney, technology facilitator at Rutherford ECHS. "Curriculum needs to drive the technology."

But for McCluney, technology goes hand-in-hand with the kinds of instructional best practices espoused by Rutherford ECHS and other schools supported by the North Carolina New Schools Project.

"It's hard to separate technology from changing teaching and learning," he said. "One complements the other. Technology is a tool. It doesn't change what we teach. It changes how we teach. It makes us more efficient and effective."

Learn and Earn wins national award from Harvard University

North Carolina's Learn and Earn education initiative is in the national spotlight with an award for innovation from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

The Learn and Earn initiative is one of six government programs across the country that Harvard named last week as winners in its annual competition for the Innovations in American Government Award. The university has held the contest since 1986 to draw attention to promising government initiatives with the greatest potential to improve the lives of citizens.

Harvard singled out Learn and Earn, launched by Gov. Mike Easley, as a praiseworthy example of public-private cooperation for improving educational opportunity across North Carolina. The effort has led to the creation of 60 early college high schools statewide that allow students to earn significant college credit by the time they graduate. In addition to recognizing the early college high school program, the award also honored Learn and Earn Online and the state's new EARN grants, aimed at helping with college affordability.

Learn and Earn was selected from a field of nearly 1,000 contenders for the Harvard award.

"To compete in the global economy of today, higher education is becoming increasingly necessary," said Stephen Goldsmith, director of the Innovations in American Government Awards at Harvard's Kennedy School. "Learn and Earn has engaged both public and private partners in efforts to ensure educational opportunity for North Carolina students. The culture of cooperation and adoption of a dual approach - emphasizing both academic achievement and college accessibility - is worthy of replication throughout the country."

The award includes a $100,000 prize for replication and dissemination of the program around the country.

In addition to Learn and Earn, awards were also given to initiatives in New York, Missouri, Arizona and of the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Videos of all the award winners can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/AshInstitute

New report sounds alarm about college remediation rates

Remedial courses for college freshmen are costing the nation's public colleges and universities as much as $2.5 billion a year, according to a report released this week warning that too many high school graduates arrive at college unprepared for college-level work.

The report, Diploma to Nowhere, says that upwards of 1 million newly enrolled college freshmen must take remedial courses after failing placement tests that measure basic academic skills. The study estimates that more than a third of all college students need remedial courses to catch up.

The report was issued by Strong American Schools, an organization launched last year to raise the level of debate about education issues in this year's presidential race. Former Colorado Governor Roy Romer, the chairman of the group, said in a release with the report that nation's public schools have an obligation to taxpayers to ensure high school graduates are well prepared.

"Our country cannot afford a high school diploma that does not show real student achievement," Romer said.

The study found that 43 percent of all students in public two-year colleges nationwide have enrolled in a remedial course, and 29 percent have done so in public four-year institutions. In North Carolina, 21 percent of 2004 high school graduates who enrolled in community colleges that fall took a remedial reading course.

A national survey of students, which was also part of the study, included these findings:
  • About four of every five remedial students had a high school grade point average of at least 3.0.
  • More than half the students in remedial classes said that while in high school they were good students and nearly always completed their assignments.
  • Nearly 60 percent of students in remedial classes said their high school classes were easy.
  • Nearly half of the students surveyed said they would have preferred more challenging high school classes that would have better prepared them for college.
National group issues policy guide for 21st Century skills

It's hardly news anymore: America's continued competitiveness in the global economy depends on the know-how and skills of students in school now and those to follow.

But a new publication from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills - of which North Carolina is one of nine leadership states - outline an argument for the changes needed in the nation's schools to meet the challenge of the seismic shifts in the U.S. and world economy in recent decades.

Again, hardly news: the nation's economy that once rested on manufacturing has shifted to one now driven by information, knowledge and innovation.

Don't believe it? The Partnership's resource and policy guide, 21st Century Skills, Education & Competitiveness cites facts and figures to make the case that schools must do more to respond to that changed world.

In addition to basic, critical skills in reading, mathematics and science, the guide cites an array of 21st Century skills that also now must be mastered for success in college, careers and life. Among them:
  • Thinking critically and making judgments
  • Solving complex, multidisciplinary, open-ended problems
  • Creativity and entrepreneurial thinking
  • Communicating and collaborating with diverse groups
  • Making innovative use of knowledge, information and opportunities
  • Taking charge of financial, health and civic responsibilities

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INNOVATOR is produced by the North Carolina New Schools Project, an initiative of the Office of the Governor and the Education Cabinet with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other businesses and foundations. For story suggestions or to opt out of receiving this e-mail report, please send an e-mail to [email protected] or call Todd Silberman at (919) 277-3760.