Carol Newman oral history interview 1, 2005 December 14

Carol Newman, longtime administrator with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) system discusses her involvement with the city's open school program between 1974 and the 1990s. Mrs. Newman describes her early interest in open education, which she experienced as a young teacher at The New School in New Jersey, and her move to Charlotte to become a staff development resource assistant for the open school program at West Charlotte High School. She describes open education as a national educational movement that was not always understood or properly applied at the local level, and points out that this was the case at West Charlotte where teachers had no training in open education methods when the program began. Following her support role at West Charlotte, Mrs. Newman developed and ran the Teacher Resource Center for CMS, which supplied local teachers with educational ideas and materials. Mrs. Newman also discusses the implications of open education for her two children, noting that they benefited not just from open educational methods, but also from being in racially, ethnically, and economically diverse student populations at Irwin Elementary, Piedmont Middle and West Charlotte High School.