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What's N.C. doing right?
By BARRY KLEIN
So the language arts teacher walked him to the telephone in her classroom, dialed his mother at work and told her what was happening. "She said to make sure he brought the book home," Goodman said. "Then she told me I wouldn't have that problem again." Such direct action is not unusual in Johnston County schools, a largely rural district outside Raleigh where educators believe strongly in the concept of shared accountability. If parents don't show up for a teacher conference here, their children don't get report cards. They also are barred from extracurricular activities and lose the right to park a car at school. "That usually gets people's attention," said Jim Causby, the school superintendent credited with making this district one of the most innovative in the state. "It's amazing what happens once you attach real consequences to behavior." That philosophy helps explain why students in North Carolina -- which spends less per pupil on public schools than Florida -- do significantly better on national achievement tests. Florida talks a good game when it comes to accountability, the movement to which it has hitched its education future. North Carolina actually plays it. Last year, this state held back 27 percent of the students who failed end-of-year tests required for promotion to the next grade. Florida held back only 8 percent of the students who failed its high stakes exam, the FCAT. North Carolina provides its lowest-performing schools extra money to reduce class size. Florida provides parents with vouchers so they can move their children from low-performing schools to private school. North Carolina also clearly places a higher value on education than Florida. It ranks 16th in the nation in per capita spending on higher education. Florida ranks 50th, or dead last. During the 1990s, North Carolina increased its per pupil spending on K-12 by 20 percent after inflation. It raised the average teacher salary by 40 percent. Florida's spending increased by just 6 percent, a major reason it lost ground during the state's most prosperous decade since at least World War II. Education wasn't the only area where Florida slipped further behind other states in the 1990s. As the St. Petersburg Times reported in November, the state dropped from 33rd to 40th in median household income. The percentage of Floridians living in poverty went up. High school graduation rates went down.
It's not just a theory; Graham said he has done polling that shows Floridians as a whole have a declining sense of "stateness." "Something happened in the 1990s," he said, "and it wasn't good." The effect can be measured in the way the two states dealt with budget shortfalls that dominated their legislative sessions this year. Florida had to cut $1-billion from its budget. More than $600-million came out of education. North Carolina had to cut $750-million. But even though it has higher unemployment than Florida, even though it lost more manufacturing jobs in the last year than any state in the nation, lawmakers resisted cutting education. They raised taxes. By $1-billion. A different dynamicThere are a lot of reasons students in a few states do significantly better on national achievement tests than their counterparts elsewhere.
Utah, in contrast, spends less than any other state. But its largely white, predominantly Mormon population has few socio-economic challenges and a high percentage of college graduates. That makes a big difference. Utah students have scored well above national norms on NAEP exams throughout the 1990s. Florida and North Carolina have an entirely different dynamic. Both spend well below the national average on K-12. And both have large, fast-growing minority populations and a significant percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Like many other states with that combination, each has embraced accountability as a way to improve student achievement. The approach isn't new. As far back as the 1840s, Massachusetts officials used standardized written exams to grade their state's school system. In the 1920s, the multiple choice test was born. That advance propelled accountability -- with its emphasis on large-scale testing -- to new prominence. The movement's influence ebbed and flowed until the late 1980s, when several states began adopting reform plans based on accountability principles. The premise was simple: By publicizing a range of indicators believed to reflect academic success -- dropout rates and SAT scores were among the most popular -- school districts could be shamed into better performance. The game has become considerably more sophisticated since then. Florida and North Carolina, for example, rely heavily on high stakes testing and financial incentives to drive student performance. Standards in both states are constantly being tweaked. So are the tests. But significant differences remain. In North Carolina, which adopted accountability several years before Florida, the plan has enjoyed bipartisan support since its inception. Florida's plan is largely a creation of Republicans, and remains a prime source of ideological sniping. North Carolina's plan focuses more on a student's annual improvement than on meeting an arbitrary state standard. Florida, which has had a less extensive testing program, hasn't been able to track student progress in the five years since the FCAT was introduced. That won't be possible until the end of this school year. In announcing that change two weeks ago, Florida leaders basically admitted that the state's accountability program was incomplete when it was introduced. "Now it will be much more fair," said state Education Secretary Jim Horne. "For the first time, we'll be able to measure student progress, a particular curriculum, even teacher effectiveness. It opens the door for a great deal of diagnosis that was not available before." Rewards and consequencesNo school district in North Carolina has more heartily embraced accountability than Johnston County, an unlikely site for an experiment in cutting-edge education. Johnston County is politically conservative and heavily agricultural. Tobacco farms dot the landscape. The county's sweet potato crop is among the largest in the world. But life is changing here. Many of the textile mills are gone, along with thousands of jobs. The western half of the county has become a bedroom community of nearby Raleigh, fueling a population boom that has made this the fastest growing school district in North Carolina. That boom, however, has put a huge strain on resources. Unlike Florida, North Carolina does not equalize school funding between districts. Throughout the 1990s, Johnston County has received at least $1,000 less per student than the state average. "When I got here in 1993, I saw a place that badly needed change," said Causby, who twice has been named North Carolina's top school superintendent. His changes worked so well that the rest of North Carolina has adopted his approach. He began by requiring every Johnston County school to teach the state-mandated curriculum. That gave a quick jolt to student achievement. But Causby wasn't satisfied. He wanted parents to take more responsibility for their children's performance. The best way to do that, he decided, was to hit them over the head with a very large stick. He announced he was ending social promotions. From now on, students wouldn't move on to the next grade unless they proved they could do the work. Johnston County students get several chances to pass the exit exams. And if they fail, they can be promoted if they prove they did satisfactory work during the year. "But accountability is a system of rewards and consequences, and you need to have both," Causby said. So he made parents and students sign academic contracts that outlined their responsibilities and the penalties for falling short. Schools began providing more tutoring. Saturday sessions were offered. Summer school got considerably more crowded. At Wilson's Mills Elementary, tutoring starts an hour before the beginning of every school day and continues for another hour after it's done. Slower students get remediated. Better students get "accelerated." So many students are involved, said principal Phyllis Mitchell, no stigma is attached. "It doesn't bother me. I want to show my parents that I can do better," said Jessica Peedin, a fourth-grader who is tutored in math and reading. "I don't really like it, but I guess it's important," said Cameron Pinder, a third-grader being tutored in math. "At least we get candy when we do things right." One thing is clear: Something here is working. The percentage of students considered proficient in reading has risen from 64 percent in 1994 to 83 percent this year. The percentage of students proficient in math has climbed from 65 percent to 88 percent. Causby says he always was confident tougher standards would lead to better scores. The harder job, he said, was getting parents to buy into his program. That required raising expectations. Many Johnston County parents never went to college because they didn't need to; there were always plenty of mill and farm jobs around. But that's not true for their kids. Causby spent the better part of a year trying to deliver that message. "We met with PTAs, with church groups, with fire departments," he said. "One of my administrative teams even went to the state prison. We wanted to share with them what the world of work was like today." As a signal to the community, Causby decided several years ago he would cancel all school activities the night before the big tests. He sent letters to little leagues and recreational departments telling them that school property was off limits. Most were cooperative. But a principal called the day before the exams to report a problem. One group was refusing to cancel its games. Causby met with the group's leader that afternoon. "This guy's first statement was we only have so many days we can play ball. They can take a test any time," Causby said. "He said we've been playing there for 10 years and we're going to play there tonight." "So I asked him, "How are you going to play baseball around those 12 buses I'm going to park on the field?' " That convinced him. "And I would have done it, too," Causby said. Top hat and bare feetNorth Carolina leaders love to talk about the importance of education. They consider it part of the state's cultural heritage.
"We learned through some hard days that ignorance is the great paralysis that retards any political entity," said William C. Friday, who helped build North Carolina's university system into one of the nation's best. Lawmakers appear to have absorbed the lesson, at least as it pertains to the university system, which is one of the best funded in the country. But the state's generosity has not always extended to its public schools. Outsiders have a phrase to describe North Carolina's traditional funding priorities: "Top hat and bare feet." The university system was the "top hat," said Mark Musick, president of the Southern Regional Education Board. Everything else, including public schools, made do with bare feet. Those priorities have changed in recent years. Since 1996, North Carolina has pumped $1.5-billion into teacher salaries, raising the state's national ranking from 43rd to 23rd. Florida ranks 28th in teacher pay. That's down from 26th in 1990. It was no coincidence that teacher pay started going up here the same time the state's accountability plan was going in. "It certainly helped get a buy-in from teachers," said John Dornan, president of the North Carolina Public School Forum, a nonprofit group that pushed for accountability reforms. But the increase in school spending never would have happened without a strong push from North Carolina business leaders, Dornan said. In Florida, business lobbyists have fought every attempt to broaden the state's narrow tax base. That's because they want to protect their clients' cherished exemptions. In North Carolina, business lobbyists are the educational officials. Phil Kirk is the chairman of the North Carolina Board of Education. He also is chairman of the state's Chamber of Commerce. Kirk helped persuade voters to approve two massive bond issues for new school construction. He fought for a tax increase this year, saying cuts to education would be disastrous. He had a lot of help among lawmakers. "There are times the two parties actually fight to do more for education," Kirk said. That isn't a problem in Florida, a state where more than half of the voters in the last presidential election had no school-age children at home. "That will affect attitudes," said University of South Florida political scientist Susan MacManus. Former North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt gets much of the credit for changing his state's attitudes toward its public schools. He pushed for more money and higher teacher salaries. He created "Smart Start," a much-copied program for early childhood education. Hunt said improvements in education can't happen without strong, persistent leadership. "It requires a governor who personally commits to lead the effort," said Hunt, who was elected to four terms over 23 years. "It can't be halfway and it can't be halfhearted. And you have to have partnerships, especially with the teachers. "You can't fight teachers and hope to be successful." A gross injusticeNorth Carolina teachers have plenty of reservations about accountability reforms. Eighty-three percent of the teachers polled last year by the state teacher's union said morale has suffered under the new standards. More than two-thirds said their work has become more stressful. Sixty-three percent said the increased emphasis on testing has added to the stress levels of students. But that isn't what teachers in Johnston County talked about when several were asked recently about the changes. Most said they liked the tougher standards, which they said have forced parents to take more responsibility for their children's education. "Now we share the burden. That makes a big difference," said Julie Holmes, a fourth-grade math teacher at Wilson's Mills Elementary. "Before, the main function of school was socialization," said April Peedin, who teaches second-grade reading. "You couldn't retain a failing student because of the feeling it might hurt them. Now there are standards, and that really helps the teachers." But what is it doing to students? North Carolina's dropout rate has soared in recent years. In 1999, the number of high school dropouts jumped 32 percent, from 5.3 percent to 6.8 percent. That was the second highest rate in the nation. There is little doubt the tougher standards are a major factor. That doesn't bother former Gov. Hunt, who said social promotion is in no one's best interest. "It's a gross injustice just to pass kids on," he said. "That's the worst thing you can do to them." He gets no argument from Horne, Florida's education secretary. Though Florida retains a much lower percentage of students who fail its high stakes test, Horne said that doesn't mean the state is less serious about consequences. He said the problem lies with school principals, not the state's policy. "There has been a disconnect between the policymakers and the ultimate decisionmakers at the school level," Horne said. Causby took care of that problem in Johnston County by taking promotion decisions away from principals. All appeals are decided by a committee of teachers and administrators from another school. He said principals don't want the authority to socially promote, which he said opens them to community pressure. But as the teacher poll shows, pressure is an inevitable byproduct of accountability reforms, given the relentless focus on financial incentives and high stakes testing. Janelle Goodman, the fifth-grade language arts teacher at Wilson's Mills, said she can live with that. "The most important thing is expectations," she said. "Students now know what they are supposed to be doing. I sure know what I'm supposed to be doing. "That's a big improvement."
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
WILSON'S MILLS, N.C. -- Janelle Goodman could see that the fifth-grader was paying no attention to the reading lesson.
U.S. Sen. Bob Graham was Florida's governor during much of the 1980s, the last time it made significant progress in education funding. He thinks North Carolinians are more willing to invest in education because they identify more closely with their state.
Connecticut, for example, spends more money -- 70 percent more per pupil last year than Florida. Its students are always among the nation's best on tests administered by the National Assessment of Education Progress, the only exams that allow for comparison between states.
The University of North Carolina, which opened its doors in 1795, is America's oldest public university. The state had the first science and math school in the United States. It had the first high school for the arts.
