The Public School Forum’s Friday Report

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

Volume 5, Issue 11 October 17, 2003

Gates Briefing On the New Schools Project

This past Thursday over 200 school superintendents and school/business partners gathered at the Raleigh Convention Center to get an overview of the Gates-supported New Schools Project (NSP). The NSP is expected to result in 40-45 new high schools that are small and student-centered, that offer students new and multiple pathways to two and four-year colleges, and that are linked to the economic needs of communities and regions.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Ward started the briefing with a call to action describing high schools as the greatest challenge facing education. The Executive Director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s education initiative Tom Vander Ark delivered the keynote address and described how the Gates’ initiative is resulting in new high school models across the country. These new models are demonstrating how schools can effectively reach young people living in poverty and those who typically do not succeed in traditional high school environments.

John Dornan, Executive Director of the Public School Forum, explained the logistics of the project and the timetable. The first focus of the New Schools Project will be on creating Health Science Schools in communities with large or regional health care facilities. That phase has already begun with a briefing of 11 school systems that will be invited to apply for planning grants.

Phase Two of the project will begin as early as December with a briefing of between 12-18 school districts that are already considering creating middle college programs that will allow high school students to finish their high school credit work while accumulating credit toward two-or-four year college degrees. Phase Three of the project is a collaboration between the State Department of Public Instruction and the Public School Forum. That phase will focus on rural schools located in low-wealth counties that serve large numbers of at-risk students. The final phase of the project will begin in late spring or summer. This will be a much broader call for proposals that will create innovative, small high school programs.

Staff for the New Schools Project will be in place by December and an Advisory Committee that will report to the state's Education Cabinet is now in place to work closely with the project.

Delegation Examining High Schools in Denmark

For the fifth time, the Public School Forum is taking a delegation of North Carolina educators, policymakers, foundation officials, and business people to examine schools in another country to find lessons that could be imported back to North Carolina.

The focus of this year’s international studies program is Denmark; and the motivation for going to Denmark is to examine their approach to high school education, considered by many to be among the best in the world.

In Denmark, high school students have a wide range of options ranging from university studies to multi-year apprenticeships that are geared to help young people succeed as adults in a competitive world.

According to John Dornan, the Forum’s Executive Director, “This study could not be more timely. With North Carolina being one of the Gates Foundation pilots in their nationwide high school initiative and now with the US Department of Education singling out high school reform as the next critical step in school improvement, we are going to be able to give educators, policymakers, and others a new vision of high school education.”

The 22-person delegation will spend a full week visiting high schools, meeting with governmental officials, and hearing from education leaders in Denmark. At the conclusion of the trip, the delegation will debrief their findings and hold a seminar on different models for high schools later in the 2003-04 school year.