FRIDAY, July 13, 2007 — Pointing to an increasingly-competitive global economy and rapidly-changing culture, North Carolina State Board of Education Chairman Howard Lee said radical change is needed in North Carolina public schools for students to succeed in the future.

Many schools have been improving. In fact, the chairman told about 110 community leaders attending the Committee of 100 luncheon late last month that Lee County has been one of those school systems showing what he called "remarkable improvement."

On the other hand, rapid changes taking place worldwide mean you can't keep educating children in the same way they have been taught in the past. Everything needs to be reconsidered — from what subjects are taught to how schools are conceived ... and what's demanded from students.

Reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic ... and foreign language

Changes must begin with what's taught in current classrooms — or, at least, what's required for graduation. Science, higher levels of math, an enhanced ability to communicate and the need for second languages have all become more important than ever before.

Even that simple fact has met some resistance, Lee said, often from people who still don't believe studying a second language is important.

"That is a backwards thought," he countered. "We live in a world today where second languages are a necessity for survival — not just a luxury that one has. It's no longer our kids competing with kids in the next county, or within our state, or with the next state. Our kids must be prepared today to compete with kids in China. In India. In Japan."

But that's just the beginning. The amount of time spent in school could eventually emerge on the state board's agenda. Lee says no plans are being discussed now, but he supports lengthening the school day and increasing the number of days students are in class each year.

Most Tar Heel students attend class six hours or less each day for 180 days each year. Lee said the school day is "much longer" in other nations, and their academic years often include 220 days of instruction.

"It's something we will need to revisit," he said, "and we'll need to take a more realistic look at whether or not we are putting our kids at a disadvantage because we're not giving them the additional course exposure they need — such as history, economics, technology and skills that are needed to take on the challenges of new jobs."

One size does not fit all

Many educational structures need to be changed, too, because they're holding back some students' progress, particularly advanced students who can be limited by schools designed primarily to make sure lower-achieving students are improving.

"The way we've designed things today, it does not allow the kid who is capable of doing more advanced work faster to be able to accelerate in most departments — not all, but most," Lee said. "It requires us to look at the child who is not performing well at the bottom of the ladder. And so we spend an enormous amount of time trying to lift the bottom and, at the same time, not giving adequate attention to the top.

"Now, how do we resolve that? First of all, one size of education should not be designed to fit all."

Lee believes it's critical for students to advance individually, based on their own knowledge and skills, and there are many potential solutions — some fairly radical, others more conventional.

One recent initiative is North Carolina's "Virtual Public School," a collection of online courses and support services now available to students from Murphy to Manteo. It's not for everyone, Lee cautioned, but it does give motivated students a range of new opportunities that simply didn't exist in many local schools.

But smaller is better, at least for schools

Even the school, not just the curriculum, needs to be restructured. While large schools have become commonplace, thanks primarily to economic pressures, Lee believes these big schools can actually make it more difficult for students to learn.

Building one large facility, rather than two smaller ones, may save money in construction, staffing and operating costs, but it makes it harder for students and teachers to know each other. The result can be lower graduation rates, higher dropout rates and less-targeted instruction.

So what's the magic number?

"Any time a high school exceeds 600 students, that high school is too big as far as I'm concerned," Lee said," because students then become numbers and they stop being names. We lose the identity of a student by not referring to that student by name and then we've lost that student."

But large buildings don't necessarily have to mean large schools. Breaking the large school into smaller "learning communities," each with its own principal, teachers and staff, can provide many benefits of a smaller school — including an opportunity to specialize in technology, health care, science or some other academic pursuit.

Pressure? What pressure?

With standardized tests already in place to measure improvement and even greater demands on the horizon, Lee admits that some believe there's too much pressure mounting on students. But he strongly disagreed with that assessment.

"People tell me that when we raise the bar, when we raise the standards, we place too much pressure on the students," he said. "And my response to that is, 'These students don't know pressure.'

"Unless they find themselves in the workforce where they're not qualified to get a job — that they can't get work and they don't have any way to make an income to support their family — then, they will know pressure."