North Carolina People

President William Friday served as the president of the University of North Carolina system for thirty years. His work is legendary and indeed, he is considered an educational icon and hero to many, including me. The Friday Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Friday Institute at NC State University each bear his name. His biography is available here: http://www.unctv.org/biocon/wfriday/

For the last 30 years, he has hosted UNC-TV’s longest running television show, North Carolina People. Each year for the last 27 years, he has interviewed the North Carolina Principal of the Year. He shared with me that he looks forward to this particular conversation each year. This year, I had the honor of sitting down with President Friday and discussed the current budget situation, the importance of global education, changes in curriculum and instruction, and the importance of teachers. I also had the opportunity to share my appreciation for my own teachers and principal. As a native of North Carolina, educated in the public schools of North Carolina and in the University of North Carolina system (Western Carolina University), I was proud and humbled to converse with one of my heroes. At 91 years of age, President Friday is incredibly sharp and kept me on my toes throughout the interview.

The interview is linked here: http://video.unctv.org/program/1616436260/  

Interview with Trent Thomas of 5F Prep

I recently sat down with Union County Teacher and 5F Prep Founder, Trent Thomas, as part of an interview. He has worked with CHS students in the past and will be working with some of our seniors this year. He also talked with our Freshmen at Orientation this year about how to be successful in high school. I have been impressed with his work and would commend him to you. I am not a paid spokesperson, nor on the payroll of 5F Prep, but do like to share great resources when I come across them.

The interview was filmed and is available below as a series of links.

***Intro to Interview and vision of 5Fprep   http://bit.ly/nlnaSB

 1.  Why did you choose to be a principal?  http://bit.ly/oMuL0I

 2.  Who votes on NC Principal of the Year and what is the process?    http://bit.ly/qV7Sno

 3.  Technology or Globalization. . .Which is more important?  http://bit.ly/mXZ6e0 

 4.  After your trip to China, how would you compare Chinese and American education?  http://bit.ly/qsdBAg

 5.  What are key characteristics of a great teacher?     http://bit.ly/pQAafM 

 6.  80% of college students change their majors at least once.  What can high schools do to help this issue? http://bit.ly/pqZocw 

 7.  5Fprep- Your thoughts on the program and how can it prepare students for college?    http://bit.ly/oWp0js 

September 21st - International Day of Peace

I admit my ignorance. I am not proud of it, but perhaps a precursor to learning is a knowledge that we do not know everything and we must continually seek to expand our understanding of the world around us. I digress.

In September, 2001, the United Nations unanimously approved a holiday to be celebrated on September 21^st. This holiday would be a worldwide day of peace. For one day, hostilities would cease and the world would be at peace. Millions of people observe this holiday each year and I knew nothing of its existence. I was ignorant.

The purpose of the day was greater than just stopping fighting for a day. If two sides in an armed conflict took a day off from fighting, relief organizations would be able to come into the area and help the wounded, immunize children, and offer help to the civilians in the area. Peace, though, was also recognized as being more than just an absence of armed conflict. It was also a call for peace from domestic violence and a push for helping others.

The existence of this holiday was brought to my attention by one our teachers and club sponsors, Mrs. Ross. Mrs. Ross approached me during the summer to request that our school participate in “Peace Day.” She brought me information about the day and how we might embrace it.

I began to look into it and realized that my own understanding of the concept of “Peace” was limited. Rather than pulling out my Webster’s Dictionary as members of my generation were taught, I followed the example of my own children and went to www.dictionary.com for the definition and found:

“Peace:

• 1. the normal, non-warring condition of a nation, group of nations, or the world.

• 2.(often initial capital letter) an agreement or treaty between warring or antagonistic nations, groups, etc., to end hostilities and abstain from further fighting or antagonism: the Peace of Ryswick.

• 3. a state of mutual harmony between people or groups, especially in personal relations: Try to live in peace with your neighbors.

• 4. the normal freedom from civil commotion and violence of a community; public order and security; He was arrested for being drunk and disturbing the peace.

• 5.  cessation of or freedom from any strife or dissension.”

While much of the definition fit my own quick internal definition, this highlighted that it was really bigger. A feeling of “a state of mutual harmony…in personal relations” pushed my thinking on how celebrating this holiday could really help us with many school initiatives (i.e. our anti-bullying efforts, our work against cyber-bullying, building school spirit, increasing club memberships, etc.)

The more I learned about Peace Day, the more I knew that I would like to see our school participate.

"Peace Day should be devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples…This day will serve as a reminder to all peoples that our organization, with all its limitations, is a living instrument in the service of peace and should serve all of us here within the organization as a constantly pealing bell reminding us that our permanent commitment, above all interests or differences of any kind, is to peace.” – United Nations Resolution, 2001

The Day has three Guiding Principles:

• Peace within - the Minute of Silence at noon in each time zone;

• Peace without - an Act of Service for Peace that benefits the larger community;

• Peace year round - a commitment to a Daily Peace Practice by joining with others to build a worldwide Culture of Peace.

We decided that we would become involved and did so with great success. The day’s activities were primarily organized by our SAVE (Students Against Violence Everywhere) Club. Many clubs and groups participated and it was that sharing of responsibilities that brought such success.

For us the day included:

• Curricular Focus – teachers included the “International Day of Peace” as a focus in their classes. They still taught what was called for in their Daily Pacing Guides, but included the day’s concepts as part of their work. Fundamentally, schools exist to create productive citizens who will positively contribute to society. Promoting the concepts of peace within our curriculum certainly helps accomplish this goal.

• T-shirt sales – The SAVE club sold t-shirts that said Peace on the front along with the school name. The students had found a vendor to provide the shirts for just over $1. The students sold the shirts for $5 and used the money to support the Treehouse Child Advocacy Center.
• Boys vs. Girls Soccer Game – the day’s concluding activity was a soccer game matching our Girl’s Soccer Team against the Boy’s Soccer Team. Soccer is perhaps the most international sport we compete in and seemed to really be the obvious choice for a fun concluding activity. Tickets were sold to the game and the funds were used to support “Turning Point,” a local domestic violence shelter. 

• NHS Blood Drive – the National Honor Society hosted a blood drive to highlight the work that takes place on Peace Day to help hurting people. This was again a way for our students to make a difference.

• Armed Forces Presence – we invited each of the Armed Forces to participate in the day. They shared the military’s support for International Peace Day. Knowing that we have family members serving in harm’s way made it important to us continue to show our support of the military even while promoting the concept of Peace.

• Video Presentation during lunches – during lunch we showed a video from Peace One Day giving the background of the day and the desires for the future.

The International Day of Peace is an important concept. I am grateful to Mrs. Ross who brought it to my attention and proud of the efforts of our students and staff in using the opportunity to make a difference. I would encourage you to take a look at the following websites and consider taking part.

www.peaceoneday.org

www.internationaldayofpeace.org

Union County Public Schools - Excellence in Action!

I am proud to serve in Union County Schools In two months, I will mark my tenth anniversary with the school system. As I reflect on an amazing decade, it is worth noting the success of our amazing school system last year.

UCPS 4 year cohort graduation was rate 89.1% (5th in the state from among 115 school districts and 1st among large districts in the state).

UCPS was top performer among large districts in AYP with 61.5% of schools making AYP.

All but a few UCPS schools made Expected Growth on NC ABC Accountability Program.

UCPS had 21 Honor Schools of Excellence.

36 UCPS schools had a higher performance composite in 2010-2011 than they did in 2009-2010.

UCPS had 19 schools recognized as UCPS International Schools.

UCPS High Schools had a record number of scholarships in terms of 4 year monetary total and number of scholarships awarded.

Countless school, team, club, and individual honors were won by our students and staff during the last year.

The culture of Excellence is evident in all that we do!

Twenty-First Century Evaluation

The state of North Carolina has recently adopted a new Teacher Evaluation System. It is radically different from it's predecessors. Previously, we focused deeply on classroom observations. The resulting conversations centered almost exclusively on what had been observed in the classroom during that particular visit. Too often, a teacher's leadership in the school, her reflection and resulting growth, and involvement in school improvement efforts were largely ignored. That is not to say that the process did not help teachers. It is safe to say that it was not perfect.

The new Evaluation System strives to "promote effective leadership, quality teaching, and student learning while enhancing professional practice and leading to improved instruction." ( www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/profdev/training/teacher/teacher-eval.PDF) This broader emphasis begins to capture all of the amazing, important things teachers are doing that cannot be witnessed in a single classroom visit. Lasting School Improvement efforts require teamwork, require teacher leadership, and require a focus and understanding of data. Evaluation that focuses on teacher growth in all areas helps increase the capacity of the school to meets the needs of a diverse student body.

Teacher-leaders seek opportunities to demonstrate leadership and in doing so, purposefully move beyond their own classroom walls and bring their expertise into Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) that exist to help members grow. The evaluation system pushes teachers into reflection and in doing so, into a continuous growth cycle.

Beyond attempting to measure more of the teacher's impact on the school, I am particularly excited about the change in the teacher's role in the evaluation process. In the past, as teachers were evaluated by an administrator, they were relatively inactive in the process. They had a conversation in pre-observation conferences and in post-observation reviews, but little beyond.

The new Evaluation System is based on a dynamic role on the part of the teacher. "The teacher will actively participate through the use of self-assessment, reflection, presentation of artifacts, and classroom demonstration(s)." (cited above) Active participation by the teacher is an exciting concept. My belief is that the active role the teacher takes in the Evaluation System will engender a feeling of ownership. Imagine a teacher looking forward to the evaluation process and actually guiding her own evaluation.

The unfortunate truth is that this exciting system has one overwhelming requirement - time! It takes time to have deep conversations with teachers. It takes time to review artifacts. It takes time to conduct classroom observations. Time is a precious commodity in a school. In an economy where allotments of Assistant Principal positions are radically decreasing, the number and frequency of managerial tasks a Principal has to accomplish are increasing. Overflowing plumbing trumps a classroom observation in immediacy even while falling well-short on the priority list.
In my view the new Evaluation System is superior to what we have had. Whether or not it makes a difference in student outcomes will be dependent on teachers and administrators embracing the system, engaging in deep conversations, and giving it the time it requires.

The Three C's of Global Education

Our high school has a focus on global education as evidenced by the globe centered on our school crest. It is absolutely imperative that schools embrace the need for our students to recognize their place in the world and the impact that hard-working students in China, India, and Brazil will have on their future.

As a high school senior in the eighties, I had only to worry about competing with my in-county peers if I had chosen to go right to work in the textile mills as so many did in the mountains of North Carolina. In-state rivals were a concern when considering a spot in the freshmen class of one of our major universities. The only international concern that was ever spoken of, beyond worries over the potential spread of communism, was of the hungry children in Africa who were held up as a way to convince me to clean my plate at dinner.

Those days are no more. Our students have to be very aware of all of the players in our interconnected world. Their peers around the globe directly compete with them for lucrative positions that are geographically indifferent as long as the employee has the necessary skills and a reliable connection to the Internet. They compete for limited spots in the freshmen classes of the best universities. Competition is the first "C." for our students to be successful they must be fully prepared to compete against their international counterparts.

If we only create a class of competitors, they will be sorely prepared to compete. Our students must be able to collaborate with others regardless of cultural differences. As businesses recruit talent around the world, our students must be able to demonstrate an ability to work on multicultural teams. Collaboration is an equally important "C."

Competition and collaboration hinge on the third "C," Communication. Students need to be able to communicate using 21st century tools, leveraging social media and Web 2.0 tools to share their messages in a variety of mediums. An understanding of the power of a well-crafted message between a skilled sender and receiver will allow them to become a vital cog in industries that span the globe, yet depend on well-timed communication between teammates to keep the work going forward.

My own kindergarten teacher could not have imagined the world I live in, the tools I routinely use, or the on-demand availability of information we have at our fingertips. I would be just as unsuccessful if I tried to guess at the world waiting for our students. Just as she knew that regardless of my circumstances, I would need the skills she taught, we know that our student's future success depends on their ability to Compete, Collaborate, and Communicate.

The Great Communicator on Vision

Just about every school has a Vision and Mission Statement posted somewhere. For some schools these are guiding principles that guide the schools progress. In other schools, they are long-forgotten statements that exist to fulfill a reporting requirement and are only referenced when called for in a new report. Sometimes the school's vision and mission are "real," that is they represent the actual beliefs of the stakeholders. In others, they are mired in cliches and educational jargon, ripe with pretty words, yet bereft of any emotional attachment.

Recently I had the opportunity to address a room full of aspiring principals in our county's leadership program. I had been asked to discuss the concept of vision. I began by sharing from the new NC Standards for School Executives, specifically the first standard, "Strategic Leadership." It states, "School executives will create conditions that result in strategically re-imaging the school’s vision, mission, and goals in the 21st century. Understanding that schools ideally prepare students for an unseen but not altogether unpredictable future, the leader creates a climate of inquiry that challenges the school community to continually re-purpose itself by building on its core values and beliefs about its preferred future and then developing a pathway to reach it."

Successful schools have living visions that they continually re-visit to ensure that they are making strides towards the future they have envisioned. Perhaps one of the best examples of this being done comes from the Great Communicator, President Ronald Reagan.

In 1974, then Governor Ronald Reagan shared that from the “deck of the Arabella in 1630 off the Massachusetts coast, John Winthrop said, “We will be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us,”” He cast his vision and began sharing with the American people how he foresaw the country. In 1984, accepting again the Republican nomination for President, he again proclaimed America as a city upon a hill. This return or revisit to his vision kept him true to the path he had dreamed of. As a President he saw democracy grow around the world even as paragons of communism began to crumble.

In 1988, as he was leaving office he said, “I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it and see it still.”

Throughout his political career his vision remained constant. What, then, is the lesson for leaders? I believe that we must continually re-visit our vision, mission, and core-values. We must critically evaluate what we find to ensure they still communicate our goals. We must use them as a rubric upon which to assess our progress. In maintaining a constancy of purpose, we instill confidence in those we serve. Our work may very well become a city on the hill, drawing in students seeking a pathway to their futures.

Harmonized? I was BLOCKED! :)

I have been taught from an early age to always meet my commitments. My dad had many talks with me about the importance of “doing what you say you will do.” I have certainly tried to always live that out in my personal and professional life. As a dad, I have found myself having the same talks with my sons.  (Note: I purposely chose to describe the interchanges as “talks” and not “conversations” as Dad never left room for compromise in this area.)

Imagine my consternation when I found myself unable to do what I was supposed to do during my travels in China. This blog is important to me for several reasons (keeping staff, students, and community informed about my work as the SPOY, sharing with Principals across the state my work on their behalf, routinely sharing how thankful I am to have this opportunity, and using the blog to highlight the amazing educators and their work as I encounter them along this journey.)

For the trip to China, the blog would also serve to allow the Cuthbertson Community and anyone else who might be interested to follow along as I experienced a “brand-new world.” A reporter from our local paper, the “Enquirer-Journal,” had also asked to publish excerpts in the paper to allow community members across the county to also follow along.

Suffice it to say, regular blog posts would be important to meet the obligations I made for myself. Before leaving, I checked to ensure that the hotels we were staying in would have internet access. Confirming they did, I was ready to enjoy China and share my discoveries. The first day we visited perhaps the most famous sites in China and I made a grave error. I was blown away by our visit to the Forbidden City, and the Summer Palace. I tried to capture in my blog entry how incredible the visits were. The error? Well, I happened to mention that we had visited Tiananmen Square. For daring to list that location, my blog was quickly blocked and completely inaccessible within China.

It took me some time to find out what had happened. I tried using the tricks that our creative students have used in the past to “jump” around the school’s filters only to be blocked at every turn. To be able to continue to add to the blog, I had to email the posts to our Assistant Principal Kim Warr for her to post on the blog. My very simple blog had joined Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Google on the banned list in China. It still seems incredible to me that a blog that simply mentions Tiananmen Square would be blocked so that the Chinese people could not read it.  

Nicholas Kristof wrote in the New York Times of a similar experience, “Psst. Don’t tell the Chinese government, but I started a Chinese-language blog here in China, and it contains counterrevolutionary praise of dissidents. Now let’s count — 1, 2, 3 ... — and see how long my blog stays up. My hunch is that State Security will “harmonize” it quickly. In Chinese, Web sites are mockingly referred to as “harmonized” when the government vaporizes them so as to nurture a “harmonious society.”  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/opinion/23kristof.html?_r=2

It sounds better to share that my blog was “harmonized” rather than bluntly state that they “BLOCKED” it. The truth is, by cordoning off large sections of the internet, the Chinese Government has made it harder for the Chinese people to “harmonize” with the rest of the world. We cannot learn from Chinese educators in our eLCs (Electronic Learning Communities) as we tweet great ideas back and forth because they are not allowed into the conversation. They cannot engage with us and sadly, we cannot engage with them. The Chinese people I met were friendly and warm. The teachers we observed were obviously dedicated to their work and to their students. I am sorry that they are not allowed the opportunity to grow professionally by conversing with colleagues around the world.

Sitting here at my computer, moments away from posting this latest post, I am again overcome by the feeling of gratitude for the blessing of being an American. I can access the blogs of my choice. If I chose, I could read or write comments that were unflattering to the government or our leaders. As an American educator, I am going to continue to encourage the students and teachers I encounter to learn all they can about the rest of the world and in so doing learn more about themselves. I believe that the more they do that, the more they will have to be thankful for. That reason seems a little selfish as I read it back to myself. That is not my intent. We have much to learn from others and I am grateful that we have the opportunity to do so!

Learning with our Colleagues in Northeastern North Carolina

On Thursday, July 14, 2011, I had the honor of giving the keynote address for the Northeastern North Carolina School Leadership Program, hosted by Elizabeth City State University (ECSU). I had been asked to share strategies and best practices I use as a principal with the audience of Principals, Assistant Principals, University Professors, aspiring administrators, and university students. The session seemed to go very well and seemed well-received.

I was so blessed though by the content of the rest of the day as schools and districts presented the remarkable things they have been doing. Through ECSU, they had access to a federal grant. An evaluator from the US Department of Education was on-hand to hear from them on their progress. All of the other school and district representatives were there supporting their colleagues and learning from them. Throughout the day, I tweeted some of the smart things I heard from them using the hashtag, #nncslp.

Each school or district had access to the competitive grant process to tackle a Problem-Based Learning Initiative. The project had to be grounded in the school’s School Improvement Plan and support the principal’s personal/professional growth as measured by the NC Standards for School Executives.

Project #1 “Ace Time” John A. Holmes High School, Edenton, NC

Students needed a continuum of Academic Interventions. The project was developed to increase the number of students receiving credit, decrease the number of students needing credit recovery, decrease 9^th grade retention rate, increase 4-year cohort retention rate, and increase student’s sense of belonging. To meet these needs, the school created a 20 minute focused intervention time between 1^st and 2^nd periods. The target group was ALL students with less than a 77 in any class. Progress Reports are sent home every two weeks

Project #2 – “The Power of Formative Assessments”, Edgecombe County Schools

The Middle Schools in Edgecombe County identified a need for high-quality formative assessments called Common Formative Assessments (CFAs). They give the assessments every 10 days. The Principal collects the tests and does the data analysis. They talk of “constantly climbing the ladder” The Middle School Principals found themselves talking almost daily in their efforts to help each other.

CFAs are given more often than benchmarks. In rural areas, the students often do not have resources allowing them transportation to afterschool tutoring, etc. CFAs are used to inform and drive instruction and tutoring during the school day.

Project #3 – Northeastern High School, Elizabeth City – Pasquotank Public Schools

The school developed a project called, “Leaders Developing Leaders.” It was designed to improve teacher leadership in the school. The presenter described the School Improvement Plan (SIP) development process as a “beast.” Their goal was to create the School Improvement Plan and make it a living, breathing document, instead of something gathering dust on a shelf. Their project gave teachers a stipend to write the SIP during the summer and stipends for the School Design Team to work on the presentation of the plan to the school and community.

Project #4 – Northampton County Public Schools; “Controlling Classroom Management”

The district Needs Assessment identified a Teacher turnover rate at 22% and found that 26.8% of their new teachers were struggling with classroom management. Their objective was to create and enforce school-wide behavior plans. Each challenged teacher filled out a checklist on classroom management while their administrators reviewed their discipline data. They created a program involving 6 Principals; 11 challenged teachers; and 10 accomplished teachers. They used Harry Wong’s “The First Days of School;” Marcia Tate’s “Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites,” and “Shouting Won’t Grow Dendrites;” formal surveys; and model classroom management skills demonstrations.

Project #5 Perquimans County High School - Perquimans County Public Schools

Perquimans County High School used the project to create a multiple day freshmen transition program. The Vision and Mission of the school was the foundation of the program. The principal found that, “some 9^th grade parents needed this more than the 9^th graders.” She said that she observed that the 9^th graders felt like they “fit” on the first day of school and saw more freshmen in clubs.

Project #6 Warren County Public Schools

Warren County Public Schools used the project to create a PLC for the county’s 8 principals using the theme, “Teamwork makes the Dream Work!” They brought in a variety of guest speakers and engaged in great dialog with each other. At one point, 5 of their 8 principals had two years or less experience as a principal. They appreciated the Opportunity for networking; the Opportunity to learn information and ways to become more effective leaders (curriculum matrix, teacher/principal evaluation process); the Opportunity for “at home” professional development; and the Opportunity to learn and grow successful leaders.

Project #7 Weldon Elementary School, Weldon City Public Schools

The principal from Weldon Elementary presented their project, “Educational Leadership at It’s Best; Success for All Students.” They were looking at Reading Scores in 3^rd and 4^th grade because their scores in reading were way below their scores in Math. The school’s goal is to become a 90/90/90 school. “The term “90/90/90” was originally coined by Douglas Reeves in 1995 based on observations in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where schools had been identified with the following characteristics:  90% or more of the students were eligible for free and reduced lunch, 90% of more of the students were members of ethnic minority groups, and 90% or more of the students met the district or state academic standards in reading or another area” (Reeves, 2000). The school’s project goals came from their SIP and were based on data. After a year of intense data disaggregation and work with teachers in this area, the school saw scores rise. They have more work to do, but feel good about their progress.

I know that I have done a poor job of capturing the remarkable work of these schools and districts. I would encourage you to reach out to them if you are interested in learning more about their work.

I am very grateful to the Northeastern North Carolina School Leadership Project for inviting me to spend the day with them and wish to especially thank Mrs. Yvonne Walton, the NNCSLP Coordinator, and Dr. Claudie Mackey, the NNCSLP Director for being such gracious and welcoming hosts. I learned much, much more than I shared during the day and leave having reaffirmed that the strength of public school education in North Carolina resides in our shared belief in learning from each other.   

    

From Beliefs to Blessings

A frequent recurrence to fundamental principles is absolutely necessary to preserve the blessings of liberty.  NC Constitution Art. 1, Sec. 35

During the State Board Meeting, Legislative Liaison, Ann McColl, referenced the quote above from the North Carolina Constitution. She frequently referred to the Board’s Legislative Directives. As she reminded the board of the priorities they had set for themselves, I found her approach resonating with me. Organizations have Mission Statements, Vision Statements, Core Values, Goals and Strategies, but without someone continually recalling them or highlighting them, they can degenerate to a shallow life of pretty words on a forgotten page.

My church has a mission statement on the front of our weekly bulletin. One of our Assistant Pastors is especially great at recalling the elements of the Mission Statement as he makes particular announcements. As he mentions a new program that may have an associated cost, the potential pain of implementation is mitigated when we are reminded that it supports our stated goals.

Our school has a mission statement that represents the work of many over the course of a full year. It was built on a foundation of shared beliefs about the purpose of education and our hopes and dreams for the new school. Parents, students, staff, and community members each shared their desires and beliefs. This mission statement is central to who we are, but absent a constant check-in with it, it could lose its power to guide our efforts. Ideally, our elected Site-based Management Team will constantly check it against our progress attempting to determine that we are still aligned with our goals.

As a principal, I was motivated by Ms. McColl’s approach with her State School Board presentation to also continually touch on our school community’s beliefs. As the statement (written in 1776) from the Constitution of North Carolina warns, a continual check-in with our core beliefs is absolutely necessary to keep receiving the blessings and success our school has enjoyed. Regardless of the institution, we cannot lose sight of our guiding principles.

The Privilege of Education

Later this week I will begin my service as an Advisor to the State Board of Education. I will pay great attention as the State Board Members discuss the policies and procedures that will guide Public Education in our great state. I will offer my opinion when appropriate and will do my best to serve the children of our state in this new role. For one year I have this remarkable opportunity before another will step up to take my place. During this year I will take great comfort in the words that appear on the wall over the Chairman of the State Board of Education. “The people have a right to the privilege of education, and it is the duty of the state to guard and maintain that right.” –Constitution of North Carolina, Article 1, Section 15.

This “privilege of education” resonates with me today as we celebrate Independence Day. Throughout my recent journey to China, I had the opportunity to experience how another country chooses to educate (or not) its young people. In our schools we still believe in the American Dream, that every child might one day be President if they work hard enough, make good choices, and try their best. It is decidedly American to believe that EVERY child deserves the very best education we can give them. This was not the case in China. I saw no Exceptional Children  (EC) children there. There were no Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) to help students overcome obstacles in their lives. We were told that students had to test into schools. Those that did not make it were not admitted. This privilege of education seemed to be denied to some.  Not here. We seek to help every child reach their maximum potential. Every child is invited into the school to take advantage of this privilege. Our state guards and maintains their right to it. Even as our state leaders debate the cost and determine the allocations they will give, they do so knowing that it is a precious gift, this privilege of education.

It is a gift. It is a privilege. It is also something that is too often cast aside by some of our youth. While in China, I saw students who were pouring themselves into their studies. They listened with rapt attention as their teachers spoke. When called upon, they stood by their desks and responded respectfully. Though not all had access to the privilege of education, the ones that did seemed to be fully taking advantage of it. When I consider students who would walk away from a free, public education to drop out and condemn themselves to a life devoid of a high school diploma, my heart breaks. When I replay conversations with parents who say, “maybe that is best for them” or “I can’t do anything with them,” I am saddened. We put together new and inventive programs to increase our graduation rate. Our school’s graduation rate is higher than 96% and yet, still I worry about the ones who walked away, often with a multitude of poor choices on their disciplinary histories.

Still though, I remind myself that this is the beauty of America. We guard and maintain the right to the privilege of education, but we do not force anyone to take advantage of it. Our students and parents have the right to say, “thanks, but no thanks!” I served in the US Navy to help ensure their right to give up what has been give to them and I would not want to take that away from them. Our students must know how hard their peers around the world are working because they will compete with them for the best jobs. They must understand that they are given this amazing gift with which to conquer the future or drop on the wayside as they make their own way in the world sans education.

Education is a privilege. Being an educator is a privilege and one that I do not take lightly. I am honored to serve the State Board of Education as an Advisor and look forward to being on hand as this precious right to the privilege of education is guarded and maintained.