Remarks by R. Scott Ralls, Ph.D.
President-Elect
North Carolina Community College System
Panel of CEOs
February 6, 2008
William C. and Ida Friday Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Good afternoon. I appreciate your invitation to represent the North Carolina Community College System in the absence of President Martin Lancaster, who has a long-standing obligation in Washington, DC today.
I speak on behalf of the State Board of Community Colleges and the leaders, faculty, staff and the approximately 800,000 students of North Carolina's 58 comprehensive community colleges. At community colleges, we're about jobs -- helping the state attract, grow and retain good jobs; preparing North Carolinians to obtain and maintain good jobs; and working to meet urgent workforce needs.
Keys to our state’s economic prosperity are strong public schools and seamless educational pathways. The North Carolina Community College System is completely committed to this critical agenda.
As president of Craven Community College in New Bern, I have learned that before moving to new initiatives, we need to celebrate recent accomplishments – I have a tendency to quickly say “what’s next?,” “what is yet to do?.” I would like to take this opportunity to celebrate what your leadership has made possible by giving you a personal picture of the remarkable opportunities currently available to students today. Thanks to the Learn and Earn Initiative, 2 + 2 degree completion programs, and the strong progressive leadership of Governor Easley, the General Assembly and the educational leaders in this room, extraordinary educational opportunities are becoming increasingly ordinary for students across this state.
One of those students, Teresa Watson, lives in the opposite corner of the state from where I currently live. Teresa is from Caldwell County, where the Appalachians meet the Piedmont in North Carolina's historic furniture belt. Communities there are struggling with the shutdown of industries that for generations have provided good jobs for people with little education. Teresa is close to finishing her credentials to teach middle school math as one of the many nontraditional college students who now make up the majority of college students in our state and across the nation.
Teresa is just the kind of teacher our public schools need -- a mature adult, happily married, mother to two teenagers, firmly settled in a small town she loves and determined to teach tough subjects to youngsters who need strong guidance. Teresa will be able to do that in large part because she is one of the first class of GSK Teaching Scholars in North Carolina, funded by GSK and the General Assembly to encourage "home-grown" teacher partnerships in North Carolina.
With her scholarship, Teresa will complete her college transfer degree at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute then transfer into a university teacher education program offered on Caldwell's campus. And she won't have to move away from her family or drive mountain roads in treacherous weather to accomplish her dream. Teresa’s extraordinary opportunity will multiply in impact for her future students, as Teresa will become one of a growing number of “home-grown” teachers trained through 2+2 partnerships between universities and community colleges. A short list includes: the Appalachian Learning Alliance with Appalachian State and ten community colleges including Caldwell; the original teaching program between Coastal Carolina Community College and UNC-Wilmington; the strong partnership between Surry Community College and Lees-McCrae College from the ranks of our independent colleagues; and Wachovia Partnership East linking East Carolina University with eastern community colleges, including Craven, as well as private Louisburg College.
Some of our exciting partnerships these days are those that go in the OTHER direction -- linking community colleges with high schools.
From my office in New Bern, I can look out my window and see a public school, Craven Early College, located in the center of the Craven Community College campus. We call the school's temporary structures “learning cottages” instead of “doublewide trailers,” and when you put a group of “learning cottages” together, it makes a “learning village” instead of a trailer park. While the facilities are unimpressive, students of ordinary means are experiencing extraordinary educational opportunities. Students participate in a rigorous, project-based interdisciplinary high school curriculum; they use classroom technology and personal laptops donated by local businesses and donors; and they take college courses leading to pathways in engineering, information technology, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, and education.
Crystal Hickey is a tenth-grader who loves math. She came to Craven Early College in part for the opportunity to take “more math classes” in sequences not frequently found. Crystal also benefits from our college's Undergraduate Engineering Education Partnership with N.C. State and the presence on our campus of Dr. Bill Fortney, a remarkable NC State College of Engineering faculty member. Last year Crystal was one of five Craven Early College high school students -- and the only female -- who took a college “Introduction to Engineering” course from Dr. Fortney. Dr. Fortney met with Crystal and the other Early College High School students frequently, and together they mentored students at Brinson Elementary School in the Lego Engineering Competition – talk about seamless education.
On the last day of school, I passed Crystal on campus and stopped to visit. “I’m a little confused right now,” she said. “Not so sure about engineering?” I asked. “No it’s not that,” she said, “I’m just not sure whether I will want to go into mechanical, electrical, or aerospace.”
Just a sophomore, Crystal has already had the opportunity to successfully complete other college classes such as computer programming, and she, like the other Early College students, will be able to complete an Associates' Degree with only one additional year of study after high school. Crystal’s story, like those of other Learn and Earn students, has yet to be completed, but I look forward to following it closely. Just this week, I received a note from an Early College parent saying that the “Early College is the best thing to have happened to her son.”
One pathway Crystal and other students could select – thanks to seamless education – is that she could transfer directly to the N.C. State College of Engineering, or she might directly enter our community’s workforce, which employs the third highest percentage of engineers in the state in private companies and the military.
If Crystal does go straight to work, her education should not end -- thanks to seamless education. Through our partnership with NC State, Crystal could complete her Bachelor of Science in Engineering without leaving the Craven Community College campus in Havelock. If she changes her mind about careers, she could complete one of 18 other degrees on-site or on-line through our University Connections partnership with East Carolina University, NC State and the UNC System.
Crystal may decide she wants to be a teacher and take advantage of Wachovia Partnership East, which I touched on earlier. Wachovia Partnership East includes East Carolina University College of Education; four regional consortia covering 19 community colleges plus Louisburg College; 37 school systems; and a "virtual" community college. Craven Community College was the first college site for this program and, under the great leadership of ECU faculty member Anne Faulkenberry is the hub of the Coastal Consortium-- so I know FIRST HAND how important and successful the concept is.
Just in Craven County, Wachovia Partnership East has already sent 33 new public school teachers armed with ECU's excellent education degrees into classrooms -- “homegrown” teachers who want to teach, live and stay in eastern North Carolina.
Now what is most remarkable to me is not just that this one tenth grader from ordinary means in Eastern North Carolina has such extraordinary educational opportunities but that in our state, thanks to Governor Easley’s leadership and support from the General Assembly, the leadership of the people in this room and the pioneers who came before us, the extraordinary is becoming more and more “ordinary” for all North Carolinians.
North Carolina is the national leader of the Early College movement – with 25% of the nation’s Early College high schools located here. We are proud that 88% of those North Carolina Early College High Schools are located on community college campuses and that 63% of the students they serve will be the first in their families to attend college. Extraordinary indeed.
In closing, I must reflect, however, that this progress, while extraordinary, it is not sufficient for the extraordinary and unprecedented challenges our state and our people will soon face.
I must revert to my natural inclination to ask "What’s next?" as we deal with economic restructuring, international competition, the retirement of the baby boom generation, and inadequate graduation and program completion rates. For decades our state has championed the mantra that “education is economic development,” and education will be at the center of the solutions to the economic challenges North Carolina confronts over the next twenty years.
Our option for addressing these extraordinary challenges – our only option -- is unprecedented collaboration and seamless approaches to education that are now well-proven.
As the incoming President of the North Carolina Community College System, I assure you that I am committed to our continued progress because I have personally seen how partnerships and seamless education transform lives and communities. I also commit to you the support of the North Carolina Community College System, because through collaboration we will not only transform K-12 educational opportunities, but we will transform the economic opportunities for North Carolina’s children for years to come. Thank you.
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