Newspapers / Philanthropy Journal of North … / May 1, 1995, edition 1 / Page 3
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May 1995 Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina Connections Teacher Sarah Rodgers, right, helps second-graders with handwriting at Fuller Elementary in Raleigh. File photo Public School Forum prepares for next decade of change Ten years after being created to help strengthen education, the Public School Forum of North Carolina con tinues to work for reforms in school classrooms across North Carolina. By Todd Cohen Raleigh r o help explain the challenges facing American education, John Dornan likes to cite a finding from a study funded several years ago by the Ford Foundation. People with different levels of education were given the same test: Open a crate containing a brand new video cas sette recorder, connect the device to a tele vision and program it to record a TV show at a given time. The people who fared worst in the test were those with graduate degrees. Those who did best were children under 12 years old, followed by hi^ school dropouts. “We’re one of the tew countries that don’t offer courses in technical reading and writing,” says Dornan, president of the Raleigh-based Public School Forum of North Carolina. “We don’t teach people to apply things. Our schools tend to prepare students to go to college, not to go to work.” Yet in an increasingly global and com petitive economy, says Dornan, the key to successfully preparing students to function in the real world is teaching them to apply the knowledge they acquire in the class room. A decade into the so-called “school reform movement” that ushered in a host of initiatives and gave birth to the Public School Forum, U.S. school still are strug gling with how to prepare students to com pete in the real world. The Public School Forum, which is cele brating its 10th anniversary this month, was created to bring together groups con cerned about education and to find ways to improve the state’s schools. The nonprofit is supported by founda tions, corporations and government research contracts. Studies it has conduct ed have helped spawn a number of statewide initiatives, including a teaching Look for FORUM, page 22 don't teach people to apply things...Our schools tend to prepare stu dents to go to college, not to go to work. JOHN DORNAN president. Public School Forum of North Carolina Leveling the field Women confront lower pay A recent N.C. Equity conference brought together women from throughout North Carolina to discuss achieving pay equity in the workplace. By Susan Gray I /I /hile women are entering the 1/1/ workforce in droves, they y V remain tar behind working men in salary and status. ‘ That was the topic of a recent all day conference in Raleigh hosted by N.C. Equity. More than 100 women from throughout North Carolina attended “Building Equity: an Economic Summit” at Meredith College on March 17. N.C. Equity, a nonprofit policy and advocacy group for women and families, invited participants from small nonprofit groups and large government agencies, as well as storefront shops and major corpora tions, to brainstorm for a day about achieving greater pay equity on the job. According to statistics cited by speakers at the conference, women make up 47 percent of North Carolina’s workforce. But, according to 1990 Census figures, half of all employed white women in the state make less than $10,700 a year. Half of all employed African- American women are paid less than $8,000. And Latino and Native- American women are paid even less than that, althou^ specific figures weren’t available. “Why do we see the work of women who are at the core of life - really our keepers of the world - why do we see their acts and much of women’s work as contemptible?” asked Gloria Scott, president of Bennett College, an historically black women’s college in Greensboro. Her question is echoed in studies that show women tend to be clus tered in low-paying jobs. According to N.C. Equity, three- fourths of the job categories in North Carolina are filled almost entirely - Jane Smith Patterson and Gov. Jim Hunt spoke at the N.C. Equity conference. 95 percent - either by men or by women. And the predominantly female fields such as clerical work or child care pay significantly less than do predominantly male fields such as science and technology. “Unfortunately, a lot has stayed the same,” said Jane. Smith Patterson, Gov. Jim Hunt’s adviser for policy, budget and technology. “Women are still earning less than men and the job of balancing career and family lands mostly on women. “The message 1 want to give you is, we can change it. I don’t care how tough it is. In North Carolina, we can change it.” Conference participants didn’t come up with simple solutions to the problem of pay equity, but they worked on short- and long-term goals in workshop sessions throu^- out the day. Topics included getting ahead in non-traditional and traditional jobs; creating business opportunities; building economic security, and bal ancing family responsibilities. Goals included creating more mentoring partnerships between professional women and female stu dents; organizing petitions to govern ment leaders; using the media to broadcast women’s achievements, and informing women about job opportunities. N.C. Equity will issue a full report of conference conclusions and goals this month. Look for PAY, page 22 Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina A Publication Of The News and Observer Foundation 215 S. McDowell St. Raleigh, NC 27601 (919) 829-8988 VoL. 2 No. 9 SUBSCRIPTION PRICES 1 year (12 issues) $57 2 years (24 issues) $104 3 years (36 issues) $143 Muitipie-copy discounts availabie. Call (919) 836-2876 for rates. FOR SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION, CALL (919) 836-2876 OR (919) 829-8991. Eyeing the charitable dollar Poll finds public skeptical of nonprofits Many North Carolinians lack confi dence in nonprofits, the latest Carolina Poll has found. An advocate for nonprofits says organizations must better edu cate people about what they do. By Todd Cohen * f orth Carolinians are slightly /\ / more likely than other / V Americans to give their time or money to charity, but people in the state also are highly wary of the use to which their charitable dollars are put. Those are among the results of a survey of Tar Heel giving and volun tarism conducted by the Carolina Poll at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The survey, commissioned by the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits in Raleigh, finds that one of every two people responding to the survey - or 50 percent - worked as a volunteer in the previous 12 months. That com pares with 48 percent of all Americans who told the Gallup Poll recently they had worked as volun teers. The Carolina Poll also finds that 79 percent of those responding made a voluntary contribution of money, property or other items to charity. That compares with 73 percent of ^ Americans, according to the Gallup Poll, which was commissioned by Independent Sector, the national coalition of nonprofits in Washington. But the conclusion that North Carolinians are more charitable than Americans overall may not be as sig nificant as it seems. The Carolina Poll, which consisted of phone inter views of 619 adults, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent. RESEARCH That means that if all adults with phones in the state had been sur veyed, the findings could have dif fered from the poll’s results by as much as tour percentage points in either direction. Making any comparison between the state and national surveys even more imprecise, the Gallup Poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. The survey was conducted between Feb. 26 and March 3 by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and by the Institute for Research in Social Science, both atUNC-CH. Another finding is that nearly four of every 10 people responding lack confidence that their donations to nonprofits “are put to proper use.” More than four in 10 are “some what confident,” and more than one in 10 are “very confident” about the uses of those funds. Leslie Takahashi, program direc tor for the N.C. Center, says that non profits can gain public trust by publi cizing the work they do. “Our feeling is that the more peo ple know about what nonprofits do with their funds, the more confidence they will have,” she says. Takahashi suggests that nonprof its give regular updates to all sup porters about how their money is being used. She also suggests that nonprofits do a better job of educat ing the media about the work they do. “The obstacle is that their story is competing with every other story that’s out there,” Takahashi says. “That’s no reason not to build rela- Look for POLL, page 22
Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina (Raleigh, N.C.)
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May 1, 1995, edition 1
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