By FULLER ROYAL
Staff Writer

With the state’s public high schools continuing to flounder under the weight of the federal government’s No Child Left Behind laws, the North Carolina State Board of Education (SBE) is preparing a sweeping overhaul of the entire high school curriculum that has financial, political and social implications for every school system in the state.

It’s called the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and will begin with this year’s seventh-graders when they reach high school.

During Monday’s meeting of the Whiteville City Schools Board of Education, Superintendent Danny McPherson spoke at length about what’s in store for the high schools.

He explained that the prior week, the State Board of Education approved a proposed course-of-study framework that will “guide” high school course requirements beginning in 2008-09.

The Class of 2011 could be the last to graduate under the existing rules.

Currently, there are four courses of study or diploma tracks that high school students can follow: career prep, college tech prep, college-university prep or occupational. Students in career prep are those planning to enter the workforce upon graduation from high school. College tech prep students plan to earn an associate’s degree at a community or technical college after high school. Students following the college-university prep track plan to enter a four-year school after high school, or a two-year school followed by a four-year school. Students in the occupational track are exceptional children.

The SBE plans to end the current courses of study (college prep, college tech prep, career) from which students have been able to select their high school coursework and replace it with one new category.

The occupational course of study will continue to be available for students with disabilities.

The proposed core framework requires that all freshmen entering high school in fall 2008 participate in a 21-unit core course of study that will include a four-unit endorsement in a specialty area of their choice.

The new core course of study will require four units of English; four units of mathematics; three units of science; three units of social studies; two units of a second language; one unit of health/physical education and an endorsement of at least four units in one of the following areas: career-technical education, arts education, JROTC, advanced placement/IB, second language or other. The endorsement is in addition to the 17 specified core courses.

With the exception of students with disabilities, every student will be required to complete four units of math including Algebra I-A, Algebra I-B, geometry and Algebra II.

Every student will be required to have two units (semesters) of a foreign language. Currently, only students in the college/university track are required to have foreign languages.

McPherson said that at least two additional math teachers will be needed. There is a statewide shortage of math teachers now. An additional foreign language teacher will also be needed – another area of teacher shortages.

Schools systems must hire foreign teachers to keep up with the demand.

Cindy Williamson, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instructional services said that nearly everything surrounding the overhaul is still in the discussion stage; the final details will not be known until early next year.

That will leave the state and its hundreds of high schools with little more than a year to make the changes.

School Board Chairman Carlton Prince said he doesn’t believe the state can effectively rewrite its course of study and curriculums in that amount of time and still be effective.

McPherson said that superintendents across the state are petitioning SBE to delay the overhaul by one year.

The curriculum of every high school course will have to be completely rewritten to reflect the state’s new goals and guidelines.

New materials, resources and textbooks will have to be developed.

McPherson said teachers will have to go through extensive professional development to accommodate the changes.

Williamson said that one talked-about change will be the way students take Advanced Placement courses.

Students have typically taken Advanced Placement (AP) English as their fourth or senior English.

That would no longer be allowed.

Any student wishing to take AP English would first have to complete the English IV course and then sign up for AP English.

That same rule would apply to all AP courses. This potential new rule could have a detrimental effect on elective courses, especially the arts.

Organizers of the plan, still in its infancy, said basic core content will still include English, math, science, foreign language, civics, government, economics, the arts, history and geography.

Added to the mix will be “21st Century Content” – courses that include global awareness; financial, economic business and entrepreneurial literacy; civic literacy; and health and wellness awareness.

The new curriculum will be big on information and communications technology literacy.

Students will have to demonstrate the ability to use technology to acquire core content and to evaluate and make use of information appropriately to think critically, solve problems and to collaborate and innovate.

This also includes the ability to decipher, interpret and express ideas using images, graphics, icons, charts, graphs, and video to communicate information effectively.

Students must have the ability to analyze, compare, make inferences and interpretations, synthesize, and evaluate core content information. This includes creativity and innovation skills.

Students must demonstrate the will and ability to form authentic and effective relationships across differences in order to solve problems and includes skills in leadership, ethics, accountability, adaptability, personal productivity and responsibility, people skills, social responsibility, and self direction - the ability to set goals, plan for achievement, independently manage time and effort, and independently assess the quality of one’s learning and any products that result.

This winter, the SBE will hold town hall meetings across the state to receive input and ideas from local educators, parents and community members about implementing the core course of study.

In approving the proposed framework, SBE members noted that a number of implementation details need to be finalized and that community input will be invaluable in that process.

Other graduation requirements will continue to be in place.

These include passing the five common end-of-course tests – Algebra I, English I, United States History, civics and economics and biology – and successfully completing a graduation project in addition to local graduation requirements.

Backers of the plan maintain that all students should pursue at a minimum an associate’s degree and that their high school careers should steer them on that path.

There is also discussion on the possibility of a fifth year of high school being added to encompass an associate’s degree in conjunction with community colleges.

McPherson and other board members expressed concern that this will send dropout rates skyrocketing.

Between one-fourth and one-third of the state’s high schoolers are dropping out.

The advocates for the 21st Century plan maintain that increased rigor and heightened expectations will decrease dropouts and help ensure success for more, if not all, students.

“This is not feasible,” McPherson said. “The reality and logistics of doing this will be impossible.”

Board member Greg Merritt called the state’s plan “pie in the sky.”

Prince said that if the state pushes the plan through, it needs to make sure there’s plenty of money for additional teachers, materials and laboratories.

The state will not offer the exact details of the plan until early 2007.