Study - Broaden education - Schools neglect
high achievers, forum argues
North Carolina's intense focus on boosting
passing rates on math and reading tests has
meant less emphasis on subjects such as science
and foreign languages and has left high-achieving
students with too little attention, a new report
asserts.
The study, issued Tuesday by the influential
N.C. Public School Forum, urges state education
leaders to make the state's schools more internationally
competitive by rethinking a decade-old accountability
system, do more to strengthen the skills of
teachers and broaden students' knowledge about
the world.
"It's not an exaggeration that virtually
all policy initiatives in the last 10 years
have been aimed at getting low-performing students
up to passing in reading and math," said
John Dornan, president of the school forum,
one of the state's largest education lobbies.
"Things that aren't tested get squeezed
out."
The yearlong study was completed by groups
of educators, legislators and advocates under
an annual focus by the forum on key education
issues.
The latest study's principal focus is how North
Carolina's schools compare with those of other
industrialized nations.
The recommendations fall into three broad categories:
strengthening math and science instruction,
giving schools a more global focus and improving
professional development for teachers.
The report urges the state to pay more attention
to the needs of higher achieving students by
adjusting an annual accountability system that
largely stresses getting students to pass yearly
multiple-choice exams.
"A designation for high performance should
be added to the accountability program and labels
such as 'proficient' should be reserved only
for the top performers," states one recommendation.
In addition, the report criticizes the state's
heavy use of multiple-choice exams.
To better serve the state's strongest students,
the report recommends establishing regional
schools modeled after the N.C. School of Science
and Mathematics in Durham. To address a chronic
shortage of math and science teachers, the report
urges the state to significantly expand efforts
to pay teachers in both subjects higher salaries
than teachers of other subjects.
Tom Johnson, president of Wake County Partners
for the Advancement of Gifted Education, said
he supports the call for higher standards and
more focus on the achievement of all students.
"It would be wonderful if more were done
to help encourage and promote students' academic
growth, regardless of where they are, overachieving
or not," said Johnson, whose two children
attend Fuller Elementary School in Raleigh.
"Students of whatever ability ought to
be challenged."
Sam Houston, a member of the forum committee
that studied the math and science issue, said
the state's assessment system doesn't encourage
students to think critically and solve problems.
"Do we want kids to do science or do we
just want them to remember the periodic table?"
asked Houston, president of the N.C. Mathematics,
Science and Technology Education Center, a nonprofit
group that focuses on advancing science instruction
in public schools. "Assessment elsewhere
in the world doesn't look like North Carolina's."
