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IN THIS ISSUE:

• Letter to the Editor
• North Carolina's National Assessment of Educational Progress Scores
• The Education Judge
• Two North Carolina Schools Win $250,000 Each in Technology and Services
• North Carolina Preschool Programs Earn High Rating
• North Carolina Songwriters Sponsor Logo Design Competition
• Two Students Named Outstanding Young Scientific Leaders
• 2006 Governor's School Selections Made
• Teacher Working Conditions Survey

• Free Student Workbooks for Preview 

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The following letter was sent in response to the March 2006 newsletter articles. Back issues of this e-newsletter can be found here.


Response to article, "Eight Principals Honored as Regional Principals of the Year":



To submit letters to the editor for this e-newsletter, please reply to jdk@queueinc.com.  Please indicate whether or not we have permission to publish your comments in future newsletters.  The editor reserves the right to trim content for length purposes when necessary, but will not edit the tone of the letters.
 
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	Source: NAEP - Math & Reading - 2005, Science - 2000, Writing - 2002	North Carolina	U.S. (average)
	Scale Score, Grade 4 Math	241	237
	% of Students Above Basic - Grade 4 Math	83	79
	% of Students Above Proficient - Grade 4 Math	40	35
	% of Students Above Advanced - Grade 4 Math	7	5
	Scale Score, Grade 8 Math	282	278
	% of Students Above Basic - Grade 8 Math	72	68
	% of Students Above Proficient - Grade 8 Math	32	28
	% of Students Above Advanced - Grade 8 Math	7	6
	Scale Score, Grade 4 Reading	217	217
	% of Students Above Basic - Grade 4 Reading	62	62
	% of Students Above Proficient - Grade 4 Reading	29	30
	% of Students Above Advanced - Grade 4 Reading	7	7
	Scale Score, Grade 8 Reading	258	260
	% of Students Above Basic - Grade 8 Reading	69	71
	% of Students Above Proficient - Grade 8 Reading	27	29
	% of Students Above Advanced - Grade 8 Reading	2	3
	Scale Score, Grade 4 Sciencen	148	148
	% of Students Above Basic - Grade 4 Sciencen	64	64
	% of Students Above Proficient - Grade 4 Sciencen	24	28
	% of Students Above Advanced - Grade 4 Sciencen	2	3
	Scale Score, Grade 8 Sciencen	147	149
	% of Students Above Basic - Grade 8 Sciencen	56	59
	% of Students Above Proficient - Grade 8 Sciencen	27	30
	% of Students Above Advanced - Grade 8 Sciencen	3	4
	Scale Score, Grade 4 Writing	159	153
	% of Students Above Basic - Grade 4 Writing	88	85
	% of Students Above Proficient - Grade 4 Writing	32	27
	% of Students Above Advanced - Grade 4 Writing	4	2
	Scale Score, Grade 8 Writing	157	152
	% of Students Above Basic - Grade 8 Writing	87	84
	% of Students Above Proficient - Grade 8 Writing	34	30
	% of Students Above Advanced - Grade 8 Writing	3	2

	n Accommodations were not permitted for this assessment
	* Includes public schools only
	Note: N/A means not available.
	Source: National Assessment of Educational Progess: Math & Reading data is from 2005, Science data is from 2000, and Writing data is from 2002.

To view this chart online or download it as an Excel file:
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/stateprofiles/sresult.asp?mode=full&displaycat=7&s1=37

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The man giving orders to North Carolina's public school leaders isn't chairman of the State Board of Education, state superintendent or even the governor. He's a demanding, impatient, and irascible Superior Court judge named Howard Manning.

His actions border on exceeding his authority—"judicial activism of the most blatant sort," John Hood of the conservative John Locke Foundation asserts—but they may be the only way to force the state's disjointed education establishment to get its act together.

"This letter is to put you on notice," Manning wrote March 3 to State Board of Education Chairman Howard Lee and Superintendent June Atkinson. If consistently poor-performing high schools don't meet their goals on end-of-course tests this spring, they "will not be allowed to open in the fall of 2006" without significant changes.

Manning was assigned by the N.C. Supreme Court to oversee implementation of the court's Leandro rulings, which established every child's constitutional right to a sound, basic education. He's stretching his role, however, by setting his own standards, recommending specific reforms and threatening to close high schools—including Dudley and Smith in Greensboro—that fail to comply.

The judge's frustration level is rising: "Due notice about poor high school performance was given in earnest in 2004 and throughout 2005," he wrote. "Simply put, this dismal high school academic performance cannot continue. There must be a serious consequence for continued poor performance in high schools."

Closing schools is about as serious as the consequences can be. What happens if Manning gives that order?


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Three forward-thinking U.S. K-12 schools—chosen in a nationwide search conducted by Dell, Microsoft, and Intel as part of the FutureReady program—each will receive technology and services with approximate retail value of $250,000 to make their education technology vision a reality. Two of the three are from North Carolina.

These visionaries, whose innovative essays merited the award of a custom technology solution from the companies, are:

Small school winner: Hall Fletcher Elementary School (Asheville, N.C.)

• Rocko Smucker, technology chair and first grade teacher at his school, has established a three-year technology plan to prepare students to be "producers, creators and entrepreneurs." Using interactive whiteboards and wireless Dell notebooks, Smucker aims to have students' develop 21st century skills by eventually producing 90 percent of their assignments digitally.

Medium school winner: Union Pines High School (Cameron, N.C.)

• Robin Calcutt, a teacher at Union Pines, plans to aid teachers in integrating technology into the curriculum; equip a Ninth Grade Academy with handheld computers and other devices to help reduce drop-out rates; and help seniors create e-portfolios of their course work that can be shared with scholarship committees, universities and future employers.

Large school winner Abington Senior High School (Abington, Penn.)

FutureReady is a collaboration between Dell, Microsoft and Intel designed to help students reach their full potential through innovative use of technology in the classroom. Companies including CrossTec Corp., maker of NetOp School software, and Datamation also contributed products to the prize packages.

FutureReady also offered two other ways for K-12 schools to win technology for their classrooms. Earlier this month, five schools were announced as winners of the FutureReady Mobile Lab Contest, in which schools rallied their communities to log votes on http://www.futureready.org for a chance to win a mobile computer lab with approximate retail value of $10,000.

For more information about the FutureReady program, visit http://www.futureready.org.

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"The State of Preschool: 2005 State Preschool Yearbook" was released by the National Institute for Early Education Research based at Rutgers University.  The report ranked all 50 states on access to, resources for and quality of state preschool initiatives.

Only Arkansas met all 10 of NIEER's quality benchmarks, while five state programs achieved nine of the 10: Alabama, Illinois, North Carolina, Tennessee and New Jersey. Kentucky  was one of six states that rated an 8, along with Delaware, Georgia, Minnesota, South Carolina and Oklahoma.

Twenty-six states ranked lower, most scoring between 3 and 6.  Twelve states had no pre-K programs at all.

NIEER found that only one state, Oklahoma, offered preschool education to virtually all children at age 4 with over 90 percent enrolled in a state or federal program. Next highest in access was Georgia, where 67 percent of the 4-year-olds attended a public preschool program. Six of seven states serving more than 30 percent of their 4-year-olds in state pre-kindergarten were in the South:  Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, Maryland and South Carolina.



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North Carolina Songwriters' Co-op (NCSC) is awarding $100 to the winning logo design produced by a student in grade 8-12 enrolled in a visual arts program in a public school in NC.

NCSC is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the support and promotion of songwriters is the state of North Carolina. Recognizing the wealth of music created here today, and over the past 150 years, the NCSC assists new and established songwriters by providing a nurturing, supportive environment, resources for self promotion/ marketing information, and by holding workshops designed to enhance songwriting and performing skills.

The purpose of the contest is two-fold:

1. To update our logo so as to envelop the various genres of music written and performed by the songwriters and musicians in NC; and
2. To increase the awareness of and help students achieve the stated goals of the North Carolina Standard Course of Study in the Visual Arts as taught in grades 8-12.

Competition deadline: May 31, 2006.

Winner, runners-up and honorable mentions will be notified by July 31, 2006, and will be invited to appear on stage at the NCSC Song Contest Finals November 11, 2006, at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro, NC.


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Genevieve Pike, a senior at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, and Richard Ianiello, a senior at Enka High School (Buncombe County Schools), were recently selected as two of the most promising scientific leaders in North Carolina's 2006 high school graduating class. They will represent North Carolina as delegates in the 43rd session of the National Youth Science Camp held near the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, West Virginia.

Two additional high school seniors were selected for their outstanding achievement in science and will serve as alternate delegates: Laura Mayes, Northern Durham High School (Durham Public Schools), and Camille Beasley, William G. Enloe High School (Wake County Schools).

Serving as advisers to the delegates and alternate delegates are Sarah Allen, North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (Pike); Janice Arden, Enka High (Ianiello); Susan Eldon, Northern Durham High (Mayes); and Brian Wood, William G. Enloe High (Beasley).

Established in 1963 as a part of West Virginia's Centennial Celebration, the National Youth Science Camp (NYSC) annually provides for 102 student delegates—two from each state and the District of Columbia—to attend an all-expense paid four-week summer forum where delegates exchange ideas with leading scientists and other professionals from academic and corporate worlds. Scientists from across the United States will present lectures and hands-on research projects on some of the most provocative science topics, including fractal geometry, the human genome project, global climate change, the history of the universe, the fate of our rain forests, and robotics. Delegates to the NYSC are challenged to explore new areas in the biological and physical sciences, art, and music with resident staff members. Delegates also present seminars covering their own areas of research and interest.

The NYSC academic program is complemented by an outdoor recreation program, which takes advantage of the camp's location in the Monongahela National Forest. The outdoor program offers backpacking, caving, rock climbing, mountain biking, and kayaking.

For more information, please visit the NYSC website:  http://www.nysc.org

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Eight hundred North Carolina rising high school juniors and seniors have been selected to attend the 2006 Governor's School, a six-week summer program for academically or intellectually gifted students.

Students attending Governor's School are nominated by their local school superintendent, charter school director or private school headmaster. Each school system is allotted a certain number of students based on its 10th- and 11th-grade populations. Students are nominated in one of 11 areas: Art, Choral Music, Dance, Drama, English, French, Spanish, Instrumental Music, Mathematics, Natural Science, and Social Science. Students are not assessed a fee to attend the program as all program costs are funded by the N.C. General Assembly.

The Governor's School of North Carolina is the oldest statewide summer residential program for academically or intellectually gifted high school students in the nation. The program, which is open to rising seniors only, with exceptions made for rising juniors in the performing/visual arts area, is located on two campuses: Governor's School West and East. Governor's School West is located at Salem College in Winston-Salem and Governor's School East is located at Meredith College in Raleigh. The 2006 session will run from June 18–July 29.

The complete list of Governor's School East and West participants is available online at http://www.ncgovschool.org/nomination

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"Armed with this data, North Carolina will better meet the needs of teachers, and in turn, our students, because teacher working conditions are student learning conditions."

The TWC Survey will be administered online March 27-May 1st for all certified staff in every school.

Teachers will receive detailed information in a letter from the Governor to your NCAE Representative and/or Teacher of the Year. These two representatives from each school are asked to meet with their principal and discuss the best way to randomly distribute the anonymous access codes to all certified staff. The survey may be completed from any computer with an Internet connection.

The TWC Survey provides your school with data to improve working conditions based on teacher input.

"As professionals, it is our obligation to complete the TWC Survey. This is our chance to have our voices heard on issues that really matter for the quality of teachers' jobs and the success of our students."

CONTACT US

For more information or to take the survey, please go to:  http://www.northcarolinatwc.org/

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Queue, Inc. offers previews of its North Carolina test preparation workbooks to public schools.  Queue publishes test prep books in Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, and Composition for Grades 3–high school, as well as Practice Tests in Math.
 
Queue also offers Math and Reading workbooks for grades 1 and 2, and publishes a wide variety of other workbooks in Literature, Science, History, Government, Health, and ESL.  Samples of student workbooks are available for preview.
 
 
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