BCR's Daily Fishwrap Report for September 4, 2009

It's a busy day on the politics scene in Durham, a subject that dominates the local fishwrap today:

• The H-S confirms the endorsement picture we painted last night from the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People nomination meeting -- but also finds the Committee's Lavonia Allison describing the Howard Clement-Sylvester Williams nomination race very tight. (H-S) (BCR aside: We'd heard that Allison herself was one of those pushing Williams' candidacy the hardest during the endorsement meeting -- which, of course, allows her here to share with the H-S what the Committee did... while making sure she gets to mention what she wanted the Committee to do. Smart.)
• The City's equal-employment opportunity director, former Durham Committee political chair and ex-County Commissioner Deborah Giles, got a knuckle-rapping for sending an email message out from a work computer inviting a range of Durhamites to a re-election event for Cora Cole-McFadden. Giles -- who heads the department that Cole-McFadden once did -- used a Yahoo! email account but did so from her City work terminal. A complaint over the matter from Cole-McFadden challenger Donald Hughes led to city manager Tom Bonfield's promise that he had "taken care of" the matter. (H-S)
• Meanwhile, Scientific Properties has asked the City Council whether they might reconsider rules on political signs in rights-of-way, after candidate signs legally posted in front of their Venable Bldg. on Roxboro Rd. made it look like they or their tenants were endorsing a candidate. Sez city attorney Patrick Baker: don't hold your breath. The city's top lawyer mentioned it was a thorny and controversial free-speech issue, with the H-S' citing of various legal rulings suggesting it could be a rathole to pursue. (H-S)
• Durham Public Schools' new "data dashboard" for educational goals became the heart of DPS' first state-of-the-system report; the report found the district meeting or exceeding about half of its 15 metrics; a quarter or so of the targets saw improvement but less than targeted, while the remaining quarter saw decline. The report is available at DPS' web site. Six schools (including Hillside, Northern and Southern High) remain on the state's "turnaround" list, though all but Chewning Middle and Lowe's Grove Middle met their expected growth targets last year. (H-S #1, #2)
• The sheriff's deputy wounded on Wed. in a drug bust at a Cracker Barrel in west Durham -- the first deputy shot, sheriff Worth Hill says, since he took office in 1994 -- is recovering well and awaits surgery on his injured foot. (H-S)

Comments

[JC]

I'm surprised that there has not been more discussion on the DPS failings this year. "The results look overall positive for the district," says DPS in their news release. Are you kidding me? Over 40% of 3rd, 5th, and 8th graders not meeting EOG standards? 30-40% achievement gap in reading and math?

Hillside: 40% meeting EOG standards; Northern: 32%; Southern: 20%!

I know the district has a tendency to see everything through rose colored glasses, but this is alarming. Kevin, do you know if this is being covered on another blog somewhere?

[Kevin Davis]

@JC:

I don't know if there's another blog looking closely at the school stats. I do know there are some parents groups looking closely at the Reading Street question; more on that later this week.

I've expressed concern over the stats that DPS has promulgated vis a vis the change in what testing standards were used year over year. I've asked DPS if they had data on what the passage rates would have been if a single re-test hadn't been allowed; I'm told they're looking for that data.

One parent at least has expressed that a re-test should be counted. I don't disagree, but I'm concerned that if we really want to do year-over-year comps, we need to compare like to like.

Honestly, JC, I think you're seeing a groundswell of interest thanks to Reading Street -- and due to math curriculum changes -- that's even more than was raised during the budget issue last year. I don't know if there's a blog outlet for it, but expect to hear a lot more on schools in the near future.

[Deep Throat]

With regards to school testing outcomes, where's the revolution? It was shocking how the continued failure of Southern, Hillside and Northern were met with absolute silence from the community. Heads should roll. Over 50% of kids at a bunch of schools are reading below grade level. DPS isn't graduating 1 out of 3 kids. No one is even commenting on white flight (DPS has been losing 250-300 white kids every year since the systems merged). It would be so refreshing if DPS' positive-spin-only policy would be more transparent and honest. There are positives, but A LOT of problems too.

[JAP]

Thanks JC and Deep Throat for the wake up call!

It is obvious that we should not sit idly by and bear witness to the further decline of public education in Durham.

I do think that we need to question the high stakes testing. Is the quality of our public schools increasing with more and more testing? With mandated curriculums that are designed to increase test scores?

These tests are so powerful and I have never- until very recently (see below) been able to see one?

We shame and embarrass our students with the common DPS practice of posting test scores - with names- in school hallways. How encouraging is that for a kid? We judge our schools and continue to self segregate based on composite scores. We allow our kids to go to school where they spend an entire month taking tests instead of learning. We are coming close to legislation that will pay teachers according to performance on the tests. How many quality teachers will want to teach in underperforming schools? Based on these tests we are about to declare most of our schools a failure and outsource our education to corporate charter schools. How do we feel about the Wal-Mart charter academies that are ready to pounce.

I do see encouraging things happening at the NC state level and have included a few examples below.

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This is dealing with increasing NC testing transparency:

http://heraldsun.com/pages/full_story/push?article-State+puts+students’+tests+online%20&id=3540257-State+puts+students’+tests+online&instance=main_article

“Being able to see the tests firsthand takes the mystery out of our testing program,” State Superintendent June Atkinson said in a news release. “We hope that North Carolinians will look at these tests and see the increased level of learning expected today.”

Here is where you can review the 08-09 test questions:
http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/accountability/testing/releasedforms

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This is an insightful invitation from Bill Harrison- the chair of the NC state board of education:

For far too many children school is where they spend their safest hours of the day; where they eat the only nutritious meals in a day; and where they find their most nurturing environment with people who care about their well being. In every school in North Carolina, you will find bright, energetic students, eager to learn. You will find intelligent, well-trained, dedicated professionals taking their students down an exciting path of discovery - from something so simple as how to print their name, to something as sophisticated as building a robot.
I invite you to visit a school this year. Rather than relying on others to form your opinion of our public schools, go see for yourself. For some you will have renewed appreciation for the work going on. For others, you will be surprised at how education has changed. But for all, you will leave with a better understanding of how important a free public education is to our future.

Bill Harrison
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This one is about Gov. Perdue, June Atkinson and Bill Harrison writing a letter to Barack Obama requesting that NC be considered for stimulus funds even though we are not in favor of outsourcing public education to unregulated corporate charter schools.

N.C. enters 'Race to the Top' for school bucks
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/education/story/1671514.html
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This is an interesting piece comparing the current national education agenda to that of the Bush administration:

http://www.alfiekohn.org/phpnews_1-3-0/news.php?action=fullnews&id=1