Interview with Amanda Miller

Amanda Miller, ESL Coordinating Teacher for Wake County Schools, discusses why there was a need to adopt the WIDA Consortium’s English language proficiency standards as North Carolina’s English Language Development Standard Course of Study. She also takes a look at the new proficiency and placement tests.
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All You Need to Know about Furloughs: 48 Questions Answered
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Gov. Bev Purdue's recently announced salary cuts of 0.5% for all state employees, along with mandated compensatory ten-hour furloughs, have raised numerous questions and concerns among the state's teachers. The Financial and Business Services Division of the NC Department of Public Instruction has posted an extensive set of questions and answers about furloughs at Furlough Q & A. The Division has also made available a Furlough Calculations Document listing examples of how furlough reductions impact monthly compensation at various salary levels.


North Carolina Education Stimulus Money Breakdown

Curious about who will spend the education stimulus money provided by The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - and how?  The NC Department of Public Instruction's Resources website has updates and links to other informative websites.




Rookie Teachers will Bump Charlotte-Mecklenburg Veterans

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will bring in 100 new Teach For America cadets, who lack teaching experience and credentials, as the district lays off experienced teachers next school year. Superintendent Peter Gorman said today he believes it's the best move for kids: “They would be bumping a teacher who's below standard.”

But the decision seems bound to raise hackles among the district's 9,000-plus teachers. “I think it is a slap in the faces of the ones who are going to be losing their jobs. It's more or less telling them, ‘We don't give a flip about you,'” said Mary McCray, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators. Some teachers, she said, are losing jobs because their function has been cut, not because they're poor performers.

The tension emerging in Charlotte is playing out across the country. Applications to Teach For America surged this year, with jobs getting scarce in other fields. A Detroit teachers' union official was quoted widely as calling Teach for America recruits “educational mercenaries” who are using public schools “as a pit stop on their way to becoming corporate executives.”
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Colleges Profit from Illegal Immigrants

In a time of tight budgets, a consultant delivered a surprising message to the State Board of Community Colleges: It's cheaper to admit illegal immigrants than to keep them out. Based on information from the 2006-07 school year, the consultant said the state makes about $1,650 on every student who pays out-of-state tuition, which would likely include illegal immigrants.

On the other hand, the cost of verifying immigration status in order to exclude undocumented students could cost each college about $9,000 a year. "I was a little surprised at how much of a revenue source it was" to admit illegal immigrants, board member Stuart Fountain, chairman of the policy committee, said after hearing the report.

This preliminary report, issued March 19, 2009, was part of the board's effort to craft a permanent policy on the admission of illegal immigrants at its 58 campuses. Any new policy is sure to be controversial, and Fountain said it will take several more months of meetings and study to formulate one.
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New High School Graduation Requirements Effective with the Ninth Grade Class of 2009-10

The Future-Ready Core Course of Study approved by the North Carolina State Board of Education in June, 2007, will take effect with the ninth grade class of 2009-10. According to State Board of Education Chairman Howard Lee. "The Core gives students the ability to tailor course concentrations to fit their interests and goals – including opportunities for college-level work – while building a strong academic foundation."

The new course requirements are outlined on the Board's website.