New Year, New Initiatives
January 18, 2012 - By Tony Habit, NCNSP president --
With the start of the New Year, we at the North Carolina New Schools Project are engaged in several new initiatives that we believe hold real promise for continued progress on the state's critical goal of ensuring that all students graduate with the skills to succeed. North Carolina must do all it can to deliver on that goal. It's essential to the state's economic development and to its quality of life.
The innovative new schools that we have helped launch and support during the last seven years, in partnership with local districts, the State Board of Education, and the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, continue to demonstrate that all students can achieve when expectations are high, teaching and learning is rigorous and engaging, and support for students is strong. Now it's time to expand the reach of those important lessons to more districts and schools across the state so that more students can benefit.
Scaling up early college success
Thanks to generous pledges from a number of businesses, foundations and individuals, North Carolina is receiving a $15 million federal grant that will help build on the successes of the state's early college high schools. The grant, for which the U.S. Department of Education required a $1.5 million match from private donors, will support an NCNSP-led effort to apply many of the same early-college approaches to traditional high schools. As many as 20 high schools in districts with high rates of poverty will be able to offer new opportunities to students, both with access to community college courses and the kind of instruction and support that early colleges are proving effective in helping students be well prepared for college.
The goal is not only better high school graduation rates, but also more students enrolling in college or other career preparation after graduation. Getting there will require nothing less than transformation in the way teachers teach, in the way teachers interact with one another and with students and in the culture of schools that owe more to the expectations of the 20th century than the demands of the 21st. That means powerful and sustained professional development that truly changes instruction to engage students to think for themselves, to solve problems, to think critically and work effectively with others.
The state's pioneering early colleges have had the benefit of small size and a fresh start to innovate from the ground up. The traditional high schools joining this effort face the additional challenge of overcoming institutional inertia and leaving old baggage behind. Yet we're confident that the ultimate goal - all students graduating well prepared - is a powerful reason for change, and when matched with effective support, real and sustainable change is within reach.
Innovative teachers for innovative schools
Few factors are more important for any student's success than the quality of his or her teachers and their approach to instruction. Much of our work in schools is focused on teaching quality. We are now launching a new initiative with that same goal by developing new teachers for STEM disciplines by taking advantage of several of our partner schools that have been developed as models.
The new five-year initiative, the STEM Teacher Education Program - or STEP - is supported by a $2.7 million grant under the U.S. Department of Education's Transitions to Teaching Program to train teachers for high-needs schools through alternative routes to certification. NCNSP's STEP program is aimed at recent college graduates and mid-career professionals wanting to enter the classroom, particularly with skills learned in schools that have adopted innovative approaches to teaching and learning.
Vision 2015: Scaling Excellence in Public Education
One of the most important factors in reaching the goal of career and college readiness for all students is the long-range planning needed to ensure success. Last week, NCNSP and a number of its partners convened the first of several meetings that will be held during the coming months to get clear on our shared goal and to make sure we're following the right steps to get there.
NCNSP is reaching out across the state and nation for input and recommendations in that planning effort, which we're calling Vision 2015: Scaling Excellence in Public Education. Vision 2015 will build upon the vast cultural, scientific and technological assets of North Carolina to ensure that schools evolve as engines of creativity and invention, equipping and inspiring the future innovators, leaders, and citizens of our state.
To inform NCNSP's strategic planning process, the Board of Directors will enlist the input and recommendations from individual stakeholders, as well as a group of experts through targeted input sessions, beginning with a focus at last week's meeting on school and district transformation. Sessions next month and in March will focus on the use of technology to advance education innovation and the connection between school and workforce and economic development. Following the sessions, the board will finalize its three-year strategic plan, which will begin on July 1.
