Columbus County’s Schools

Mark Bridgers, principal of East Columbus High School

The Principal Story on North Carolina Now has focused on the leadership of three North Carolina public school principals and the impact of the seven critical standards of executive leadership developed by the Wallace Foundation.  In part four of the series, Heather Burgiss travels to Columbus County in rural southeastern North Carolina to witness a dynamic change.

According to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, many of Columbus County’s schools had struggled to meet academic expectations, now they are in the midst of a transformation. For school leaders, there is a concentrated goal to ensure that all of the 6,800 students who attend Columbus County schools make it to the finish line.

Cassie Cartrette, Principal of Old Dock Elementary School says, ‘We discuss a lot that even in kindergarten we’re responsible for that child graduating from high school.  If that child does not get what he or she needs in kindergarten, they’re not going to be ready for first and it moves on up the line.  We’ve got to make sure that they’re prepared for the next level so they won’t get so far behind and get frustrated when it does get to the high school level that they feel they have to drop out.

One of the biggest changes is the role of the principal as instructional leader.  Mark Bridgers is principal of East Columbus High School, a school that just a few years ago was designated by the state of North Carolina as a turn-around school for it’s failure to meet 60% performance on test scores.  Principal Bridgers says, ‘As an instructional leader I have tried to surround myself with very good teachers.  They’re on the front line and I’ve relied heavily on them to put in place strategies to improve student achievement and also improve curriculum.’ 

Principal Bridgers continues, ‘I think we’re on the right track with the new standards that have been set forth and have held me more accountable as instructional leader ‘ to be a facilitator, coach, to get into the rooms, to see students are actively engaged.’

Today, East Columbus High School is no longer in turn-around status.  It is thriving with better test scores. 

Over the past two years careful strategic leadership helped to decrease the Columbus County high school dropout rate by close to 30% and now the county has half the dropout rate of the state’s average.

Dr. Stephen Greene of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction says, ‘Over the last five years, the State Board of Education has been very aggressive about creating strategies to really address the high school dropout rate or the low numbers of high school graduates in our state.’

Throughout the state, principals are looking to the seven standards of school leadership developed by the Wallace Foundation.  The standards are used to evaluate a principal’s leadership effectiveness and soon new teacher standards will follow right in line with the evaluation model.

By using one of the seven critical standards, human resource leadership, Principal Tanya Head, Principal of Cerro Gordo Elementary School, empowers teachers to lead strategically in their classrooms and to learn from each other.

Principal Head says, ‘Our teachers have to be leaders in their own classrooms.   They have to look at their own data, analyze their own data, look at their lesson planning, their instructional delivery - all of those things that we have normally been looking at and giving teachers a score on.’ Now, teachers will have to do that through reflective practice.

Principals see a major catalyst coming from professional learning communities (PLCs) where teachers meet to collaborate and learn from each other.

Principal Cartrette says, ‘With the PLCs I started going in and meeting with them weekly in their grade levels. I brought the agendas in and we would talk together and now I’ve been able to pull away from those PLCs and they’re able to do them on their own.  As an instructional leader you need to let them know that you are available and what your emphasis is on and that’s on student success.’

Principal Cartrette also says that external leadership is a big pat of her job as principal as she works on relationships that foster a positive culture at the school. ‘In order for everyone to succeed, we need the parents, the teachers, the students, the businesses, everyone needs to help so that the school as a whole can succeed.’

Principal Bridgers says that his favorite part of the role of principal is ‘watching young people work, knowing that they can do it, and seeing them believe in themselves. They can improve and we’re not going to give up on them.’

Columbus County
Columbus County is located in southeastern North Carolina.  It has a population of approximately 54,746 (12% urban and 88% rural).  The population is made up of 62.8% white, 30.9% African American, 3.5% American Indian, and 2.3% Hispanic.  Columbus County’s current unemployment rate is close to 14% for the adult workforce and 27% for youth ages 16-19.  Numerous industrial plant closings have had a negative impact on the local economy.
Housed in 19 schools, the Columbus County School system serves a diverse population of 6,698 students in grades Pre-K through 12.  Approximately 70% qualify and receive free or reduced lunch and 11% are identified as Exceptional Children. 

Columbus County School Transformation Team

In the summer of 2009, the Department of Public Instruction’s transformation team and the superintendent of Columbus County schools launched a plan for professional development that would highlight how the North Carolina Standards for School Executives align with a principal’s daily life.  Principals are now focused on how the standards work with the school improvement process by incorporating them into classroom walkthroughs, teacher evaluations and other strategies.