|
 I
taught at Piedmont in Charlotte, North Carolina, from 1997 to 2007
– ten fabulous and amazing years. Piedmont is an
inner-city magnet middle school for Open Education and,
in recent years, the International Baccalaureate
program (official school certification will take place
in the 2007-2008 school year). Our Open philosophy
means we believe in the value of diversity, hands-on
real-world learning, and that students should have
choices in their learning. What this looks like in
practice is that we are constantly driven to take our
students outside the school walls for learning, bring
the community onto school grounds, expose and build our
students' respect for people and cultures unlike their
own through curriculum and cooperative teaching
strategies, and help our students find a passion in
academics, the arts, and vocations through flex
mini-classes, interdisciplinary units, a strong arts
program including drama and dance, and extra-curricular
programs.
 Piedmont
is an island of teacher creativity in a district that
values standardization and testing. While meeting
system mandates, we remain focused on the whole child,
working outside and alongside strict pacing guides and
accountability measures to engage students in profound
and personal learning. Unfortunately, that means
Piedmont teachers are often overloaded - as a staff our
biggest issue is a lack of time for planning and
teaching (see
2006
Teacher Working Conditions Survey Report, Adobe
PDF). Even so, despite a poverty index and
subgroup make-up similar to the "tougher" schools in the
district, we have a terrific reputation and and compete
successfully with the most affluent and least needy
schools in our district. Charlotte-Mecklenburg is
one of the largest and fastest growing districts in the
United States with 161 schools (including 32 middle
schools), almost 130,000 students, 8400 full-time
teachers, and an operating budget of over 1 billion
dollars (see
CMS
Fast Facts, Adobe PDF). Teacher turnover is
high - higher than the state average and almost 30% for
middle schools in the 2005-06 school year (see
NC
School Report Card, Adobe PDF).
Credits:
I wrote this description of Piedmont and CMS in August
2007. The top photo of Piedmont was taken from
10th Street in November 2005. The Charlotte
skyline was photographed by Philip Scalia, a
professional photographer, from Piedmont's roof in April
2007.
|
