I read with interest Brian Ewing’s N&R front-pager on reforms at Guilford County Schools —— redux:
Students at several schools across Guilford County are failing to make the grade.
A relatively new superintendent steps in, determined to turn things around. Teachers are required to reapply for their jobs. New magnet programs are put in place.
The year is 2001. The superintendent is Terry Grier.
“It’s a matter of trying to find the best fit for the curriculum in these schools,” Grier says at the time.
Sound familiar?
The article goes back and forth over whether or not the reforms will work this time around. School board member Amos Quick is skeptical of the reforms about to be put in place by Superintendent Mo Green, saying “history shows that this won’t have the tremendous amount of success that everyone aspires it to have.”
But here’s what jumped out at me —-“as a testament to how prevalent reform has become, UNCG recently won a nearly $7 million grant to prepare education students for dealing with school reforms.”
The article doesn’t say exactly how the grant prepares prospective teachers to “prepare for reform,” but the flip reaction would to speculate that it instructs them on how to reapply for their jobs.
