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Reprinted with permission from
The Courier=Times Online
Howard Manning, the Wake County Superior Court judge who ruled in 2002
that the state was failing to meet its constitutional obligation to
provide all students with a sound, basic education, has lately spoken out
about the need for high school reform.
In Person County, the underpinnings of reform began being laid early this
year.
While his most caustic remarks have been directed toward
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Manning said late last month that few high
schools in the state are showing the improvements that elementary and
middle schools have made over the last few years.
"With over 90 percent of our elementary schools at or above the 80 percent
composite mark [on state testing] it is quite evident," said Manning,
"that great progress has been made and is being made."
The same was true of middle schools, he said, given that more than 82
percent scored at or above the composite mark. "However, the high schools
are a completely different matter with only 32 percent of the high schools
at or above the 80 percent composite mark," the judge said, also noting
that the drop out problem at state high schools is "not good."
Margaret Bradsher, Person High School assistant principal, was appointed
several months ago to head the reform effort here. Bradsher will become
principal of the high school on July 1, when Dr. Greg Hicks leaves the
post to go to Orange County Schools' central office.
Bradsher said this week that high school reform was spurred, in part, by
the End-of-Course testing mandated by the state. However, said Bradsher,
while the ABCs scores may have dropped, SAT scores have risen consistently.
In 2004, PHS students averaged a score of 942 on the SAT, while the state
average was 1,006. Person's dropout rate last year was 3.16, slightly
higher than the 2.79 of the previous year.
According to research, both the dropout rate and SAT scores, said
Bradsher, can be tied to a school district's educational and
socio-economic levels. She thinks community involvement is a big piece of
the pie, however.
While students in Person County are performing fairly well when compared
to state data, said Bradsher, she hopes the future will bring more
community involvement in the school system and particularly the high
school. That, she said, should contribute to better overall performance by
the students.
Education, Bradsher said, "needs to be a community effort. It involves not
just the teachers and the students in this (PHS) building, but also the
value the community places on education."
She added that the recruitment of business and industry is more likely
when those businesses "know that a community values education." As a
result, she said, more business and industry is likely to bring more
support for education.
The main tenets of high school reform revolve around high expectations for
students while also offering them the support they need to be successful.
If those expectations and that support are there, she said, "The result
will be higher test scores and a lower dropout rate."
Person High already has the perfect picture of high school reform, in
Cathy Richmond's Occupational Study courses, Bradsher asserted.
"It has rigor, relevance and relationship" that the state high school
reform movement calls for, she said. It's also fun for the students, she
said. And the key to improving what children take away from their
educational experience, she said, is making sure that it is "fun for every
kid."
As she prepares to hold a faculty training session on high school reform
next week, Bradsher shared her own philosophy that "learning should be
satisfying a hunger. We should be delivering a program that makes every
child so hungry to learn that dropping out is not an option."
Bradsher believes there should be an emphasis on helping ninth-grade
students transition to the high school environment. Educators must
realize, she said, "that the ninth-grade is our absolute last chance to
save them, to keep them from dropping out." And students themselves, she
added, must "find a way to believe that a better life (for them) is tied
to education."
When it is all boiled down, Bradsher said, the high school reform movement
is about "preparing every child to go to college." And every child can,
she said, with the proper preparation.
"Maybe it's about changing our minds. We can't sell out our kids," she
added. "Our kids can do it."