Passed along to you from the newsletter: From the Ground Up
The Newsletter of the NC Education and Law Project, NC Justice Center
www.ncjustice.org
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Dec. 15, 2008

Greetings, parents, advocates, and education partners.

It has been a decade since education officials in North Carolina vowed to close, or at least significantly narrow, the achievement gap that exists between minority students and their white peers. It hasn't happened yet. Eight years ago, federal officials promised to rally around all students, particularly those most likely to fail, by increasing standards of accountability for states, school districts, and schools. Yet, their underfunded No Child Left Behind Act has done as much to undermine disadvantaged students as help them. Now, everyone from Beverly Perdue to Barack Obama are pledging to raise the high school graduation rate.

They will struggle to succeed until more education policy makers recognize that low retention rates are a symptom of the same unsolved problems of the past. The public school system is failing to engage poor and minority students.

A study released recently by the Education Trust and the University of Pennsylvania, indicates that disparities in teacher quality are at least partly to blame. According to the report, low-income high-school students and students of color in the United States are about twice as likely to be enrolled in core academic classes taught by teachers who possess neither certification in the subject they have been assigned to teach nor an academic major in that subject. Read the entire report: http://www2.edtrust.org/EdTrust/Press+Room/CoreProblems.

Get the facts about graduation rates
The Alliance for Excellent Education has released Understanding High School Graduation Rates, a series of one-page reports about what the the drop out crisis looks like in each of the fifty states and the District of Columbia. The report reveals graduation gaps between demographic groups in most states, discrepancies in graduation rates reported by government and independent sources, and the high economic costs of dropouts to individuals and society. Click [here] to access graduation and dropout statistics for North Carolina.

Education coalition to meet in January
North Carolina Community Advocates for Revitalizing Education (NCCARE) will meet Jan. 10 at the Justice Center's office in Raleigh. If you are a parent, youth development professional, or advocate for public school students and would like to network with other education advocates from around the state, please join us. For more information about joining NCCARE or attending the January meeting, please call Beth Jacobs at 919.861.2064 or email beth@ncjustince.org

Site designed to help students navigate road to diplomas
The value of a North Carolina high school diploma is rising. The state continues to increase standards so that most students who graduate from high school leave with the credentials it takes to get into community colleges, colleges, and universities. Unfortunately for students, the policy changes regarding diploma pathways are being phased in over the course of the next few years creating confusion for parents and students. Many young people are unsure about what courses, credits and projects are required to receive a diploma. The Department of Public Instruction recently created a page on its Web site to answer some of those questions. For more information about the ever changing graduation requirements go to www.dpi.state.nc.us/gradrequirements/ .