Wednesday, December 1, 2004

Teacher loses job after distributing reports negative of SAT scores

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

DURHAM

A faculty leader at North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics has lost her job at the elite public high school after she distributed reports showing a drop in students' average SAT scores.

Faculty Council President Carol O'Dell, who has been at the school for five years, said she suspects school administrators are allowing her contract to lapse as payback for her criticism and a warning to other teachers.

"If you can successfully remove the president of the Faculty Council, who has been outspoken on important issues, that sends everyone for cover," she said.

Last year, O'Dell compiled and circulated a paper questioning a decline in SAT scores at the school for the state's top science and math students. A similar report O'Dell compiled and distributed this year shows the average SAT score for students graduating from the school is down 35 points since 1996, even as scores have risen statewide. The scores at the high school remain the highest in the state.

Science and Math President Gerald Boarman blames the drop on a 1995 law that requires the school to admit a more geographically balanced student body, rather than accepting only the top students from the state's most prosperous areas.

In a letter to O'Dell dated Nov. 18, the school's administrators listed five reasons for not renewing her contract. Among these was O'Dell's circulation of "research reports" to staff, students and the public and for having an unusually large number of parent complaints and student transfer requests.