Archive for May, 2006

Why Teach?

Monday, May 22nd, 2006

Teachers are often caught between increasing pressure from administrators to improve academic performance and low pay. So why would someone teach? And what is the future of the teaching profession? As part of the series “North Carolina Voices: Studying High School” we present a live forum on teaching. Host Frank Stasio is joined by: Eddie Davis, English teacher at Hillside High School in Durham and the current president of the North Carolina Association of Educators; Melinda Chambless, a Teach for America teacher, who is about to complete her first year teaching biology at Warren County High School in Warrenton; April Tisdale, a 10-year veteran social studies teacher who has been at Enloe Magnet High School in Raleigh for the past seven years; and Kenneth Dobyns, a teacher in the Freshmen Academy at West Johnston High School in Benson.. The discussion will be presented as a public forum in Bay 7 of the American Tobacco Historic District. It is free and open to the public. (59:00)

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What’s Wrong With Boys?

Friday, May 19th, 2006

As girls continue to outperform boys in public schools, single-sex education is gaining traction as the next big reform movement. Host Frank Stasio welcomes co-host Corey Webster, a senior at Durham’s Riverside High School. Together, they speak to: Rosemary Salomone, St. John’s University law professor and author of, “Same, Different, Equal: Rethinking Single-Sex Education” (Yale University Press/2003) about the so-called boy crisis in education. Russell Harper, principal of North Carolina A&T Middle College, and Elizabeth Hudgins, senior director of policy and research at Action for Children North Carolina, weigh in on what’s being done in North Carolina to help disadvantaged boys succeed in school. Listener call-in. (59:00

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Funding High Schools

Thursday, May 18th, 2006

When it comes to education spending, we hear a lot about per pupil expenditures, rich versus poor and school districts that just can’t make ends meet. But in an era in which the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given money to some eight percent of America’s public schools, should our needy schools turn to private funding to fill the void? Host Frank Stasio talks about the history of education funding in this country and about where the future of education funding lies. Guests include: Jacob Vigdor, associate professor of public policy studies and economics at the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University; John Dornan, executive director of the Public Schools Forum of North Carolina; Todd Cohen, editor and publisher of the Philanthropy Journal; Vann Langston, director of Triangle High Five; and Lindalyn Kakadelis, director of the North Carolina Education Alliance, a part of the John Locke Foundation. This Show is part of the Series, “North Carolina Voice: Studying High School.” (59:00)(Listener Call-In)

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It’s MySpace, Not YourSpace!

Wednesday, May 17th, 2006

The new technologies that teenagers today are so well-versed in have some parents in a panic. There are criminal dangers, such as online predators, but the sheer time and emotional drain of social networking is another major concern. Host Frank Stasio speaks to Liz Perle, editor-in-chief of Commonsense Media; Green Hope High School junior Katie Marshall and her father, Steve Marshall, about setting up family internet policies. Listener Call-In. (40:00)

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At The Capitol

Wednesday, May 17th, 2006

The North Carolina General Assembly passed its first piece of legislation of the 2006 short session, an emergency funding bill for the state’s prisons. What else is on the docket? Host Frank Stasio checks in with Laura Leslie, capitol reporter at North Carolina Public Radio – WUNC. (12:00)

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