Friday Notes from Guilford County Schools

October 26, 2007

Our Vision, Mission/Thematic Goals and Core Values

Our vision – what we will become, Our mission/thematic goals- how we will get there -- Our
core values - what we believe -- solidify the underlying foundation for all Guilford County Schools’ decisions and actions.

2007-08 GCS Teacher of the Year is Riding in Style

Carolyn Hiatt, the 2007-08 GCS Teacher of the Year, is now the owner of a 2008 Infiniti G35 Sedan from Modern Infiniti, thanks to Harris Teeter Neighborhood Market.

The second-grade teacher from Hunter Elementary was presented the car at the regularly scheduled Board of Education meeting on October 25. Additionally, the four Teacher of the Year finalists received their choice of a $1,000 gift certificate to either Harris Teeter or Friendly Center.

As a lifelong learner, Carolyn motivates her students. “My favorite aspect of teaching is watching a child grow as a learner throughout the year,” said Carolyn. “I love watching a child become interested and motivated to learn independently.”  

Carolyn, along with the other finalists, were recognized at the Wachovia Best in Class Awards program on September 26 for their passion and dedication to educational leadership.  

Finalists for the award include: middle school winner Janice Clark from Aycock Middle, high school winner Kristal Britton from Dudley High, George Eckart from The Middle College of Entertainment Technology at GTCC and Michael Joncas from Summerfield Elementary. For more information, please contact Sonya Conway, Chief District Relations Officer, at 370-8386.

GCS Social Worker Receives North Carolina Governor’s Appointment

Virginia Hoover, school social worker for The High School Ahead Academy, was appointed by Governor Michael Easley to serve on the Committee on Dropout Prevention. The committee determines which local school administrative units, schools, agencies and nonprofits will receive dropout prevention grants. Previously, Mrs. Hoover was recognized as the North Carolina School Social Worker of the Year in 1997. For more information, please contact Principal Michelle Hayes at 294-7640.

GCS Enhances Middle School Science Education

Discovery Education Science, a comprehensive multimedia toolkit that supplements school curriculum, is now available at 11 GCS middle schools. Awarded both the Teacher’s Choice Award and Technology & Learning Magazine’s Award of Excellence, Discovery Education Science provides middle-school science resources that engage today’s technology-savvy students and help educators grow scientific literacy and improve student achievement.

For more information, please contact Christopher Bronson, Organizational Development Program Coordinator, at 312-4096 or go to www.discoveryeducation.com.

Weaver Academy Senior named a Commended Student in 2008 National Merit Scholarship Program

Weaver Academy for the Performing and Visual Arts announced that Sarah Fleming was named a Commended Student in the 2008 National Merit Scholarship program. A letter of commendation from the school and National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), which conducts the program, will be presented to this scholastically talented senior by Principal Anna Brady.

Although Commended Students will not continue in the 2008 competition for National Merit Scholarships, these talented young people placed among the top five percent of more than 1.4 million students who entered the 2008 competition. For more information, please contact Principal Anna Brady at 370-8282.

Office of Induction and Success Supports New Teachers

GCS Induction Coaches have developed a Web site of numerous online resources to support the district’s new teachers and have offered six sessions of ‘Red Apple Training’ to ensure that new teachers can easily access and utilize these resources.  New teachers participating in the training have provided very positive feedback and appreciation for these resources. Click here view Right Start News or click on the red apple icon on the district homepage.   

An Annual Lateral Entry Extravaganza was hosted by the Office of Induction and Success on Monday, October 22.  This year’s event included a session whereby area colleges and universities shared current licensure opportunities offered by their respective institution with lateral entry teachers. Participating colleges and universities were North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro College, Guilford Technical Community College, High Point University, University of NC at Greensboro and Winston-Salem State University.

For more information, please contact Martha Snavely, Executive Director of Induction and Success and Professional Development, at 335-3290.

Elementary Curriculum and Instruction Initiatives

The Math Initiative training for teacher leaders in grades three through five is going strong. Teachers met this week to discuss curriculum highlights for the month of November.  Each after-school session focused on methods used by teacher leaders to share lessons and key concepts with their grade level team.  Grade level planning and discussion is critical for math success for our students. Teachers shared that collaborative planning was one of the most challenging efforts in the Math Initiative’s success.              
Literacy Framework for principals, assistant principals, and curriculum facilitators who have not previously received this training were offered an additional opportunity on October 26. Participants were introduced to the Literacy Framework document and  the K-5 Literacy Continuum that were developed by Curriculum and Instruction staff members as a result of their work with McREL during the past year.  School leaders were also provided with protocols and strategies to assist them in facilitating discussions with staff members throughout the year as they plan for implementing the Literacy Framework.

On October 19, representatives from about 20 elementary schools convened to work on selecting anchor papers for the first quarter benchmark writing assessments.  Anchor papers are examples of student writing that are representative of each of the score points, i.e., Level I, II, III, or IV. This process will be replicated at the participants’ schools and shared with other grade levels.  The process for selecting anchor papers will be continued for second and third quarters with the remaining elementary schools in our district. For more information, please contact Lee Ann Segalla, Elementary Curriculum Officer, at 370-2339.

GCS Holds Second Teaching American History Seminar

On November 2 and 3, GCS will present the second seminar of the Teaching American History Project.  The seminar, entitled ‘Expansion and Reform (1801-1850),’ is hosted by our partner institution, Guilford College.  High school U.S. history teachers from across the county will be participating. 

The GCS Teaching American History Project is a three-year program made possible by the Department of Education’s Teaching American History grant.  The program is designed to help participating teachers from across the county expand their content knowledge of U.S. history and learn strategies to improve student achievement. There are two more seminars scheduled in February and April of 2008.  For more information, please contact Morris Johnson, Project Coordinator, at 317-1199 or johnsom@gcsnc.com.

Teaching Every Child to Read Using Direct Instruction

Pilot Elementary made reading a major focus in the 2006-07 school year.  The school allocated major resources to implement Science Research Associates (SRA) an assessment tool used to monitor and evaluate students’ reading levels and Corrective Reading Programs.  Following analysis of student performance, the Exceptional Children (EC) staff submitted a proposal to present at the North Carolina Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (NCASCD) Fall Conference, titled ‘Teaching Every Child to Read Using Direct Instruction.’  Two EC Teachers, Shawnee Ellsworth and Paula Williams, shared with conference attendees the phenomenal success they had teaching students to read.  The data showed second graders move from a Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) Level 4 at the beginning of the year (beginning readers) to a DRA Level 24 at the end of the year (on grade level and ready for third grade).  They saw how direct instruction reading programs positively affect End of Grade (EOG) test scores.  Most importantly, the self-confidence and positive attitude of students who previously felt they were not good readers was readily apparent. For more information, please contact Principal Max Pope at 316-5820 or Bill Hurt, Instructional Improvement Officer, at 370-2347.

GCSTV 2

Celebration of Excellence

Our schools and our business community unite to showcase the accomplishments and potential of GCS students. Join us for a look at this year’s Celebration of Excellence. Fifteen schools are recognized for their improvements in academic performance and are awarded cash prizes courtesy of Businesses for Excellence in Education. This program airs beginning next week.  

2007-08 Teacher of the Year / Principal of the Year

Take a look at the videos presented during the recent Wachovia Best in Class Awards. Each video features vignettes of the five finalists. Also shown are Principal of the Year nominees and individual schools’ Teacher of the Year winners. These videos run daily beginning at 8:30 a.m., 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.

GCS/ABC 45 Partnership Continues

GCS continues its partnership with ABC 45 television to share the current news and feature stories about our district. The segments run on ABC 45 (Cable Channel 7) during “Good Morning America” each Wednesday and Friday at 7:25 a.m. and 8:25 a.m. Also, learn more about GCS by tuning in to GCSTV 2 (Cable Channel 2).

Showcasing Magnet and Schools of Choice
When it comes to educating students, GCS is a national leader in providing specialized schools and instructional programs. A recent Magnet Showcase provided students and their parents a chance to learn how these themes may fit within their educational needs. GCS magnet schools offer 17 unique themes. This newsbreak airs Wednesday, October 31.

Learning from History
Students from High Point Central High speak out against crime and violence as they replicate the tenacity of the pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement. See the local kick-off of a nationwide movement of young people dedicating themselves to non-violence. This newsbreak airs Friday, November 2.  

For more information, please contact Leonard Simpson, Broadcast Production Manager, at 370-8167.

NON-GCS EDUCATIONAL NEWS

Team Targets Struggling Students

After five years of overhauling staff and administration and trying many new programs that failed, Superintendent Art Johnson has decided to wage a new kind of war -- dispatch an all-star team of former principals and teachers to try to turn around 26 schools with chronically struggling students.  Experts in reading, math, writing and decoding data comb through each school's test scores and dissect them down to the class, the student, the skill.  The results are given to teachers. Then specialists in each subject area help them brainstorm ways to teach students skills in a way that makes them stick. Click here to read more.

Parents Shape Attitudes Toward Math, Science

While many parents encourage an interest in math in their sons by buying math- and science-related toys, books and games, daughters tend to be left out. "Family math nights" where children and parents work on math together can help spur interests, Fun Math Club founder Yul Inn says. Click here to read more

Report: Dropouts Cost North Carolina $169 Million Annually

Higher Medicaid and prison costs and lower collected tax revenue for the more than 30% of North Carolina students who do not graduate from high school add up to about $169 million each year, according to a new Milton & Rose D. Friedman Foundation report. "We're in a crisis now with the dropout problem," said state Rep. Earline Parmon, D-Winston-Salem. Click here to read more.

Resiliency Strategies Can Change the Culture of Dropout Factories

Every nine seconds, another student drops out of school in America.  The most recent national statistics peg the national high school graduation rate at only 69.9 percent. These sobering statistics have astonishing implications for our economy and our ability to compete globally, not to mention the daily lives of those dropouts and their communities. According to a new report, authored by Kelly Hupfeld, a research associate at the Center for Education Policy Analysis at the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, research shows that decreasing the dropout rate can only happen on a student-by-student basis. Hupfeld says that the focus must be turned to individuals, because students drop out for a myriad of personal reasons. Consequently, the best dropout prevention strategies lock on to students as individuals and engage them in school and teach the m the skills they need to cope with difficult times. Resiliency-based programs, which help students develop the skills and relationships they need to succeed inside and outside the classroom, can be incredibly effective in preventing high school dropouts. Still, there is no foolproof method to identify students who will drop out of school, as dropping out seems to be a function of multiple factors across multiple domains. Based on this research, the National Dropout Prevention Center concludes that predictions as to who will drop out are more accurate when multiple risk factors and domains are considered. It is imperative that schools institutionalize resiliency strategies as the world can sometimes do its best to beat down students. It would be great if schools, rather than contributing to the problem, could help enrich and improve students’ lives. Click here to read more.

New Education Plan: “Work Hard. Be Nice. No Shortcuts.”  

All too often in public schools, zip code is destiny, reports Bill Weir for ABC News. Kids from poor neighborhoods are six times less likely to graduate from high school than their middle-class peers. While attempts to close this gap have been the source of exhaustive research and expensive battles, a pair of teachers has quietly spent the past decade developing a program that sends low-income kids to college at an astounding rate. The program centers on just six words: Work hard. Be nice. No shortcuts. Those words make up the pillars beneath the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), which was developed in 1995 by two idealistic Teach For America fourth grade teachers. Their response to a decaying school system was to foster  "better teaching and more of it." Their ideal school day runs from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and classes are held every other Saturday for three weeks during the summer, so a student in this program spends 60 percent more time in class than a peer in a typical public school. The first two KIPP schools were so successful that the Fisher family donated $15 million to bring KIPP to other needy districts, and now KIPP schools are in 17 states and the District of Columbia. Most students enter KIPP schools two grade levels behind, but in just three years, most go on to elite prep or magnet schools, and 80 percent go to college. Click here to read more.