4
Tuesday, March 27, 2001
Schools Enact Proficiency Standards
By Susan Hall
Staff Writer
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City schools
are bearing down on students’ profi
ciency standards, leaving school admin
istrators tom between the benefits and
costs of the new system.
North Carolina’s state accountability
model, adopted to improve education
by tracking and being more strict about
student progress, is slowly being enact
ed by local school officials.
One part of the system tests students
on their comprehension of general sub
ject matter to make sure they are pre
pared to advance to the next grade level.
The tests aim to identify students’ prob
lems so teachers can address them and
ensure future success, said Emily Bivins,
director of elementary instruction and staff
development for the school system.
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But David Thaden, principal of East
Chapel Hill High School, said he worries
that the new standards will have a nega
tive effect on some students, forcing them
to take more tests to move on. “Clearly
the system has ratcheted up expectations
of students," he said. “This could single
handedly double the number of kids who
don’t graduate."
The new state accountability model
focuses on four “gateway" years - third,
fifth, eighth and 11th grades. At the end of
these years, students must pass an exit test
in order to graduate to the next grade.
Parents can learn more about the
new standards at a meeting at 7 p.m.
tonight at the Arbor Meadows
Community Room, 112 N.C. 54 Bypass.
Thaden and Carrboro Elementary
School Principal Randy Marshall both
said they worry that too much emphasis
on testing will cause students who do
University & City
not perform well to be discouraged.
Marshall’s main concern is for third
graders who he said he feels are too
young to be tested so definitively.
“I’d prefer a situation where kids are
given more time to become proficient No
matter how much we help them, we can
end up creating frustration, and they’ll
decide they’re not going to succeed."
But Chapel Hill High School
Principal Mary Ann Hardebeck also
said the new standards will create rigor
within the curriculum.
Hardebeck said she thought the
preparation students will get in elemen
tary and middle school will better ready
them for high school.“( The new sys
tem) is very good preparation because it
sets a benchmark for the skills they’ll
need in high school,” she said.
But Thaden said there would definite
ly be a difference in the results the new
system produced, although he said he
wasn’t sure whether it would be a positive
one. “A 2005 graduate’s profile will be sig
nificantly different from a 2000 grad’s.”
The City Editor can be reached
at citydesk@unc.edu.
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Council Hears UNC Issues
The Faculty Council talked
about the chancellor's trip
to Mexico, the Master Plan
and graduate student life.
By Jennifer Coughlan
Staff Writer
UNC faculty, students and adminis
trators gathered to discuss the recendy
approved Master Plan and a hodge
podge of other University issues at
Friday’s Faculty Council meeting.
Chancellor James Moeser opened the
meeting in Wilson Library and addressed
implications of the Master Plan, a model
for long-term growth approved Thursday
by the Board of Trustees.
Council members expressed concern
that the relationship between UNC and
town officials might become strained
because town officials and local resi
dents wanted to delay University action
on the plan.
But Moeser reported cordial interac-
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tion between the town and campus lead
ers.
“This is a plan which, in my view,
greatly benefits the community as well
as the University,” he said.
“I think most people realize that a
dynamic university must be allowed to
grow.”
Faculty Chairwoman Sue Estroff fur
ther expressed anticipation of the
upcoming growth as a result of the
plan’s ratification.
“We are experiencing what seem to
be growing pains and pleasures,” Estroff
said.
The council also used the meeting to
discuss several other issues affecting the
University.
Moeser thanked faculty members for
their work in obtaining research grants,
citing a recent increase in research money
the University has been awarded from the
National Institutes of Health.
Mikisha Brown, president-elect of the
Graduate and Professional Student
Federation, attended her first Faculty
Council meeting and spoke to the coun
cil about her goals for the GPSF.
“A major part of my tenure ... will be
focused on improving student life,” she
said.
Graduate students Andrew Leiter,
Jon Lepofsky, Brian Thomas and
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Michael Everton also attended the meet
ing to advocate increased pay and
health care benefits for teaching assis
tants and other student employees.
The students stressed that these ben
efits would allow graduate students to
focus on their studies rather than relying
on second jobs to pay for daily needs.
John Hammond, chairman of the
Administrative Board of the Library,
spoke on several issues currendy facing
the University’s libraries.
Hammond discussed the need to elim
inate inefficiency in the library materials
budget to keep pace with the library’s
growing expenditures and maintain the
library’s ability to promote scholarship.
Aside from local issues, Moeser dis
cussed his recent trip to the Monterrey
Institute of Technology in Mexico and the
University’s growing alliance with the
school.
He described Monterrey Tech as one
of the most technologically advanced
universities of the western hemisphere
and expressed hope that the alliance
would contribute to UNC’s study
abroad programs in Mexico.
Moeser said, “I believe there is a very
fertile ground for interaction.”
The University Editor can be reached
at udesk@unc.edu.