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Public Education Research Institute at Queens
Research Results
To a Culture of No Excuses
High school graduation ceremonies are fast approaching. Within Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, in the next few weeks over 6,700 seniors will receive their diplomas and this should signal they are prepared to enter successfully postsecondary education. But are they?
Of these seniors, approximately 2,350 will enroll in one of the University of North Carolina system schools, and of these, if trends continue, only a little over 1,300 will actually graduate by spring of 2014, that is within five years.
To not complete a college degree is costly -- costly to the student and parents as well as to the North Carolina taxpayers. In fact, North Carolina taxpayers contribute over $12,500 per year for each in-state undergraduate. If a student takes longer than four years to graduate, it is costly to the tax payers. Yet if the student does not graduate at all, his or her earning power diminishes significantly and thus tax revenues received from that individual will be much lower. The tax payers will not see a return on their investment.
But more importantly, the student pays the price in not being able to achieve what he or she envisioned as a high school senior. Why do they not graduate in five years? Are CMS students adequately prepared for the rigors of higher education? Or do they have to enroll in remedial classes before they can take college-level classes? Do they even survive their freshmen year? How well do CMS students do compared to students from other urban districts? Are all CMS students equally prepared for college? Does the high school they attended make a difference?
The answers to these questions are found in the latest Public Education Research Institute at Queens study. It is presented in two parts. Part I examines the percentage of students who apply to, are accepted by, and enroll in one of the UNC system schools. It looks at CMS students compared to others across the state and looks at the results for each individual CMS high school. Part II examines how well CMS students perform once enrolled in a UNC school and how many persisted through graduation.
Executive Summary: Parts I and II
Part I: To a Culture of No Excuses
Part II: To a Culture of No Excuses
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Does a Student Assignment Plan Impact Student Academic Growth?
Wake County Public Schools and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) are the two largest districts in North Carolina. While they each have over 130,000 students, historically the demographics of the two districts have been quite different. In the 1990s both districts had race-based busing to achieve integrated, diverse schools. In 1999, Wake County began a new way of assigning students to schools based upon family income (as measured by Free and Reduced Lunch). In the 2002-03 school year, CMS changed its method of student assignment to largely neighborhood schools.
Both methodologies have had very outspoken critics. In Wake County to maintain the required balance due to ever- changing demographics, students are continually reassigned to different schools. In fact, a recently adopted plan in Wake County will shifted approximately 25,000 students from their present schools over the next three years.
On the other hand, the CMS approach has largely turned what had been highly integrated schools into schools that have mostly minority and low-income students or that have mostly white, middle or upper-income students.
Many have argued that in addition to students not receiving many of the benefits of diversity within the schools, student achievement has suffered with the CMS assignment method -- particularly with the most fragile of the students.
The Public Education Research Institute at Queens (PERIQ) followed the cohort of students in Wake County Public Schools and CMS from the 3rd grade in 2002-03 through their middle school years. Not only did PERIQ follow the students as a whole, but it also followed two groups within that whole: Free and Reduced Lunch students and the group of Academically Gifted Students. To measure not only the proficiency in math and reading but also the amount of growth by these students, PERIQ used the Developmental Scale Scores.
The results found in this study of one cohort of students would not support a premise that a student assignment plan alone impacts student achievement. The following shows the results of this study:
Academic Progress: How Do Charlotte-Mecklenburg Students Compare to Wake County Students?
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Bringing and Keeping Our Brightest and Best in the Classroom
"Nearly 50% of all teachers who enter the field leave it within a mere five years, and the best and brightest teachers are often the first to leave." This was the conclusion reached by Robin Henke, Xianglei Chen, and Sonya Geis in a 2000 National Center for Education Statistics study of the teacher pipeline.
This startling realization raises questions: Do our brightest and best college graduates go into the education profession? If not, how can we get them interested? Once the brightest and best are in teaching can we get them to stay?
This study takes a look at one model, the Teaching Fellows Program, to see if in fact it can help recruit and retain some of our state's brightest in our K-12 public schools.
Teaching: A Profession for Today's Brightest and Best? - the Full Report
Teaching: A Profession for Today's Brightest and Best? - the Executive Summary
Luring the Best N.C. Teachers - An Editorial in the Charlotte Observer
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