The Public School Forum’s Friday Report

PDF versions can be found at www.ncforum.org/archives.htm

Volume 5, Issue 5 August 29, 2003

Special High School Edition

Gates Foundation Awards Grant to Improve High Schools

This week Governor Mike Easley announced an $11 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to create theme high schools, expand middle college offerings, and redesign schools to have smaller learning environments. This grant is part of the $500 million investment the Gates Foundation has made in its high school initiative. North Carolina’s grant will be administered by the Public School Forum and it will be overseen by the Education Cabinet (see page 2 for answers to “Frequently Asked Questions”).

A goal of the grant is to raise the graduation rate of high school students and to prepare students for work or higher education. The New High School Project will provide resources for 40 new and existing high schools across the state over the next five years. The Gates grant is the first part of a larger $30 million to reform high schools in North Carolina. The remaining money will be raised through foundations and private and public sources. At the press conference, Governor Easley explained his hopes for the Project: “In order to recruit new industries to the state, create more jobs and build a more highly skilled workforce in North Carolina, we must ensure that our students graduate high school with the tools they need for success.”

According to the News and Observer, Tom Vander Ark, Director of Education for the Gates Foundation, detailed some of the goals of the Gates high school effort: “The target is schools struggling in needy communities. Our goal is that the least advantaged students have access to the same kind of programs as the most advantaged students.” State Superintendent Mike Ward echoed the Governor and Vander Ark’s comments stressing that “High schools do a good job with a lot of youngsters, but all you have to do is look at the attrition rate to realize there is a vast segment for whom the system isn’t working.”

Also attending the announcement were Sen. Walter Dalton, sponsor of the Innovative Education Initiatives Act; Barry Eveland, IBM; Jim Fain, Secretary of Commerce; former Governor Jim Hunt, Willie Gilchrist, Superintendent of the Halifax County Schools; Tom Lambeth, Chairman of the Public School Forum of North Carolina; Martin Lancaster, President of the Community College system; Howard Lee, Chairman of the State Board of Education; Steve Parrott of Sprint and the NC Business Committee for Education; and Hope Williams, President of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

Frequently Asked Questions About The New High School Project

“How can my school system/school/community become part of the New High School Initiative?”

The Forum is in a start-up mode and will be through September. Before the project can become operational, a small staff must be assembled; project advisory committees are being finalized; material describing the project is being produced; and consultants who will provide technical assistance to new high schools are being identified. On October 16^th superintendents and NC Partner members will be invited to a Raleigh briefing about the new initiative. In the meantime, the Forum’s Friday Report will be including additional information about the initiative.

“Will grants be given to schools this year?”

Discussions have been underway with roughly 15 communities that are considering innovative high school approaches. The project will issue a very limited number of RFPs to some of those communities in the near future, inviting them to apply for a planning grant to be used during this school year.

“When can other communities become part of the initiative?”

This spring the project will issue RFPs inviting schools to apply for one-year planning grants. Communities that already have planning underway and have creative implementation plans for new approaches to high schools will be eligible for implementation grants of one or two years.

“What can grant money be used for?”

New High School grants will not be for construction of new schools or for on-going personnel costs. The grant funds can be used for planning, for travel to visit innovative high schools, for start-up costs related to equipment, material and technology and other start-up costs, like consultants to support the project.

“Beyond money, what support is available to schools in the project?”

North Carolina is now part of a national Gates Foundation network that includes other states and organizations committed to strengthening high schools across the country. Through the Gates network technical assistance support will be available to new high schools from groups within North Carolina and from around the country.

More Information Will Be Available at the October 16^th Briefing

(Raleigh location to be announced)

North Carolina’s SAT Performance Improves Slightly; Average Score Crosses 1000-Point Threshold

This week the College Board released results of the 2003 SAT and, for the first time, North Carolina broke the 1000-point mark with an average score of 1001, up three points since last year (see chart). Among the states that have over half their students taking the SAT, North Carolina ranked 19, but North Carolina has experienced the most rapid improvement of any of these states since 1990. North Carolina has improved 53 points compared to the national average of 25 points. In 1990, 24 states had a participation rate of 50% or higher and, of those states, 14 scored above 1000 and 10 scored less than 1000, including North Carolina. This year, of those 24 states, 5 scored below 1000 and 19 scored above 1000, including North Carolina.

Source: College Board

An analysis of SAT scores, shows that parental education and family income are related to higher SAT scores (see charts). Students whose parents have at least a bachelor’s degree score over 100 points better than students whose parents have a high school diploma and almost 200 points better than students whose parents do not have a high school diploma. Household income is also strongly related to SAT scores. Students of parents with family income above $100,000 score over a 100 points more than families with half the income.

Adding to the positive news about North Carolina’s improvement, the state’s top-performing students narrowed the gap between themselves and the nation’s top-performing students (see chart). In 1999 North Carolina students ranked in the top tenth of their class scored 25 points below their national counterpart. During the past five years, North Carolina students in the top tenth have narrowed the gap 18 points and scored only 7 points below their national counterparts.

Source: College Board

For more information, go to www.collegeboard.com

The Friday Report is published weekly by the Public School Forum of NC and

is distributed to Forum Board members, legislators active in educational policy,

the press, and Forum subscribers. Archived editions can be found at www.ncforum.org/archives.htm