Welcome to INNOVATOR, an update on school and district transformation from North Carolina New Schools. Our newsletter aims to inform practitioners, policy makers, and friends of public education on innovation, workforce development, research and success stories from schools, districts and regions across the state. Please contact us to provide feedback and suggest ideas.
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10 years of making high schools better
 By Tony Habit
President
NC New Schools
Ten years ago, North Carolina joined with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish NC New Schools, now one of the nation's largest public school innovation leaders. Many of the other organizations that were also seeded by the Gates Foundation almost a decade ago no longer exist. NC New Schools has thrived over the past decade, and many of the lessons we've learned are helping determine our priorities and partnerships today that remain focused on the single goal of graduating all students well prepared for their future.
For NC New Schools, collaboration with others defined the organization's values and its path from the start. The private sector, higher education, government and local leaders positioned the organization as a trusted partner. Working together, we've identified and advanced solutions to link new approaches to teaching and learning with the knowledge and skills required by employers and higher education.
So what are the lessons learned after 10 years of advancing new approaches to public education?
First, remarkable results for students follow carefully considered, strategic investments to further the knowledge and skills of teachers and administrators. Results from many of our partner schools outpace conventional public schools - a direct consequence of high-quality professional development embedded in schools and districts for teachers and administrators. And amplifying the impact of professional development is a related system of peer support and networking so that teams of teachers can learn from each other, validate their gains and achieve greater comfort with new norms around making their practice public and open.
Read more ...
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New Schools Opens Coach University
When it comes to helping teachers get better at their game, North Carolina New Schools follows a strategy that's essential to top athletes: good coaching. Teachers in innovative schools that are partners with NC New Schools are supported by master educators trained in a coaching model that's proving effective in helping strengthen the skills of teachers, and in turn, student learning.
NC New Schools is now pleased to offer Coach University, a program based on the organization's successful coaching model and designed to lay a cohesive foundation for  instructional coaching while developing sustainable staff capacity for schools and districts.
The value of effective coaching can't be overstated, said Elizabeth Wiggs, an English teacher at Lee County Early College, writing in a recent entry in the Future Ready blog on the NC New Schools website.
"Coaching from North Carolina New Schools has been one of the most beneficial experiences I have ever had as a teacher," Wiggs said. "Instructional coaches are not there to pass judgment. Instead, their goal is the same as mine: to create engaging, rigorous, relevant experiences for our students. And because we are all focused on the same goal, it's easy to work together to find solutions."
Coach University is designed for teacher leaders who coach other teachers for instructional improvement - curriculum facilitators, lead teachers, current instructional coaches, assistant principals, instructional resource teachers and teachers moving into leadership roles. The 24-day program takes place over the course of 12 months, with new cohorts starting in January and July. Slots remain open for the cohort that begins in January 2014, and applications are also being accepted for the July cohort.
Read more ...
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Innovative schools meet growth goals
Many schools that are partners with NC New Schools outpaced state results under North Carolina's challenging new READY accountability yardstick in 2012-13, but aggregate performance dipped as a consequence of more rigorous exams in place for the first time in 2012-13.
Combined, schools that were part of the NC New Schools network for at least three years achieved an overall passing rate of 60 percent on all state exams, according to an NC New Schools analysis, compared to 44 percent of all high schools statewide. NC high school students are tested in Math I, Biology and English II. Aggregate results for the NC New Schools also included several former partner schools last part of the network in 2011-12.
Aside from absolute performance, nearly 90 percent of all partner schools at least met predicted academic gains, based on past student test performance. Forty-three percent of innovative schools exceeded expected results; 46 percent met their targets and 11 percent fell short. By comparison, 31 percent of all high schools exceeded their predicted results, 37 percent met expected results and 32 percent didn't meet expectations. (See graph in column to right.)
Innovative schools in the NC New Schools network also compared favorably to the state on the ACT college entrance exam, now required of all 11th graders as part of the READY accountability program. By that measure, 78 percent of all partner schools achieved an average composite score of at least 17, the minimum required for admission to the University of North Carolina system. By comparison, 58.5 percent of all high schools statewide did so.
When compared to the average composite ACT scores for their districts, 90 percent of NC New Schools partner schools achieved results above those averages. For all high schools statewide for which a district comparison can be made, 38.5 percent of schools were above their district's average.
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Quick joins New Schools as key leader
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Angela Quick
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Angela Hinson Quick has joined NC New Schools as senior vice president for talent development following an extensive national search. Quick was previously deputy chief academic officer with the NC Department of Public Instruction, a position she held since 2008. During her DPI tenure, she led the state's large-scale reform agenda, including revisions to academic standards and assessments and the adoption of new accountability models. In her new role, Quick is leading NC New Schools' efforts to create and implement innovative programming at the school, district and regional levels that effectively advance the Common Core standards and that graduate all students ready for success in career and postsecondary education She is focusing on approaches to teaching and learning marked by inquiry and authenticity in design and outcome. Quick is working also to enhance collaboration with colleges and universities for the preparation of future teachers and administrators and to collaborate with leaders at every level to advance STEM education and deepen connections between public schools and the economy. |
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Measuring Up
| NC New Schools partner schools outpaced overall gains by the state's high schools in 2012-2013 as measured by the state's new READY accountability yardstick.
Percentage of schools meeting and exceeding overall academic growth targets.
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Meet an Innovator
Ten Years of Progress  | | Burley Mitchell |
A high school dropout rises to lead the state's highest court and becomes a champion for innovation in public education in North Carolina. That's the story of Burley Mitchell, one of North Carolina's most accomplished statesmen and the founding chairman of the NC New Schools Board of Directors.
In fact, Mitchell dropped out of Raleigh's Broughton High School not just once, but twice. He first left at 15 to join the Marines, but was sent home when they discovered he was too young. He dropped out again at 17 to join the Navy and never returned. Instead, he got a GED, went to NC State University and earned a law degree from UNC Chapel Hill.
Mitchell's career in public service began as an assistant attorney general for North Carolina in 1972, providing legal counsel for the state superintendent and the Department of Public Instruction, and culminated as chief justice of the Supreme Court. In between he served as district attorney for Wake County, as secretary of crime control and public policy, and as a judge on the N.C. Court of Appeals. Today he is a partner with the law firm of Womble Carlyle Sandridge and Rice. Mitchell watched NC New Schools get its start in 2003 and was named chair of the first board of directors in 2006.
"I was actively involved in government for 30 years, and time after time, I watched government start experimental programs and almost none of them went anywhere after the initial funding ran out," Mitchell says. "This experiment with NC New Schools worked exactly how it should - the Gates Foundation started the funding, then weaned us off as we were able to get support from the business community based on our success. That's exactly the way an experiment should work."
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