Friday Notes from Guilford County Schools

December 14, 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.

United Way Campaign

I would like to thank all GCS employees who generously participated in this year’s United Way Campaign.  As you may know, GCAE President Mark Jewell and I co-chaired this year’s district-wide effort.  We are VERY pleased to announce that our $375,000 in pledges and contributions exceeded our goal by $25,000 and last year’s total by $63,750.   In addition, the number of givers increased from 5,329 in 2006 to 6,126 this year.  Again thank you for your generosity. Many families in Guilford County will benefit from your support.  Please call me at 370-8992, should you have questions or would like to make a contribution or pledge to the United Way.  It is never too late to share with others.

First Semester High School Exam Schedule

I would like to thank a project team of high school principals and central office staff for working together to develop this year’s first semester high school exam schedule.  The State Department of Public Instruction has placed a four (4) hour time limitation cap on each End-of-Course exam this year.  Click here to view the schedule.  You may call me at 370-8992, should you have questions.

North Carolina Teaching Fellows Scholarship

The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program provides a $6,500 annual scholarship for four years to 500 outstanding North Carolina high school seniors. Recipients must be legal residents of North Carolina for tuition purposes and will have met the 12-month in-state residency requirement. Upon acceptance of the scholarship, the student agrees to teach for four years following graduation from college in one of North Carolina’s public schools or United States government schools in North Carolina.
 In the 2007-08 school year, more than 119 Guilford County students applied for the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Scholarship, and a sensational number of 91 student applicants have qualified to advance for regional finalist consideration;  2008 regional finalist will be notified by mail on January 11, 2008 (postmarked by this date) and a regional finalist list will be available on January 18, 2008 at www.teachingfellows.org.  Recipients will be notified by mail on March 21, 2008 (postmarked by this date).  A 2008 award recipient’s online list will be available on March 28, 2008.

A special thanks to the local screening committee comprised of board members, GCS employees and community volunteers who assisted in preparing our students for the next round. For more information, please contact Samara Johnson, Supervisor of Secondary Counseling in Counseling Services, at 370-2332 or Gwen Willis, Executive Director of Student Services, at 370-8397.

Deadline for 2008 Intel Schools of Distinction Awards

Each year, the Intel Schools of Distinction Awards recognize schools that implement innovative, replicable programs that inspire their students and lead to positive educational outcomes in the areas of math and science. Eighteen schools will be selected in April - three from each grade range (K-5, 6-8, and 9-12) - in the categories of math and science. Six winners will receive $10,000 from the Intel Foundation and more than $100,000 in products and services from the program award sponsors.

The winning school gains the title of Star Innovator for 2008 and receives an additional $15,000 cash grant from the Intel Foundation as well as additional products and services from the award sponsors. To apply or learn more about the application process, please visit http://www.intel.com/education/schoolsofdistinction/index.htm  Application deadline is February 14, 2008.

Guilford County Association of Educators Receive Grant

The Guilford County Association of Educators (GCAE) was awarded a $5,000 grant from the National Education Association (NEA) Urban Grants program. The grant was presented by NEA President Reg Weaver at the recent meeting of the National Council of Urban Education Associations (NCUEA), a group that represents NEA urban locals across the nation.

The NEA’s Urban Grants program supports hundreds of local associations in the development of education reform initiatives in America’s public schools through programs that focus on visibility, training, orientation, service and access. GCAE will use the NEA Urban Grant to organize and grow their membership. To find out more about GCAE’s grant, contact GCAE President Mark Jewell at 292-4800.

GCS Musicians Featured at Statewide Conference

GCS students performed recently at the Stevens Center in Winston-Salem with students from all across North Carolina. Musicians were selected based on rigorous statewide audition requirements, resulting in top-notch vocal and instrumental performances. The concert was a part of the North Carolina Music Educators Association 2007 Conference at the Benton Convention Center. Participating students and their music directors are listed below:

NC Elementary Honors Chorus:

• Laura Benton and Noah Mayes from Southwest Guilford – Sara Culler, director
• Grayson Milholin, Riley Daub and Kyle Donaldson from Morehead – Paula Owens, director
• Caitlyn Delgado and Karleigh Bullard from Alamance – Eleanor Nesbitt, director
• Nyla Edwards from Pilot – Marsha Vanderwerff, director

NC Middle School Honors Chorus:

• Chryste Lee Ferrara from Kernodle - Louisa Huerta-Butts, director
• Shelby Armentrout, Jonathan Fraher, Patrick Grant, Sarah Harrill, Nathaniel Odom, Paul Rich and Alex Smith from Kiser – Jody Henley, director
• Annabel Brunk, Hannah Davidson, J.D. Myers and Kenny Peters from Northwest Guilford – Dena Adams, director*
• Adam Howell, Ashlyn Rhodes and Elizabeth Underwood from Penn-Griffin - Catherine Butler, director
• Kayleigh Bullard, Tyler Daye, Austin Hardy, Aaron Quate and Dasha Shaw from Southeast Guilford – Dave Dobbins, director
• Jordan Evans from Southwest Guilford – Amy Dobbins, director

*   In addition, the Northwest Middle School Vikings Eighth Grade Chorus (Dean Adams, director) was selected to give a concert at the conference.  

NC High School Honors Chorus:

• Elizabeth Maness, Daniel Perez, Valerie Puhala and Andria Williamson from Northwest  – Beverly Alt, director
• Paden Hale from Page – Donna Brotherton, director
• Daniel Reid from Southeast – Stephanie Madsen, director
• Kyle Case, Natalie Pugh from Southern  – Sherry Lawson, director
• Chelsea Fobbs from Weaver – Donna Brotherton, director

NC Honors Orchestra:

• Violinists Naomi Bate, David Parks, Santina Pfohl and Virginia Wimmer, and Violist Morgan Montpellier from Weaver - James Defiglia, director
• Anna Eusebio (violin), Keiran Campbell (Cello), Chris Wong (Oboe) and Matt Behrhorst (French Horn) from Grimsley – Britany Green, director
• C. J. Collins (Cello) from Northwest – Sandra Rathbone, director
• Guy Aldridge (Viola) from Southwest – Joel Wenger, director

Some of GCS music educators performed at the event including Mara Barker (Joyner), Jane York (Penn-Griffin), Marta Richardson (Peeler) and Angela Toney (Morehead).Congratulations to all students and teachers who participated in the 2007 NC Music Educators Annual Conference. For more information, please contact Haley Miller, Program Administrator-Communications, at 370-3200.

Enrichment Fund Hosts GCS Night with Charlotte Bobcats

The Enrichment Fund hosts Guilford County Schools Night with the Charlotte Bobcats on January 12, 2008 when the Bobcats take on the Detroit Pistons. For every ticket sold through the program, the Bobcats will donate $2 to the Enrichment Fund, which provides mini-grants for teachers and scholarships for students to attend educational trips. The deadline to buy tickets is January 2. Click here to purchase tickets. For more information, contact Lillian M. Govus, Program Administrator – Communications, at 370-8997.

The Assistant Principals Leadership Academy

GCS is pleased to announce a new professional development opportunity for all assistant principals.  This program is designed to increase the knowledge and skill levels of assistant principals to expand and awaken their full potential as they develop professionally.  All current assistant principals are expected to participate in one of the six cohorts, which will begin in January 2008 and will continue through summer 2009.  The Spring 2008 series will cover “School Climate and Culture,” “Management/Operations of Schools,” and “Instructional Leadership.”  The Academy is grounded in current research and reflects the new North Carolina Standards for School Leaders and McREL’s approach to Balanced Leadership.  For more information, please contact Martha Snavely, Executive Director, Induction and Professional Development, at 335.3290.

Rookie Teacher of the Year Award

Information regarding the Rookie Teacher of the Year Award has been distributed to principals.  Each school is encouraged to select one nominee for Rookie Teacher of the Year.  To be eligible for this award, the nominee must have begun their teaching career on or after December 9, 2006.  Nominees must be classroom teachers in Grades Pre-K through12.  Nominations are due by January 4, 2008 at 5 p.m.  For more information, please contact Martha Snavely, Executive Director, Induction and Professional Development, at 335.3290.

Social Studies Textbook Adoption

GCS recently finished the process of adopting new social studies textbooks. Textbook committees were assembled from elementary, middle, and high school social studies teachers across the district. The goal of the committees was to choose the textbooks that were the most aligned to the NC Standard Course of Study. During the week of October 15, representatives from the competing publishers provided presentations to showcase their textbooks. Teachers evaluated textbooks for each subject and grade level. The committees met on November 6 to make their final recommendations. An announcement of the final selections will be made soon.  Thank you to the dedicated teachers who worked on the social studies textbook committees.  For more information, please contact Jonathan McRae, Social Studies Curriculum Specialist, at 370-3273.

Writing Benchmark Anchor Papers

Middle and high school English Language Arts teachers have been at work preparing annotated anchor papers for the writing benchmarks at grades 7 and 10. Aycock Middle, Lincoln Academy, Kernodle Middle, GTCC Middle College Greensboro, and Northwest High School submitted student responses to the second writing benchmark, and teachers and curriculum specialists chose from the responses ten exemplar papers to be used to ‘calibrate’ teachers before they score. Each exemplar will have a one-page annotation explaining the score it received in content and conventions. For this second benchmark, schools are modeling the state scoring by having two teachers read and evaluate each paper. Schools will compile these scores and begin tracking students’ progress as they prepare for the March 4 North Carolina Writing Assessment. For more information, contact Angie Kratzer, Secondary Writing Curriculum Specialist, at 574-2645.

Literacy Framework-Prevention/Intervention Pilot Project

Thirteen elementary schools have been selected to participate in the Literacy Framework-Prevention/Intervention Pilot Project. This project is a local initiative designed to select a universal screening instrument to be used in the 2008-09 school year to assess the discreet reading skills of all K-2 students enrolled in GCS.  Information obtained from this assessment will enable regular classroom teachers to identify students in need of early intervention in order to ensure reading success. Most importantly, it will guide teachers as they provide early literacy instruction that is focused, explicit and differentiated according to individual student needs. Three universal screening instruments will be piloted between January and May 2008:  AIMSweb, Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), and the Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI).

Recently principals and curriculum facilitators, from the selected schools, met with staff members from Psychological Services for an overview of the project. K-2 teachers in participating pilot schools will be trained to use these screening instruments on January 2, 2008; final selection will be made in May 2008.  For more information, please contact Lee Ann Segalla, Elementary Curriculum Officer, at 370-2339.

Guilford County Schools’ Draft LEA Improvement Plan Available Online 

The GCS DRAFT Local Educational Agency (LEA) Improvement Plan will be available for review on the district’s Web site beginning December 19, 2007.  Printed copies of the draft plan will be available at school sites to offer parents and community members an additional opportunity to review the plan.  Input can be submitted through January 7, 2008, via e-mail at LEA_ImprovementPlan@gcsnc.com or mailed to Title I Office, Guilford County Schools, 120 Franklin Blvd, Greensboro, 27401. Please include your name, school, street address, city and phone number. For more information, please contact Dr. Beth Foler, Chief Curriculum and Organizational Development Officer, at 370-2313.

Upcoming Transfer Application Period

Licensed employees interested in transferring for the 2008-09 school year will have the opportunity to add their name to a “transfer list” from Wednesday, January 2, 2008 through end of day Friday, January 11, 2008.  An e-mail will be sent from the Human Resources department to all licensed employees by January 2, 2008 outlining the specific procedure for adding your name to the electronic transfer list. Transfers for the upcoming school year should occur no later than the third Monday in April.  For more information, please contact Alison Yates, Director of Staffing, at 370-8094.

Student Teachers Approved

This week, the office of employment approved 355 student teachers from eight different colleges/universities to be placed throughout the district for the purpose of completing practicum training to become a teacher.  The student teachers will work in schools from January to late April with some completing the work in early May.

• Union College (Ohio)- 1
• Elon University- 3
• Appalachian State University- 5
• Bennett College- 9
• Greensboro College- 10
• Guilford College- 12
• High Point University-20
• North Carolina A&T State University- 38
• University of North Carolina at Greensboro- 257
  

For more information, please contact Alan Hooker, Director of Employment, at 370-8055.   

GCSTV 2
 

Education Matters

The significance of an education in our society is undeniable. That is why support for our schools is so important. This presentation outlines how GCS schools are funded relative to other districts in the state and how important it is to understand the educational issues we face.  This program airs Friday through Monday at 8:44 p.m. 

Building on Our Strengths    

Our schools outperform the state average on ABC rankings and surpass the state’s largest school district on Average Yearly Performance measures. Watch Building on Our Strengths to learn what is right with our schools and our community, as well as areas that need improvement. This program airs daily at 9:02 a.m. and 9:34 p.m.

Tus Hijos y Guilford County Schools

Join host Karin Young for this latest edition of our program that addresses the issues important to our newest students. This edition of Tus Hijos y GCS (Your Children and Guilford County Schools) highlights how parents and students alike can get more involved with their schools.  The program is broadcast in Spanish and English daily at: 1 a.m., 7 a.m., 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.   

All County Festival Chorus

Join us for this sample of the musical talent of GCS students. The 2007-08 High School All- County Festival Chorus performs in a fall concert at Grimsley High. This program airs daily at noon.

The Performance of Our Students

This Power Point presentation analyzes the results of GCS test performance with a breakdown on how individual schools scored on Average Yearly Performance and ABC tests. The presentation airs Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10:32 a.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).

Free Shopping
The district’s new Teacher Supply Warehouse is now open, providing traditional school supplies and more to teachers at Title I schools. Through the generosity of contributions from businesses and individuals, GCS has a more efficient way to link donated school supplies to the children and teachers who need them. The goal is to open the warehouse to more schools as donations increase.  This newsbreak airs Wednesday, December 19.  

Kids Giving to Kids
It has become a tradition at Lindley Elementary. Pre-k students plan their trip and follow their budget as walk to a local grocer to buy food for children who may have to go without during the holidays. This newsbreak airs Friday, December 21.

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

NON-GCS EDUCATIONAL NEWS

AP/IB Forum

Mark your calendars and plan to attend NCDPI’s annual AP/IB and Honors Forum scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 13, from 8 a.m.- 4:30 p.m., at the Twin City Quarter, Winston-Salem. There is a $75 registration fee that covers the cost of all handouts, a continental breakfast and lunch. Interactive subject based sessions will focus on content, strategies and resources for new or experienced Pre-AP, AP, IB or Honors teachers. The non-refundable registration fee must be received by Jan. 11. Late, on-site registrations will not be accepted. Additional information, including registration, is available online at www.ncpublicschools.org/apinitiatives/forum. Room reservations can be made at a reduced rate at either the Embassy Suites Hotel (800/696-6107) or Marriott Winston-Salem (800/320-0934) by calling and referencing *AP Forum.  For more information, please contact Angel Dowden at 919/807-3895, or by email, adowden@dpi.state.nc.us.

2008 NC College Access Conference

The NC College Access Conference is being held February 6-8 at the Greensboro Marriott Downtown Hotel, Greensboro. The purpose of this statewide forum is to share information and resources regarding two of the most important public policy issues of our time: college access and student success. Ron Clark, ³America¹s Teacher,² will be the keynote speaker. Additional information, including registration, is available online at www.CFNC.org by clicking on the ³Register for CFNC Events² button on the homepage and scrolling down to 2008 NC College Access Conference. For more information, please contact Kelly Harrell, Access and Outreach, The University of North Carolina General Administration, 919/843-5875 or by email, kharrell@northcarolina.edu.

Scholarship Opportunity

The North Carolina Association for Educational Communications & Technology (NCAECT) is offering two, $2,000 scholarships. One will be awarded to a student pursuing a graduate degree/certification in Instructional Technology and the other will be awarded to a student pursuing a graduate degree/certification in School Library Media. The deadline to apply is Jan. 10. Application details are available online at http://www.ncaect.org/scholarship.html.

Spanish Version for “Changing the Way We Do Business” Workshops now Online

Documents for "Changing the Way We Do Business in the Village through Parents/Family Empowerment" workshops have been translated to Spanish, and can be reviewed and downloaded from the Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps Web site.   The goal of the workshops is to increase awareness of the benefits of parental involvement in our schools. To view the Spanish or English versions of the material, please visit:  http://www.ncpublicschools.org/racg/ .

Poverty Plays Greater Role in Determining U.S. Test Scores

U.S. students' test scores are significantly more likely to be negatively affected when their parents are struggling financially compared with their peers in other countries who scored better in the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment. An estimated 18 percent of variation in U.S. teens' science scores was tied to the students' socioeconomic status, more than twice that of high-performing Finland and Canada. Click here to read more.

Program Helps Parents Find Time to Read Before School

A Colorado elementary school is piloting a program that encourages busy parents to read to their children before school. Scheduling a designated time and providing a place for such interactions helps parents get involved and shows children the importance of reading, said principal Amy Smith. Click here to read more.

More Time in Class Equals Better Math Skills

The idea that more time in school produces better results could get a small boost today with the release of international data from the Brookings Institution. The study finds adding 10 minutes of math instruction to an eighth-grader's day translates into a jump in math skills.  The findings come as a handful of states and school districts experiment with packing more minutes into the school day and, in a few cases, more days into the year.  The study, which examined eighth-grade math scores in 20 countries, found that five of seven that added instructional minutes from 1995 to 2003 showed improved skills. Click here to read more.

Q-and-A: How to Teach Diverse Student Populations, Part Two

In the second of a two-part series, Dr. Kelley L. Costner shares her research on supporting diverse learners and teaching with cultural sensitivity. She answers questions about building community in diverse schools, addressing achievement gaps and encouraging colleagues to build cultural sensitivity. Click here to read more.

Accommodating Unconventional Schedules Helps Keep Students in School

Eighteen-year-old Angelina Banda is juggling a job and parenting her two children. That might make finishing high school nearly impossible for some, but a Houston anti-dropout program that allows her more flexibility both to work and attend classes during the day is making it possible for her to complete her education. Click here to read more.

Make Mental Health Culturally Sensitive: It’s a No Brainer

The current mental health system has continually neglected to incorporate, respect or understand the cultures of diverse groups, according to the paper “Research and Evaluation on Programs for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Populations.” This has led to tragic consequences, including inappropriately placing individuals in various levels of the justice system. While recently there has been increased awareness of the need to create programs and interventions that are culturally sensitive, the sensitivity of the evaluation of these programs is often overlooked. To that end, the research paper focused on the important ways that culture must be considered when evaluating mental health programs for children and families from diverse groups. Click here to read more.

Build a Better Teacher By Changing the Way They are Taught

When Melissa Zipper looks back on her nine-month Master’s degree program, she wonders what it was actually preparing her for, because it wasn’t “to modify or accommodate the diverse needs that [she] would find in [her classroom],” writes Grace Rubenstein in Edutopia. Zipper claims she received nothing from her teacher preparation experience, being merely released into a sixth-grade classroom in a high-poverty neighborhood with next to no university support. What’s worse is that her alma mater credentials about 2,700 teachers in California per year and this type of institution is not an outlier. The major problem facing the country is that far too many teacher preparation programs employ instruction methods that segregate theory and the actual practice of teaching -- and some programs fail to provide sufficient time and support for teacher candidates to learn on the ground.

The proof is in the results, as half of all new educators leave the profession within five years, costing about $2.6 billion a year -- not to mention the harm caused by millions of children educated by inadequately prepared teachers. At the heart of teacher education reform is a move toward innovative instruction that includes extensive field experience. Some new programs go so far as to transport the actual learning environment from the university to the K-12 school through residency programs supported by school districts and foundations. This tends to be a more extreme model, as another new initiative, the professional development school, paves the way between this approach and the old failing approach. This model fosters partnerships between teacher-preparation programs and K-12 schools to provide settings for student teaching, faculty development and field-based research. Emporia State University (ESU) uses this approach, and boasts an attrition rate of 7.2 percent after three years, while principals continually rate the skill level of ESU alumni highly. Hopefully the progress toward new models of teacher education signals that the preparation of teachers is taking on a far more important role in education policy. Click here to read more.

In Gaps at School, Weighing Family Life

The federal No Child Left Behind law of 2002 rates schools based on how students perform on state standardized tests, and if too many children score poorly, the school is judged as failing.  But how much is really the school’s fault?  A new study by the Educational Testing Service ... concludes that an awful lot of those low scores can be explained by factors that have nothing to do with schools. The study, “The Family: America’s Smallest School,” suggests that a lot of the failure has to do with what takes place in the home, the level of poverty and government’s inadequate support for programs that could make a difference, like high-quality day care and paid maternity leave. Click here to read more.