Whatever the challenges faced by school systems serving North Carolina's prosperous cities and suburbs, the challenges dogging schools in our hard-pressed rural counties often are bigger and tougher. The schools in Halifax County are a prominent case in point - and the state's efforts to turn those schools around amount to an important test case with far-reaching impact.
As The N&O's Lynn Bonner reported on Sunday, results in the first year since state education officials began intensive supervision and reform of the Halifax schools are mixed. That, however, is no reason to let up. Even in a school system with only 3,951 students, that is 3,951 too many to have to endure what a state Superior Court judge termed "academic genocide."
Here's a key indicator: 84 percent of those students are eligible for federally subsidized meals because of low family income. That signals the poverty that is endemic in Halifax County, still largely a rural expanse of forest and croplands with a scattering of small towns where jobs are scarce. The city of Roanoke Rapids lies within the county, but has been permitted to host a separate school system whose demographics are more favorable.
No-failure zone
The Halifax schools were among the five systems that prevailed in the pivotal Leandro court case, in which the state Supreme Court in 1997 affirmed students' rights to have equal access to a decent education. No longer could the discrepancies in quality between schools in North Carolina's have and have-not counties be taken for granted.
Since then, some additional resources have been supplied by the state. But Judge Howard Manning Jr., charged with seeing that the Leandro decision is carried out, determined that the Halifax schools were still in sad shape, prompting his genocide remark. It was then that Manning ordered the state Department of Public Instruction to take control.
With DPI in charge, teachers and administrators have undergone intensive coaching and retraining. The message to Halifax staff has boiled down to "succeed or go." Jobs clearly are at stake. The goal has been to achieve a 10 percentage point increase in students' passing rates each year for three years - enough to move Halifax out of the educational intensive care ward.
Calling good teachers
While that sort of resolve may be necessary, it also runs up against the difficulties that are typical in a county like Halifax, where expectations have been low for so long and where the effort to keep good teachers can be a losing battle. Low pay, onerous working conditions and the disincentives to live in an area with few urban amenities all conspire against the teacher quality goal.
In the first year of state intervention, one of the Halifax system's two high schools showed modest improvement in test scores. At its counterpart, however, there was little change. And as The N&O noted, all the stress and leadership shuffling has had ripple effects in the teaching ranks. Turnover is high and, at least in spots, morale is low.
The State Board of Education has gone on-site in Halifax as the experiment there moves forward, a level of attention that's fitting when so much rides on the outcome. The board's chairman, Bill Harrison, visits every month or so.
Harrison says the focus now must include making sure that classes keep students engaged and challenge them to do well. Even a county where educational success has been elusive, well-trained and motivated teachers - coupled with a supportive community - can make a difference. If the schools in Halifax can do right by their students, even if it takes prodding from Raleigh, so can the schools anywhere in North Carolina.
