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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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Donors step up: Federal grant goal reached
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With a $20 million federal grant at stake, supporters of high school innovation in North Carolina pledged $500,000 by a Dec. 10 deadline set by the U.S. Department of Education to secure the federal funding for an initiative aimed at transforming education in rural high schools. The private contributions will supplement the major grant, announced last month, which NC New Schools will use to expand the reach of early college strategies in North Carolina and four other states. Four foundations and a major North Carolina technology company helped NC New Schools meet the required match: Golden LEAF Foundation, SAS, Goodnight Educational Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and Wells Fargo Foundation. Tony Habit, president of NC New Schools, praised the donors for their timely and generous support. "They're all champions of public education who see only potential and promise in our youth," Habit said. "We're confident that their investment will pay off in better outcomes for thousands of students." NC New Schools will work to scale up proven approaches to enhance the knowledge and skills of teachers in North Carolina and the four states through a districtwide model and in schools of all sizes, and also assist districts and organizations in other states in capacity-building efforts for greater implementation of early college strategies across the country. More than 13,000 students and nearly 800 educators in North Carolina and the other states are projected to benefit from the effort, which will focus on developing new early college high schools, which blend high school and the first two years of college, and similar approaches in traditional high schools. Read more ...
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Data snapshot: College graduates inch up
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A recent Census report on 18-34 year olds shows changes on a number of dimensions over the last 30 years, including employment, marriage and education. The chart below compares the percentage of North Carolinians ages 18-34 with bachelor's degrees or higher to the U.S. population overall in the same age range. An interactive mapping tool allows a look at other states and other indicators.
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GSK's Judy Schindler adds fresh perspective
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 To hear Judy Schindler tell it, she learned far more during her temporary assignment with NC New Schools than the other way around. "It will change the way I will look at our business when I return," Schindler said before resuming her real life in Florida earlier this fall as an oral healthcare consultant with GSK, the global healthcare company with key operations located in Research Triangle Park. Under the company's PULSE volunteer program, Schindler spent several months "on loan" this year to NC New Schools as a marketing and communications fellow, helping the  organization think more strategically to deliver on its mission of helping all students graduate and achieve success. In that capacity, her colleagues at NC New Schools say, Schindler's business-oriented insights and perspective were invaluable - particularly at a time when the organization is focused on refining its internal processes to strengthen its services to clients. NC New Schools, they say, got the better end of the deal. "Judy walked in the office one day and was making a difference for the better the next," said Joe Edney, a strategy analyst with NC New Schools. "Her consumer approach was a real asset to the organization. She's a real problem solver." Read more ...
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Teaching students to do the thinking
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By Shelley A. W. RoyNC New Schools Instructional Coach | |
Shelley A. W. Roy
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What's chess have to do with baseball? Ask Riley Dahlberg, a junior at Mountain Heritage High School. "I'm a pretty good pitcher. I also play thirdbase," Riley said. "Chess is helping me think differently and be more strategic about the game, so I think it's helping me get better at the head game." That's where Brent Laws comes in. A math teacher at Mountain Heritage is all about the head game. Riley stopped by to get help on his chess game as Laws and I were finishing up after I'd spent third  period in his classroom. He told me that he felt his job was to help students develop their cognitive skills. His approach to teaching and learning is as much about chess as it is about math. He wants his students to learn how to think. During the lesson in Math I class, Laws wrote a quadratic equation on the board and asked his students to think about how he had figured out the values of the coefficients. He paused several times to ask students to think through something before explaining how to do it. He asked them to predict, make their best guess and engage in conversation with a partner. All of these strategies allowed his students to struggle to "figure it out." Throughout the lesson, he engaged his students' cognitive abilities. Too often, students are the passive receivers of the thinking of the teacher. Learning works best when students do the thinking.
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Women in STEM essential to new economy
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 By Tony HabitPresidentNC New SchoolsWe are on the front end of a far-reaching economic and societal transformation as a result of advances in research, science and technology. The forces of globalization are accelerating these changes and it will affect our lives and our communities. As a r  esult, the nature of work, employment and learning will be redefined. For example, in 2013, about 4 million service robots for personal and domestic use were sold, 28 percent more than in 2012. The value of sales increased to $1.7 billion. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal reported that over the next 15 years, automated systems will replace the country's garbage collectors. Together, these trends point to the loss of entire classes of jobs that provide livelihoods for many. The forces of globalization are real. And the consequences for under-prepared communities will be punishing unless we act. Since m  any of the new jobs are found in STEM areas, the transition might be especially challenging for women. And yet, a recent study found that U.S. women working in science, engineering, and tech fields are 45 percent more likely than their male peers to leave the industry within a year. Some credit this loss to a lack of mentors for women or biased evaluations or the pressure to raise families. But the consequences for earnings are striking. Women employed in STEM jobs earn 33 percent more than those employed in other areas. They also have a smaller wage gap with men compared with other fields (White House STEM initiative). Read more ...
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Rural innovation effort highlighted in editorial
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The News & Observer of Raleigh took note of the U.S. Department of Education's recent $20 million grant award to NC New Schools with an editorial supporting high school innovation in North Carolina.
Read more ...
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STEM conference highlights promising practices
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 The 2015 Scaling STEM conference will focus on how to design, create and inspire student engagement. Sessions will highlight promising practices, tools and resources to:
- Design solutions for school-based problems of practice
- Create engagement in critical thinking through the "making" movement
- Inspire through partnerships with industry, community and higher education
The conference, set for April 13-15 at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel & Convention Center in Research Triangle Park, is designed for educators, STEM advocates, education innovation leaders, industry and community leaders and policymakers. The event is co-hosted by the NC Science, Mathematics & Technology Education Center and NC New Schools.
Click here to register and learn more about the conference. |
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STEP Program open to lateral entry teachers
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 The NC STEM Teacher Education Program (NC STEP) is now accepting new lateral-entry teachers of science, technology, engineering or math working in NC New Schools network schools.
NC STEP is an alternative licensure program for mid-career professionals and recent college graduates with STEM majors interested in becoming secondary science, technology, engineering or math teachers. Administered by NC New Schools and approved by the State Board of Education, this cost-free, non-traditional teacher prep program is supported by a federal Transition to Teaching grant.
Applications are now being accepted for the cohort that starts in July 2015.
Contact George Ward at gward@ncnewschools.org or 919-277-9002 for details. |
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