CMS rolls out Eight-PLUS program
More than 2,000 below- grade-level eighth-graders may be held back
by Kathleen E. Conroy
kathleen@thecharlotteweekly.com

That’s the new superstrong message coming from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ officials as the Eight-PLUS portion of Superintendent Peter Gorman’s 2010 Strategic Plan begins cranking into immediate action.

The idea? Stop failing students during a crucial gateway year as they enter high school by making sure that all eighth-grade students are up to par.

In a letter sent home this past week to parents of all eighth-grade CMS students, Gorman reiterated that a new Eight-PLUS program will begin in the 2007-08 school year “to help eighth-grade students who may not be ready for the academic challenges of high school.”

The new CMS policy states that students who score below grade level on reading and math end-of-grade tests will not be promoted. Students also must pass all four core subjects – language arts, math, science and social studies – to be promoted.

According to Ronald Dixon, CMS assistant superintendent of middle school curriculum and instruction, EOG results will not be tallied until early June. Statistics from June 2006 show that 85 percent of CMS eighth-grade students were at or above grade level in reading while 62 percent were at grade level in mathematics. Dixon noted that the low math scores can be attributed to North Carolina’s new stricter scale for math scores.

Dixon, whose office will oversee the new program, noted that while there is only one Eight-PLUS program in CMS it will consist of three layers.

The first is a separate school, the Midwood Learning Center on Central Avenue, that will open in August 2007 with approximately 300 ninth-grade students. Only students from CMS’s four “challenge high schools” – Garinger, Waddell, West Charlotte or West Mecklenburg high schools – can attend this school. “These are students who were promoted to ninth grade but will still need reading and math intervention,” said Dixon. He added, “Other CMS high schools will create a similar on-campus Eight-PLUS program” where they will provide intensive remedial instruction to underachieving students.

Dixon said each CMS high school also will offer its own grade support program for other students prior to ninth grade. “Recruitment will begin in June after we receive EOG test scores,” he said. “It is projected that there will be approximately 2,000 students eligible for the pre-ninth grade support program based on their eighth-grade EOG reading and math scores.”

According to Gorman’s letter to parents, the Midwood facility will be required for regular education students who will be 16 or older on or before Sept. 1, 2007, who have been previously retained in middle school and who score below grade level on the eighth-grade EOGs. Attendance at the school, which will be limited to 300 students, is encouraged but optional for exceptionally challenged students with limited English proficiency. Gorman noted that within the Midwood program, students will receive “intensive support classes in reading and math that will prepare them to return to their home high schools for the 2008-09 school year … for their 10th-grade year.”

Two informational meetings about the new Midwood Learning Center will be held at Garinger High School’s auditorium on Monday, April 23, at 6 p.m., and in Waddell High School’s media center on Tuesday, April 24, at 6 p.m.

“These … meetings are only for general informational purposes,” Dixon added. “We will conduct more personal meetings with parents in June after EOG scores are released.”