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I N N O V A T O R |
News about high school innovation . Dec. 14, 2009
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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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Teacher uses Web to provide access to review lessons, 24-7
If Alison Baker's students are confused about a concept in biology that often proves difficult, they can get extra help -- anytime, anyplace. All they need is their laptop computer.
Baker, who teaches biology and earth science at Nash-Rocky Mount Early College High School, is using new technology to help reinforce her classroom instruction. A student who might be stumped about genetic probability or cell division while studying at home can go online to find Baker explaining that topic again, and if needed, again and again.
With the help of a free website called TeacherTube -- patterned after the popular YouTube site that allows videos to be shared -- Baker and other teachers at the innovative school on the campus of Nash Community College are taking their instruction to the place where teenagers spend much of their time: online.
The school is one of several in North Carolina on the cutting edge of technology by equipping every student and teacher with a personal laptop computer for use in school and at home. Educators in the schools, part of what is known as the state's 1:1 Laptop Initiative, are exploring ways to strengthen teaching and learning through the use of computer technology.
"Having the laptops everyday takes what you can do to another level," said Baker, who has taught at Nash-Rocky Mount ECHS since the school opened in 2005. "The access at your fingertips is a real advantage. Having these free services is just awesome."
Using a simple Flip video camera on a tripod, she delivers the short lessons -- not longer than three minutes or so -- just facing the camera directly or at a board where she might draw a cell diagram or demonstrate steps to solve a problem.
"It's cool to put your teaching out there," Baker said.
And although a seemingly small resource, the TeacherTube videos have proven popular among students. Baker said that the six brief video tutorials she's posted this semester have been viewed about 3,500 times.
"Students have really loved being able to go back to older lessons," Baker said. "Being able to watch these little videos helps them get over reading issues that they might have, and students without internet access at home can download them to their computers at school and view them later."
Teachers at the school have set a goal to create online units using Moodle, open-source software for online instruction, and a video library for each course, Baker said.
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Few students suspended from NC's innovative high schools
A front-page story in Sunday's edition of The News & Observer reported that North Carolina suspends a higher percentage of students than all but three states in the nation -- a troubling statistic for a state where nearly 30 percent of high school students fail to graduate in four years, if at all.
Reporter Sadia Latifi explained why suspensions matter when considering broader high school outcomes: "The high suspension rate worries advocates for children," she wrote. "Suspended students are three times as likely to drop out, according to Action of Children North Carolina, an advocacy group that pushes school districts to find alternatives to banishment from school for improving student behavior."
North Carolina's small, innovative high schools are proving that a high degree of personalization, combined with high expectations and strong support, are effective incentives for students to behave responsibly. While discipline issues can be a major distraction in many high schools, the focus of innovative high schools can be squarely on teaching and learning. Three quarters of the 90 innovative schools in 2008-09 for which data is available had short-term suspension rates below those of their districts, according to data from the N.C . Department of Public Instruction. And most of those achieved rates that were a fraction of their district's or those of the larger, traditional high school from which many were derived.
Durham's Hillside High, for example, the school attended by a student who was the focus of The N&O story, had a short-term suspension rate last year of 53 suspensions per 100 students. Next door at Hillside New Tech High School -- a small, innovative high school with a focus on science, technology, engineering and math -- the rate was just eight suspensions per 100 students. Short-term suspensions are 10 days or less in duration, and the rate reflects the number of suspensions, and consequently counts multiple incidents for the same students.
All four innovative high schools in Durham -- Hillside New Tech, City of Medicine Academy, Josephine Dobbs Clement Early College High School and Southern School of Engineering -- all had suspension rates that were at least just a third of the districtwide short-term suspension rate of 46 suspensions per 100 students. The highest rate among the four small schools was 16 per 100 students.
Still, several of the state's innovative high schools that have been created as wholesale conversions of former large campuses continue to face challenges, with suspension rates that exceed those of their districts.
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Progress by East Wake high schools noted in local press
The following editorial in the Eastern Wake News,"Welcome numbers at East Wake," was published after a recent news article reported that the graduation rates for all four of the small schools on the East Wake High School campus were above the county's average for the class of 2009. "One year's worth of numbers certainly don't indicate a trend, but we're nonetheless gratified to hear the news that East Wake High School's four small schools are reporting improved graduation rates. That was among the top priorities for local education leaders when they partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to lay the groundwork for the small schools concept in 2005. As recently as last summer, some critics were ready to dismantle the program, citing less-than-stellar statistics in a wide range of areas, including graduation rates. Proponents of the small schools concept argued that the schools simply needed more time before accurate judgements could be made regarding the results of the program. After all, two of the schools were just a couple years into their existence. Even at this point it has been just a little more than two years since all four schools were established. And this is the first year all the students have been housed for an entire school year in what is considered their permanent home. Still, the graduation rates have risen. School administrators, who tout their ability to get to know students on a more personal level in the smaller school seem to have hit on a formula which, at the very least, encourages more children to stay in school, complete their coursework and graduate. We trust, however, they would also tell you the graduation rates still aren't high enough. Even in the School of Arts, Education and Global Studies, where 85 percent of seniors graduated, that still means that nearly two in 10 don't finish school. We expect those numbers to continue rising. There's no reason they can't. We also expect other measures of student success at East Wake High School to improve. Graduation rates, we believe, are just the start. But they are a good start." Back to top
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Perdue taps NCNSP staffer for Race to the Top grant meetings
The N.C. New Schools Project helped represent North Carolina last week in Baltimore for a series of meetings aimed at helping states refine their proposals for the federal Race to the Top initiative, a $4.35 billion grant program being awarded by the U.S. Department of Education.
Gov. Beverly Perdue tapped Robin Marcus, NCNSP's program director for STEM education, to join Angela Quick, deputy chief academic officer for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, and Jere Confrey, professor of mathematics education at N.C. State University as representatives at the two-day event.
Teams from about 30 states gathered to hear from representatives from the U.S. Department of Education about the application requirements and to ask questions. Teams also heard from expert panels about how STEM education can help states strengthen their proposals for Race to the Top funds.
States earn points based on their plans to address four key areas with a comprehensive approach: - Common standards and high quality assessments
- Statewide data systems to support instruction
- Recruitment, equitable distribution, development and retention of effective teachers and leaders
- Turnaround of the lowest-achieving schools
States receive additional points for highlighting a plan to provide access to a rigorous course of study in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to all students; to engage a wide range of STEM-related partners in improving education; and to encourage more students -- particularly those who have been traditionally underrepresented -- to pursue advanced study and careers in STEM.
North Carolina has organized a far-reaching collaborative network to develop its grant application, which includes an extensive STEM component. The application is due in mid January.
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NC among states where PTA to promote common standards
With increasing focus nationally on the adoption of common academic standards, the National PTA is launching a campaign in four states, including North Carolina, to build support among parents to push for standards that would apply coast to coast.
The PTA effort, with the backing of a $1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is aimed at mobilizing parents to win support from state and local leaders for the common standards now in development. In all, 48 states have signed on to an effort launched earlier this year to
develop a framework of content and skills aimed at ensuring that all
states would eventually share the same standards for college- and
career readiness as well as grade-by-grade standards from kindergarten
through 12th grade.
In
each of the states, both the governor and chief education officer
signed an agreement committing to the process of developing common --
though voluntary -- standards in math and English language arts. The effort is being led by the Council of State School Officers and the National Governor's Association. Even after the standards have been set, the states still must agree to adopt them.
The National PTA is also working to organize parent support in Florida, Georgia and New Jersey, and may expand into other states by the middle of 2010. Through state and local PTA organizations, the effort will be aimed at persuading state boards of education to endorse the common standards. North Carolina's PTA claims 205,000 members.
Vicki L. Phillips, education director for the Gates Foundation, told Education Week earlier this month that grass-roots support will be key for the adoption of the standards by individual states.
"Everyone knows the PTA at the local level," she said, "but not everyone knows its collective power. For common standards to take hold, it will take local communities to get involved."
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Become a fan of NCNSP on Facebook; join the discussion
North Carolina New Schools Project now has its own Facebook page.
If you are a Facebook user already, become a fan today and contribute to the
conversation. If not, you can follow the page without joining Facebook,
but you won't be able to post your comments or content. Either way, please take a look here. Back to top
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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 innovator@newschoolsproject.org or call Todd
Silberman at (919) 277-3760.
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