Craven educators give upbeat report

Facts at a glance

End of Grade test proficiency rates in reading   

School year    Craven County Schools           State

2004-05         88.1 percent                         84.6 percent

2005-06         88.1 percent                         84.9 percent

2006-07         88.4 percent                         85.5 percent

2007-08         60.5 percent                         55.6 percent

2008-09         73.1 percent                         67.6 percent

Note: New reading curriculum and End of Grade tests were implemented in the 2007-08 school year, and retest results were included for the first time in the 2008-09 school year.

End of Grade test proficiency rates in math       

School year   Craven County Schools           State

2004-05        89.6 percent                         87.3 percent

2005-06        66.1 percent                         63.4 percent

2006-07        69.6 percent                         66.4 percent

2007-08        73.5 percent                         69.6 percent

2008-09        82.6 percent                         80.0 percent

Source: disag.ncpublicschools.org and the Craven County Schools 2009-10 annual report.

Parents, business and community leaders sat down with Craven County Schools’ officials on Friday to learn about the system’s recent test scores, new projects and the schools’ new mission to prepare students for the 21st century.

Superintendent Larry Moser said in the biannual District Advisory Committee for Educational Excellence meeting that there are new initiatives in the works that reflect the system’s new mission to prepare students for post-secondary education and the 21st century.

He said examples of the initiatives are the new digital media technology class at New Bern High School, and there will be a brick masonry course launched to respond to industry demands.

“That’s a 21st century skill preparing students for work,” he said.

Moser also shared the district’s goal to reduce the district’s dropout rate to below 3 percent. The system had an unofficial rate of 3.61 percent in the 2008-09 school year, which is almost one percentage point less than the prior year’s rate.

Moser also said the system saw a 9 percentage point increase in math End of Grade test results for grades three through eight in the 2008-09 school year, and a 13 percentage point increase in grades three through eight in reading for the EOGs.

He also showed that all of the system’s high school End of Course test averages in the 2008-09 school year were above the state averages, except in U.S. History.

“We’ve got some work to do in the social studies in our high schools,” Moser said.

Several parents attended the meeting, using the opportunity to ask administrators questions about the block schedule at the high school and to comment on the high school’s seminar schedule.

Kristina Buckner, a parent with two students at Havelock High and one student at Havelock Middle, commended the district for the new seminar schedule.

The seminar schedule is in place at West Craven High and at Havelock High, and it will go into place at New Bern High in the spring. It creates a period each day for students to go back to each of their classes to get remediation.

Buckner said the schedule allows students to get help during school hours so they don’t have to stay after school and interfere with their extracurricular or job activities.

“They don’t mind going to it as much,” she said.

Another parent who attended the meeting, Stephanie Sieber, asked about the block scheduling at the high schools because she has concerns about its effect on math and foreign language learning, and on the children of military families who transfer into the system in the middle of the year.

 Sieber said her child took math during the fall semester at Havelock High and then again in the spring semester of her sophomore year, leaving a year between the two courses. The schedule makes the courses more difficult because “they’re not continuously using those skills,” she said.

Sieber suggested the schools use a yearlong schedule with students taking one set of courses on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and another set on Tuesday and Thursday.

Moser said the school system has had discussions about the block scheduling, and he added some of Sieber’s concerns to the agenda for a cabinet meeting of administrators next week.

“There are pros and cons with the yearlong traditional schedule, just like there are pros and cons with the block schedule,” he said, adding that no matter what a person’s preference, online learning is an option for students.

He also made a phone call to guidance counselors at New Bern High to find out if students’ math courses are being scheduled back to back. The scheduling is important, he said, especially since the district is looking at putting a new integrated math curriculum in place.

“We’re always looking for feedback and suggestions,” Moser said. “Parents are very important stakeholders.”

Laura Oleniacz can be reached at 252-635-5675 or at loleniacz@freedomenc.com.