Since I got a question about the schools in the US, this extra report from my stay in Chapel Hill is mainly about the school systems for children and adolescents.  The information is based on what I have been told about schools in North Carolina generally and schools in Durham particularly. I have to say, that I find some facts a little bit inconsistent, but maybe it still provides some interesting information for you.

The state North Carolina has 100 counties but 114 school districts. Each school district has a board of education with a superintendent as boss. The schools are for all children, that is for typically developed and children with disabilities. Children are legally forced to stay in school for 13 years. They start at age 4-6 in Kindergarten (K). A four year old child has to become five in October the year it goes to school. This means that the classes have a wide range of ages (up to 1 year 9 months). The US states have planned for compulsory school start as early as at the age of 3 or 4, but it has been delayed because of the budget.

Parents do not pay tutorials for children in compulsory public schools. City-schools are paid by the community, the county, and the state. Recourses for special needs are paid by federal money. People pay taxes based on property to all these four society levels. The taxes are paid once/year and for a townhouse with a small garden, the city  and county taxes together might be around 4.500 USD plus additional 550 USD for schools. Families living far away from towns do not pay city tax as they do not belong to a community and as they are supposed to send their children to county-schools.  These use to have a poor reputation and families sometimes lie about their address to be able to enroll their children to a city-school (!). For me, it is hard to understand that the authorities do not keep information on citizens.

The school types are typically: Elementary school (K-5), Middle (6-8), High (9-12). There are also other combinations: K-8 or Secondary (6-12). Special needs schools might be K-12. EC = Exceptional Children with special needs. The average classroom sizes are 21.5 students in Kindergarten up to 27,5 students in High school.

Student racial and ethnic distribution is self-reported by parents in the following categories: Native American, Asian, Hispanic, African American, Caucasian, Multi-racial.  Multi-racial is a new and wide category meaning that the parents have different raises, whereof one might be Native American.

The quality of the schools is evaluated based on how they meet Annual Year Progress (AYP). The achievement gap is most apparent for African American men, especially on reading. Other important statistics are race, exceptionality, and free or reduced lunch (the value for SocioEconomic Status, SES).

Students from different race backgrounds show unequal ambitions and study achievement. Oct 20 , the newspaper wrote about one school district: “qualified black and Hispanic students were far less likely than their white peers to Algebra  in 8th grade. Only 40% of black and Hispanic students who were taking the course compared to nearly 60% of white students. Access to 8th-grade algebra had also been identified as a gatekeeper for college success”.  This shows that there is an achievement gap also in math, but not as apparent as for reading.

College success is followed up in various ways and shows big differences among universities . Historically there is a different distribution of students, both concerning SocioEconomic Status (SES) and race. For example, in the Triangle you can compare the state universities in Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) and Durham. UNC-CH has a good repute. It is older and has four times as many students as Durham. Most students come from other counties in the state (70% compared with 7% from the home county). In Durham the numbers are equal (35%). At UNC-CH, most students are white (72%) and just a small part is  black (11%) whereas in Durham it is the opposite way around (86% black and 7% white). Durham university is by tradition a “black university” and ranked lower than UNC-CH. The socioeconomic status is lower, the financial aid rate is high (94% compared to 63% at UNC-CH), and the quality of “everything” seems lower since the overall costs are about 60% of what the students have to pay in Chapel Hill. Many Durham college students are working (27%). In addition, the achievement rate is low at the “black university of Durham”. At UNC-CH, almost all students (97%) passed their Freshman year at college (first year) and 85% finished college after four years. In Durham 71% passed their  first year, only 23% finished college after four years, and after six years not more than 55% had finished. I find these facts quite scary and I understand it is a long “class-journey” getting over these differences. As I see it, it will not happen until the races mix up and everyone appreciate reading and education.

If we go back to the compulsory schools again, the percentage of students with free/reduced lunch (FRL) constitutes the poverty indicator, as I have described before. Sept 3, the newspaper wrote about the current situation: “During 2009-10 school year, at least 3,000 students – about 25% of students in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district – will qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. That amount is a jump of at least 8% in three years. The increase is largely due to families coping with lower incomes during the economic downturn.“ Despite this increase, the number in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area is low compared to the rest of the state, where some districts had as many as 86% of students qualifying in 2007-08. Durham with mostly African-American students, is one example of an area with a high degree of FRL.

The US has a huge teacher shortening. 50% of teachers finish within their first year. Research has showed that this is not due to large classes but there is no explanation to why teachers choose to finish. As for everything else, I hear about lots of different “programs” for example for reading and the teachers have to follow a program if it is decided. The program is often presented and directed by instructions in colorful, comprehensive books for teachers containing concrete instructions about how to plan lectures and how to teach children, including homework and tasks for the parents. These books might be a great help for inexperienced teachers during their first professional years. However, the outline has to be followed, parents have to be involved, and children who do not catch up with the others are left behind. It may be frustrating for the teachers and they have to find ways to deal with this. One scary alternative is to suggest drugs for children with too much energy. I understand extra resources might be administered to classes/schools based on the amount of children using drugs. However, when students are all calm and easy to handle, why do they need extra resources?

I think I should need to stay a very long period to find out everything I want to know about the policies, systems and habits in this big country. A colleague here told me, though, that she had worked in the field for at least 20 years and still didn’t understand how it works. So, maybe it is a good idea to go back home and be satisfied with the information I got so far. I bring back some  heavy books but all experiences I bring in my heart and laptop are not heavy at all, they rather make me fly.

When this is published by Ida in a Newsletter, I am already home in Sweden!

Margareta