Whiteville City Schools holds annual planning retreat
By FULLER ROYAL
Staff Writer
There was some palpable tension during the Jan. 12 planning retreat of the Whiteville City Schools Board of Education as participants questioned various programs and policies in the system.
Newly appointed board chairman Carlton Prince presided over the all-day meeting, allowing for agenda items requested by board members Greg Merritt, Dave Flowers, Larry Hewett and newcomer Jim DiMuzio.
During the morning session, the board was joined by members of the Whiteville City Schools’ cabinet.
They included Barbara Yates, assistant superintendent in charge of human resources; Cindy Williamson, assistant superintendent in charge of curriculum and accountability; Glenda Phillips, the exceptional children’s director; Anthony Martin, director of technology and career technology; and Kathryn Faulk, director of child nutrition.
Average SAT scores and SAT preparation classes
Merritt was first out of the gate, inquiring about the possibility of starting a Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) preparation class.
“Our SAT scores have been adequate, but lag behind the state historically,” Merritt said. “I think we should take a stab at trying to improve our SAT scores.”
He said that Whiteville High School produces students with high grade point averages, but with lower SAT scores, who can’t get into the “premier colleges.”
“Our kids have done well at universities if they can get in,” he said.
Merritt said he would like to see a full class designed for SAT preparation that focused on test-taking skills as well as reading and mathematics.
“Math has lagged behind at WHS since I have been on the board,” he said. “Math needs the most attention at WHS. I bet our SAT scores reflect that.”
Martin said that as a high school student in Missouri, he had taken a similar course during the summer.
“The study skills portion was the most helpful,” he said.
DiMuzio agreed that something needs to be offered to students. He said that the college application of a student with a perfect GPA will never be seen by human eyes if the SAT score isn’t high enough.
“We don’t have enough electives anyway,” he said.
Williamson said that several SAT skill courses are available on the Internet. With two complete computer labs in the WHS media center, students have the option of working there.
“Good test-taking strategies will help on all tests,” she said.
Martin suggested that the SAT strategies could be made a part of the new high school senior portfolios that students are required to have.
Flowers said that many students don’t take advantage of the opportunities already in place.
Prince said that he agrees with all that had been said.
“It needs to be one of our priorities and it needs to begin early,” he said. “The highest SAT scores are during the sophomore and junior years.”
Prince said SAT studies need to start in eighth or ninth grade.
Prince lauded the semi-annual SAT workshops conducted by WHS, but noted that several high school teachers had scheduled exams and tests on the days of the SAT workshops.
“Everybody must buy into this,” he said. “The majority of high schools in the state offer an SAT course. It’s far more than just trying to learn answers to a test.”
Williamson said that a major component of the new freshman academy at WHS is test-taking skills.
“We can look more closely at the content” she said. “Perhaps take a more realistic look at the SAT.”
She said that sometimes, students are “shocked” the first time they see the SAT.
Phillips said that as the system reorganizes its academically and intellectually gifted program, it can look at one area of weakness with students – vocabulary.
“Vocabulary is the one component that is essential,” Prince said. “Most children are thrown by the test because of vocabulary.”
Prince suggested that the PSAT – a precursor of the SAT – might be made a requirement of all high school students.
McPherson noted that when the new state-mandated high school requirements begin in two years – with the goal of all high school students attending at least a two-year college – the SAT minimum scores will increase because more students will apply for college.
“What will give our students an edge is technique,” DiMuzio said. “It must be more than two days and not just a course. It must be implemented in all things.”
“It will always be skills and curriculum,” Prince said, emphasizing the latter.
Questioning the
validity of multi-level classrooms
Tensions mounted when DiMuzio, and later Prince, expressed concerns that parents have with the schools.
“I am hearing over and over where we have students who graduate with high grade point averages and then are shocked when they get to college and must have tutors,” he said, adding that perhaps raising the bar in each grade would make a difference.
“We’re asking too much of our teachers to educate and motivate with such a variety of academic standards,” he said, referring to the school system’s practice of mixing students from every ability level in each class, sometimes referred to as heterogeneous grouping.
He said that it’s not fair to ask a teacher to teach at so many different levels within the confines of a single class in 40 minutes.
“I don’t think the kids are getting their money’s worth,” he said.
DiMuzio said that students would do better if they are grouped more by their skill levels.
“They will get 100 percent, especially at the lower end of the spectrum,” he said. “Lots of educators say the biggest challenge in the classroom are too many different levels of children. It’s too much.”
DiMuzio said that the situation is compounded by “this evil monster at the end of the year,” referring to the state’s end-of-grade tests. “You do not learn by cramming. There’s a lot of stress on teachers and students.”
Martin said that research doesn’t show any improvement in student achievement with homogenous classes.
“I don’t think those are good studies,” DiMuzio countered. “I don’t agree with them. They weren’t scientific.
“The upper kids bringing up the lower kids doesn’t work,” he said. “It’s not the job of kids to teach other kids. That’s the teachers’ jobs.
“Our better schools abandoned heterogeneous grouping 10-15 years ago and they are not all private schools in better communities,” he said. “I did a lot of homework on this. Educators are in agreement that this is where their hands are tied. A lot of kids can’t read, spell or work with numbers, but that’s what they need. There’s a lot of frustration from parents on this.”
Williamson said that her heart wouldn’t let her use homogenous grouping all of the time. It is used at Whiteville Primary for the Direct Instruction program.
“A good teacher knows how to teach multiple levels,” she said.
“We’re not taking enough advantage,” DiMuzio said. “Direct Instruction is not long enough. We can do this so you can get groups of kids that are close (in skill level). I don’t think we are doing it and we’ve been in the schools here for five years.
“We mix upper end and lower end kids thinking the children will be motivated and the upper end is frustrated and feels cheated.”
“I’m not saying make a classroom all day with these kids,” he said. “When they go to reading, science and math, they should be relative equals. We’re not getting the best out of our teachers.”
Phillips said that pulling exceptional children from these classes could pose ethical and legal issues.
“Can we pull these kids out of the classroom and deny them a general education?” she said, adding that a significant percentage of each class are students with mental, physical or emotional disabilities.
“We have an obligation to put them in the classroom,” she said. Phillips said that new laws will put even more exceptional children in the classrooms.
She admitted that teachers are frustrated with the lack of training and support for teachers with exceptional children in their classes.
“From the standpoint of an exceptional children’s director, which I have done for 30 years, teachers want these children out of their classrooms for someone else to teach,” she said. “They have to have some regular education.”
Are we satisfied?
“Homogenous and heterogeneous are short-fuse words,” Prince said. “The research – if we are real honest – is not that different and the laws favor inclusion.”
Prince said that the current profile of local education needs to be examined.
“We need to zoom in on the Whiteville City Schools and ask ‘Are we satisfied with where we are in the Whiteville City Schools?’” Prince said. “Responding as a board member and after listening to parents – the answer is no.”
Prince said it needs to be curriculum and not testing programs that drive the Whiteville City Schools.
“We’re not satisfied,” he said. “Look at the ninth grade class. We have two-thirds of the present ninth-grade class in the lower levels of math and English. The Whiteville City Schools have had these kids for nine years and two-thirds are in lower-level remediation.
“We are letting the testing program drive and stress our teachers and students,” he said. “Are we spending too much time for one particular test?”
Prince was referring to the Lightspan computer assessment program in use.
“We only have 180 days and we can’t use 10 minutes but one time,” Prince said. “We need to look at our curriculum and class assignments and teaching strategies.”
Prince said that he disagreed with Williamson on an earlier comment about good teachers being able to teach at multiple levels.
“Some teachers do multi-level teaching well, but most don’t,” he said.
“I think the challenge for the Whiteville City Schools is to come up with what we’re going to teach,” Prince said. “We must emphasize content.”
Prince said he is ready to tell the State Board of Education and the federal government that Whiteville is going to give its professional teachers the materials and support, and allow them to be creative and teach.
“We can’t spend all of our time on the tests,” Prince said. “We’ve got to get back on track. We’ve got to make sure we’re driving this. We need to emphasize curriculum, teaching, content and good teaching rather than testing.”
McPherson responded “When the state report card comes out and shows that our minority children are leading the state, I can’t compare us to Chapel Hill. When I compare us to others like this system, our lowest scores are higher than those systems’ highest scores.”
McPherson pointed out that Central Middle School, where numerous parents have taken their children out, has maintained its high scores despite losing some of its brightest youngsters.
McPherson said that the students in the remedial math and English courses at WHS’s freshman academy are there based on a model that the teachers at the school chose to follow.
“The professionals at WHS working with John Hopkins University said this is where those children need to be,” McPherson said. “The teachers placed them. The result is that most of those children will have gone through Algebra I by the end of the year.”
Curriculum is set by the state
McPherson pointed out that the state sets the curriculum in the N.C. Standard Course of Study, an expansive set of goals and objectives mandated by the State Board of Education.
“We are to follow that,” McPherson said. “Our assessments are linked to these curriculums.”
McPherson said the curriculum is a minimum standard and that teachers can add to them as they please. He said that the city teachers have been involved for four-to-five years on pacing guides and the order of instruction so that all children are on the same page.
McPherson defended the use of Lightspan. He said that until recently, the state made available the used and discarded end-of-grade tests. Teachers used these as guides for instructing students.
When the state withheld the old tests, teachers had nothing to go by as they prepared students for their end-of-grade tests.
McPherson said Lightspan fills that void by providing assessments in the same format as end-of-grade tests.
“I am as much against testing as anybody,” McPherson said. “I hate it.”
“If this board says we want to forego the tests, then you five men need to say, in action at a regular meeting, to forget about it,” he said, adding that the system would lose millions in funding.
“We have a strong school system,” McPherson said. “Our scores have steadily improved. This school system is getting ready to employ a superintendent and principals. I think the decisions we make in conversations such as this will impact the people who will come to our district. If this board regulates what they must do, it will impact the quality of who will come. Educators want the autonomy to be creative.”
“I’m not saying do away with the tests or remove children from the mainstream,” DiMuzio said. “I want to see all of the children get the focus they need. If we educate children then they will smoke the tests. All of the attention seems to be focused on the monster looming at the end of the year.”
DiMuzio said the focus should be away from the tests.
“I don’t like labeling a kid because of one day,” he said.
“The reality of it is that the kids will have to take that test,” McPherson said. “The children know it’s there.”
DiMuzio said he sees the teachers and principals under stress and it transfers to the students.
“I’m not happy with just comparing ourselves with just the local areas,” Prince said. “Our children need to compete globally. We’re going to need some of those global connections.”
Prince asked if students were spending their time efficiently.
“Are we working on mastery (of subject matter) at the lower levels?” he said. “Now, all we talk about is tests. Topsail High School is in an economically deprived area and yet 90 percent of its students are considered proficient.
Williams said that the system continues to work with teachers on instruction, strategies and techniques. “We constantly remind teachers to teach in the manner that works best for them and their students.”
Prince said he is concerned that new programs aren’t given long enough to work before they are abandoned.
“It takes three years to master a strategy,” he said. “I hope we let them settle in to see if it works.”
The end of four-by-four scheduling at WHS?
Hewett then brought up the ideas of returning the high school to a schedule of six 55-minute classes that run the entire year, rather than the current four-by-four block scheduling.
“There are fewer contact hours for each course with block scheduling,” Hewett said. He anticipates in the not-so-distant future that with the issues at hand it would be prudent to move away from the current scheduling.
McPherson said that with Advanced Placement problems and issues with continuity of instruction, ninth-grade study habits, math and U.S. History it might be wise to look at moving to a modified or six-period day.
McPherson said that the teachers at WHS enjoy the 90-minute planning period but, asked if it was at the expense of student time.
“I see that being something the next superintendent asking the board to look at,” he said.
Hewett said that the fewer contact hours in each course under the current setup is “dramatic” especially in light of mastery of content and time-on-task.
McPherson said that he was the first local principal to implement the four-by-four when he was at West Columbus High School.
“But issues have changed since then,” he said.
“I believe we must go to the six-classes,” Prince said. “It’s often the second or third month before students can process some of the concepts.”
McPherson said that he thinks the schools should return to the six-period day.
Prince said that because of the block scheduling, the senior year had become a year of “play.”
“You play just before you go into battle,” he said.
McPherson said that the lighter senior year is one of the reasons that WHS graduates end up in remediation or tutoring once in college.
Merritt said that students have short attention spans.
“They assimilate information quicker, but they don’t stay ‘on’ as long,” he said.
Prince said that kids are exposed to so much more.
“But, it’s superficial,” he said. “We as educators have to undergird that for a foundation.”
DiMuzio said 50 minutes is about as long as anyone can stand.
Phillips said that when four-by-four came into being, educators knew that students “zoned out” after an hour and that teachers had to rethink their techniques to include more hands-on during the 90 minutes.
“That transition was never made,” she said.
Prince said that the material in each class is just not being covered and that there is no time for reflection.