4The Daily Tar HeelMonday, November 23, 1992
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31
Educators work to create N.C. social studies school
By Beth McNichol
Staff Writer
Concerned that too much emphasis
is being placed on building mathemati
cal and science skills to improve educa
tion in North Carolina, a group of par
ems and professionals are working to
create a new N.C. High School of Social
Studies.
John Rimberg, a social sciences pro
fessor at Pembroke State University,
said he proposed the nation's first resi
dential public high school devoted to
specialized social studies courses in
1987.
The school, which would resemble
the N.C. School of the Arts in Winston
Salem and the N.C. School of Science
and Math in Durham, would take a
critical step forward in placing N.C.
students back among the best and bright
est in the nation, Rimberg said.
"All of North Carolina is behind when
you compare the state on a national
level," Rimberg said. "Even our A stu
Grading plan for N.C. public schools creates controversy
By Paul Garber
Suff Writer
Although the N.C. General Assem
bly passed a measure that will grade
public schools individually to keep track
of their progress, some education offi
cials worry that the grades will be used
by the public to compare the schools.
The grades will be issued in the form
of report cards and will be implemented
March 15 to evaluate the 1993-94 school
year, said John Hawes, chief consultant
for accreditation at the N.C. Depart
ment of Public Instruction.
Hawes said the report cards would be
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dents and so-called 'honor students' are
not on a par with students in Minnesota
or Wisconsin."
The school would be open to about
300 high school juniors and seniors and
would offer courses in international re
lations, political science, business, law
and foreign language, he said.
Rimberg said these concentrations
would better prepare high school stu
dents for cooperation with foreign na
tions and leadership on the world front.
For example, a student with experience
in French at the freshmansophomore
level would continue to study it as a
junior and senior while beginning to
learn a "diplomatic" language such as
Swahili or Japanese, he said.
"The goal would be to have that
student be able to carry on a conversa
tion with a 5-year-old of those regions
who speak the language," Rimberg said.
"We're trying to teach languages in the
same way that native children of all
countries learn language: by hearing
and speaking it first."
broken down into three categories:
school characteristics, such as atten
dance and student-teacher ratio; stu
dent performance, such as SAT scores
and post-graduation performan and
school performance, such as dropout
rates and participation in Advanced
Placement classes. "The report cards
will be a report to the public for how
well improvement plans are working,"
Hawes said.
N.C. Rep. Anne Barnes, D-Orange,
said that each school would have a
three-year improvement plan and that
the report cards would help to evaluate
those plans.
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The present talk of intensifying math
and science studies overlooks the true
key to building leaders for the future,
said Martha McKee-Sharpe, president
of the fund-raising arm of the N.C. High
School of Social Studies Foundation.
"We're concerned a lot about math
and science in preparing children to
compete with other nations, but we seem
to forget that we need to understand
multiculturalism perspectives in order
to communicate effectively with other
countries," McKee-Sharpe said.
Rimberg agreed. "We can't afford to
shift the emphasis away from social
studies because it is the underpinning of
our American way of life, even more so
than science and math," he said. "You
can't run a democratic society unless
we have an understanding of all the
things involved."
But the school's program will not be
limited to social studies, Rimberg said.
Juniors at the school will follow much
the same curriculum as those in the
present public education system, with
"Improvements will be made at the
building level, so it's natural that the
report cards be done at the school level,"
she said.
Barnes said the report-card system
would ensure more involvement from
parents and teachers at the school level.
"(The system) is a different style of
leadership," she said. "It lets them share
in the decision-making.
But some education officials warn
that the statewide report cards have the
possibility for abuse if they were used to
compare schools.
"I would think that there's a potential
Council
mittee hoped to receive the money.
Committee Co-chairwoman Betty
Caldwell said the committee needed the
support of the town before it could ask
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Introducing the
raw
courses in advanced level sciences like
physics and trigonometry. As the stu
dents enter their senior year, even more
emphasis will be placed on the social
studies curriculum, he said.
The 35-member Committee to Es
tablish the N.C. High School of Social
Studies is working to establish the school
on five university campuses across the
state, sharing university facilities such
as laboratories and libraries.
The satellite campuses would each
house about 60 students in dormitories,
equally divided across gender lines.
Tentative sites for the school include:
Elizabeth City State University or East
Carolina University in the northeast;
UNC-Wilmington, Pembroke State, or
Fayetteville State University in the
southeast; UNC-Asheville or UNC
Charlotte in the southwest; Appalachian
State, Winston-Salem State or the N.C.
School of the Arts in the northwest; and
a location in the Research Triangle Park.
Although the committee has received
support from those in the educational
for considerable abuse," said Neil '
Pedersen, superintendent of Chapel Hill
Carrboro City Schools. "If the grades or
results are higher at one school than
another, the public is inclined to believe
one school is better than another," he
said. "That may not be true."
Pederson said the backgrounds of
students should be considered in the
evaluation of the schools. "The meth
odology used should factor in demo
graphics so we don't make compari
sons," he said.
Barnes said that comparisons be
tween schools were not the purpose of
for help from other sources.
Preston said she hoped that local
utility companies would provide free
lighting and local advertising compa-
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community, it has also met its share of
criticism. Don Stedman, dean of the
UNC School of Education, said he was
opposed to residential high schools
which cater to "fast-track students."
"It generally provides a highly spe
cialized experience for gifted students,
but it doesn't have many benefits for
other high school students," he said.
Stedman said that unless the school
encompassed the "whole spectrum of
educational performances," a school
such as the N.C. High School of Social
Studies would not be in the public's
interest.
"That probably makes me the mug
wump of the week, but these things
appear kind of glitzy sometimes, and
we must ultimately decide if it's in the
public interest," he said.
But Rimberg said the committee was
sensitive about telling students "they
are not good enough." The only restric
tion upon entrance would be "deviants"
who hold convictions and histories of
disruptive natures.
the grading but that such comparisons
would not necessarily be negative. Com
parisons might help schools focus on
their problems and allocate educational
resources to needed areas, she said.
David Thaden, assistant principal at
Chapel Hill High School, said that when
comparisons between schools were
made, the schools tended to be in the
same socio-economic categories, which
would minimize the differences.
Thaden said that since CHHS usu
ally ranked high in educational statis
tics, he did not think the report cards
would have a large effect on the school.
from page 3
nies would provide free advertising.
Preston said the committee was work
ing in coordination with the University.
But Caldwell said the University and
the town had different agendas for their
bicentennial celebrations.
"The University has its own entirely
separate activities and a lot more of
them," Caldwell said.
The celebration will consist of a
drama presentation spotlighting impor
tant events and people in Chapel Hill's
history with drama, song and dance.
A book about Chapel Hill residents,
which now is being compiled, will be
the background of the day's celebra
tion. Tentative plans include tours of
historic areas, and a Franklin Street
parade.
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German youths killed
Jewish man, Israel says
BERLIN German authorities re
fused comment Sunday on a report in
Israel that skinheads beat a Jewish man,
set him afire and dumped his body.
Israel radio reported Sunday that the
attack took place nine days ago in
Wuppertal, north of Bonn.
The radio report, citing German po
lice, said two youths beat the man,
doused his body with alcohol and set
him on fire, then dumped the body
over the Dutch border, where it was
found in the city of Venlo the next day.
It said the two youth, and a friend
whose truck was used to carry the corpse,
were arrested. The victim was not iden
tified. A police official in Wuppertal Sun
day night would not confirm the inci
dent, which was not reported in Ger
many. The official, speaking on condi
tion of anonymity, referred inquiries to
the prosecutor's office today.
Wuppertal is the site of a century-old
Jewish cemetery where nearly half of
the 190 gTaves were vandalized Nov. 2,
one of several recent anti-Semitic acts
in Germany.
Irish abortion plan
criticized from all sides
DUBLIN, Ireland The
government' s plan to redefine Ireland' s
abortion law has brought both sides of
the debate into rare agreement.
For very different reasons, they're
urging rejection of a proposed constitu
tional amendment that would allow the
procedure to save the mother's life.
However, opinion polls suggest that
voters will affirm a woman's right to
have an abortion in another country and
allow access to information about abor
tion available outside Ireland.
Ireland's abortion law is the most
restrictive in Europe, allowing only a
"morning-after" pill that terminates
pregnancies in the first 72 hours. More
than 4,000 women travel to Britain for
abortions every year.
In Wednesday's vote, three ques
tions on abortion will be decided, in the
form of three constitutional amend
ments. The "no" campaign focuses on
an amendment that would permit abor
tion to save the life, "as distinct from the
health," of the mother.
The Associated Press
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