Critics have charged that the state school superintendent’s role is little more than being an advocate for the governor and the State Board of Education. State statutes and the Department of Public Instruction Web site offer little enlightenment on the superintendent’s role to North Carolinians wishing to make an informed voting decision.
A recent interview with June Atkinson, state superintendent of public instruction, and her challenger, Eddie Davis, president of the N.C. Association of Educators, focused on the role the superintendent plays in guiding and supporting educational change and major issues facing public education in North Carolina.
Leading change and improving communication
In an interview with CJ, both Davis and Atkinson were asked their views on the state superintendent’s role.
Davis said he wants to “be an ambassador and give hope that public education can make a difference.” He spoke passionately about public education as the “single most democratic institution in America apart from voting” and “public education is the ticket to individual and collective success for North Carolina.”
Davis says he wants to be a change agent. “I want to lead a crusade, a revolution that would change the face of education — a movement that would use education as a primary tool to eliminate poverty, dispel inequities, and create excitement about learning and learning for a lifetime,” he said. He also said building-based practitioners who “provide the vision to students” must have a greater voice in policy making because “they’re on the front lines, not the central office staff.”
Atkinson talked about the need to be an advisor, leader, and team player. The superintendent needs to “stay in the public forefront on issues important to education” and “be a good listener to parents, students, teachers, and business partners,” she said. The superintendent should speak out and “be the voice for children who don’t have a voice,” Atkinson said.
School administrators have complained that communication between the State Board of Education and schools is top-down, giving schools little input into decision making. Davis and Atkinson were asked what they would do to change that sentiment.
Davis said he would encourage two-way communication by sharing “information from the SBE and the legislature with school administrators and building-level personnel” and by asking for “information from school personnel. I am very interested in what taxpayers, parents, teachers, and students have to say on education issues.” He said he would do this through meetings.
Atkinson said she thought she had already done much to improve communication by visiting schools in every county in North Carolina and through weekly meetings with local superintendents. She said she has spoken out on issues when she disagreed with the governor, the SBE, and others.
As examples, Atkinson said she appointed a commission to review the accountability plan when it came under fire, and she held focus groups across the state to share the proposed framework with superintendents, principals, and teachers and to solicit their feedback. When the SBE was pushing for changes in graduation requirements, Atkinson “set in motion a plan to listen first before changing the plan. We raised the standards for math this past year based on feedback we got from school officials.”
Critical issues in K-12 education
Davis and Atkinson were asked what they believe are critical issues in N.C. public education.
For Davis, a key issue is to “make schools sanctuaries for learning, like a hospital is for healing” by preventing students or anyone from disrupting the learning environment. One way is to have parents of disruptive students visit the school every time a problem arises, in the hope that parents will have a greater incentive to “take action to see that their child is respectful at school.”
Davis offered two specific ways to reduce the high school dropout rate, particularly among minorities and poor white males. First, he said he would like to see more vocational programs in high school that focus on entrepreneurship and that prepare students for high-paying positions in trades after they graduate.
“Many drop out of high school because there’s no place for students who have no interest in attending college,” Davis said. He also proposed creating programs in public schools to bring back those who’ve already dropped out and teach them a marketable skill.
An “honest and non-emotional discussion about race” is needed, Davis said, because many people continue to “deny the legacy of discrimination” in perpetuating racial and economic disparities. But he also pointed to harmful attitudes within the minority community that associate “proper behavior and academic preparation with ‘being white.’” It will take a “courageous superintendent,” he said, “to raise these issues and help reduce the achievement gap and digital divide.”
Atkinson used the Highland School of Technology in Gaston County, a magnet school, to support her belief that higher teacher salaries, better working conditions, low student–teacher ratios, and engaging technology create academic success. For her, key issues are the need to redesign high schools, improve the high school graduation rate, recruit and retain qualified teachers, provide more professional development for teachers and administrators, and increase the use of technology in the classroom.
“The Highland School has maintained a 97 percent graduation rate for the past six years,” Atkinson said. They have redesigned the school away from “an impersonal, industrial-based model” to a student-centered one where learning is integrated across all disciplines instead of being segmented into 55 minutes per subject. All students enroll in “Career Pathways, what used to be called vocational courses.” Teachers use a student’s interest to teach English, mathematics, and other subjects, and they “integrate projects so students can see the relevancy of what they are learning.”
The school’s technology enables students to have access to learning all day and every day. “Teachers are on an eleven-month contract, unlike many schools in North Carolina,” said Atkinson, and “teachers receive more professional development opportunities, like visiting local businesses so they can help students connect classroom learning to real life.”
“Research shows that most students drop out during the transition from eighth to ninth grade,” Atkinson said. Students who are not academically prepared to enter the ninth grade are often reluctant to remain in the eighth grade because they feel they are “too old.” An alternative might be a program where students enter an “eight-and-a-half grade.” Atkinson also wants to change the notion of reading as a separate subject that is “traditionally an elementary school issue,” but rather one where students, from pre-K through the 12th grade, see reading as essential to learning all subjects.
In light of declining student achievement, high dropout rates, and a lack of transparency in the state’s accountability system, Atkinson was asked what she has done to restore public trust in North Carolina’s schools. She said there has been no intentional misrepresentation in how the state conducts its testing or in how it reports the results, citing the recent scandal over math test scores.
She acknowledged differences in how the state defines proficiency as opposed to the federal No Child Left Behind Act and pledged her commitment to making the data and the explanation of the results more accurate and transparent. She also said she had identified some problems, shortly after she took office, and had the Department of Public Instruction correct the errors before transmitting the data to federal education officials.
Atkinson said she is better qualified than her opponent because she has the depth and breadth of experience and because she has a reputation for bringing people together, not dividing them.