When a state superintendent has to print up a lot of glossy fliers for students to "invite" them to become teachers in North Carolina, then our state obviously is having a hard time recruiting teachers. There are many reasons why we are losing teachers. Johnson himself should know as he is part of that problem … Continue reading TeachNC.org – $750,000 for Educational Propaganda

This past March Mark Johnson released his budget recommendations for the next two-year cycle for the North Carolina General Assembly to use in their shaky investment in NC’s public schools. He published those recommendations on his website. Here is part of that list. There was a $750K request for TeachNC  described by Kelly Hinchcliffe on WRAL.com as: … Continue reading It’s Here! TeachNC.org – And NC Doesn’t Need It

From the recent Public School Forum of North Carolina’s report on top ten issues in NC education: From Lindsay Mahaffey, Wake County Board of Education – District 8: If NC is the only state that puts more emphasis on proficiency than growth and counts proficiency for 80% for a school performance grade, then NC weighs proficiency … Continue reading Keeping The School Performance Grade Formula At 80/20 Is The NCGA’s Way of Fueling “School Choice”

The NC Senate released its proposed budget this week. In its pages the following search terms were used to find the frequency at which they were used. "school" - 953 times "teachers" - 127 "EVAAS" - 25 "achievement" - 14 "teacher salary" - 12 "teacher assistant" - 1 "graduate degree" - 0 "hurricane" - 13 … Continue reading Within the NC Senate Budget The Following Are Mentioned…

No Senate budget in the state of North Carolina gets released without Phil Berger's approval. And the one yesterday did nothing to help relieve what has been ailing public education in NC. If the NC Senate's budget has its way: Schools will still be judged by the 80/20 formula where the %80 is achievement. NC … Continue reading Call It For What It Is: Phil Berger Does Not Support Public Schools

On Tuesday afternoon, Sen. Phil Berger and other GOP leaders from the NC Senate will present their budget proposal for the next two years. Below is a snippet of the tweet sent out by his office offering some highlights. And there are some inviting numbers there. But remember that the House budget proposal that was … Continue reading Another “Berger Bonus” Is Not What We Need – Reward Versus Respect

In the long session of 2014, the NC General Assembly raised salaries for teachers in certain experience brackets that allowed them to say that an “average” salary for teachers was increased by over 7%. They called it a “historic raise.” However, if you divided the amount of money used in these “historic” raises by the … Continue reading Remember Longevity Pay? There WAS A Bill To Restore It.

You Know You Are a Middle-Aged Public School Teacher When… You pull a hamstring going up the stairs right after a fire drill. You make a reference to a movie that a student claims that his parent may have seen. You fondly look back at the time when there were no cellphones in the classroom. … Continue reading You Know You Are a Middle-Aged Public School Teacher When…

Last month a publication concerning the influence of Pearson Education was released entitled "Pearson 2025: Transforming teaching and privatising educational data." It's startling to read and yet it's not so hard to conceive of the conclusions that both researchers come to. And yes, "privatising" is correctly spelled as Pearson is based in London and their … Continue reading How Chemical Is NC’s Romance With The “Privatisation” of Public Educational Data?

Yesterday in response to the Public School Forum of North Carolina's report on "average" teacher salaries, Sen. Deanna Ballard issues a press release in an attempt to debunk the PSFNC's findings. In short, it was a failure of an argument. Here is the text: Credibility Crisis: Average Teacher Pay Suddenly Doesn’t Matter to Liberal Activists … Continue reading Sen. Deanna Ballard’s “Credibility Crisis” – Concerning Her Press Release on Teacher Salaries