Education

Nearly 6,000 students in Union County could end up in different schools next year.  The Union County school board is considering a plan to re-draw attendance zones of many schools to ease overcrowding and make way for expected growth.  That has caused an uproar among parents. 

Sometimes it’s not enough to encourage kids to go to college.  It takes some guidance to navigate the whole application process.  With that in mind, the John M Belk Endowment has donated $10 million to put college counselors in sixty low-income, rural high schools across the state. 

CMS high school students may find a bunch of incompletes on their report cards when they get them back in a couple weeks.  It’s not their fault.  State exams will delay some first semester grades.  

High school students are taking several new state exams this week.  They’re designed to measure how much teachers get their students to learn.  To make sure kids take them seriously, the tests count for 20 percent of a student’s grade. 

This is the first edition of our new weekly podcast. We're calling it WFAE Talks. News Director Greg Collard and reporters Lisa Miller and Ben Bradford discuss topics and people in the news. Consider it a behind-the-scenes discussion and analysis of some of the issues you hear addressed on WFAE. You'll also get some insight into our general newsroom banter.

This week Greg, Lisa and Ben discuss concerns about the mandates of North Carolina's 3rd grade reading requirement, the chemicals that gas drilling companies don't have to reveal to state regulators, and a possible highlighter explosion in Charlotte (you'll have to listen to see what we're talking about).

Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools expects to have 5,000 third-graders qualify for reading camps this summer as a result of the state's new third grade reading requirement. District officials worry state money won't come close to covering the cost of these camps.  They’re asking the state for flexibility on the camps, as well as all the tests that come with the new third grade reading law. 

Seventeen Charlotte Mecklenburg schools are about to try something different when it comes to staffing.  Schools will pay a handful of the best teachers up to $23,000 extra.  They won’t teach one particular class or grade.  They’ll coach other teachers and pick up lessons around the school. 

CMS fourth and eighth graders are performing about the same in math and reading as they were two years ago, according to the National Assessment of Education Progress.  The tests have been given to a sample of students across the country since 2003.  At a time when state tests are drastically changing, these scores provide a way to compare student performance from year to year. 

Playing for a winning high school team can sometimes be irresistible.  In 2007, a Charlotte Observer investigation found several Charlotte Mecklenburg School students lied about their addresses to get on top teams. 

The district declared more than 20 students ineligible to play.  Five high schools had to forfeit their seasons and a handful of coaches resigned or were fired.  CMS tightened its policies around athletic eligibility and tracking it.  Five years later, many of those same procedures are in place and violations are in the single digits.  CMS officials say they’re successful at keeping lying to play sports in check. 

WFAE’s Lisa Miller joins us now in the studio:

Kevin Kniestedt: Good morning, Lisa.