It’s always nice when Phil Berger pretends to care about issues in North Carolina that truly affect the citizens. And when he gets his lackeys to communicate his devotion to “equity” and “gaps” it almost reaches comically tragic proportions. Below is a tweet from his “special counsel” this past summer: That’s actually hilarious. Why? First, … Continue reading How Can Phil Berger Care About “Equity” When He Does Not Even Support Public Schools?

Despite what lawmakers and reformers may say, you can’t really be measured. In fact, those who are measuring you do not have instruments complex enough to really gauge your effectiveness. If you are a public school teacher in North Carolina, you are always under a bit of a microscope when it comes to accountability. Everybody … Continue reading Open Letter to Fellow NC Public School Teachers – What We Are Doing Cannot Really Be Measured

Here Tim Moore says there is enough money. But earlier in the month there was this:

If you make a list of the standardized tests administered by the state of North Carolina in our public schools that are both federally and state mandated, then you would still have quite a tally even if NC Finals have been eliminated. Depending on which math and science track a student has in high school, … Continue reading Giving Standardized Tests In a Nonstandard Year to Students Who Were Never Standard Is Far Below Our Standards

There are teachers in this state who literally are teaching both in-person students and still required to provide synchronous instruction to those students whose families have elected to begin this school year remotely. That could mean teaching one class section as if it were two. But there were no new hours in the day created. … Continue reading Teachers Have More Than Ever Been On Task – So Much That It Feels Like March 345th

We conclude that teacher assistants are a cost-effective means of raising student achievement, especially in reading. North Carolina has over 7400 fewer teacher assistants than it did ten years ago. Let me repeat: North Carolina has over 7400 fewer teacher assistants than it did ten years ago. When study after study published by leading education scholars … Continue reading This Pandemic Is An Opportune Time To Talk About Investing In More Teacher Assistants

The rush to find a way to further quantify the effect of the pandemic on schools without placing responsibility on our government's response to the virus is on display in HB82 in the North Carolina General Assembly. First, it would be nice to know exactly what "innovative benchmark assessments" actually are. It would also be … Continue reading “Innovative Benchmark Assessments” To Assess Learning Loss – Yet Another Horrible Idea From Raleigh

Teachers, students, and parents in our school system just received a call that school is cancelled tomorrow for inclement weather. Not a call that said we would be fully remote because of a winter storm, but an actual "snow day" is being issued. There has been talk that with the pandemic and the move to … Continue reading We Should Still Have “Snow Days” With Remote Learning

Remember that charter schools in North Carolina receive monies from local school systems where they reside, but local school boards have no jurisdiction over charters in their districts. Doesn't seem fair. That preferential treatment by the NCGA has only been exacerbated by the pandemic. Doesn't include charters. Today, this bill was filed. Doesn't include charters. … Continue reading The NCGA Is Using The Pandemic To Favor Charters Over Traditional Public Schools

Of course Sen. Phil Berger wants this bill. And of course he says that he wants to "reopen schools" when what really is happening is that schools are open already, just not all school buildings fully. Here is the link to that bill. Seems like good intentions. It's shiny. Nice veneer. And unnecessary. That ABC … Continue reading The Thin Trojan Horse That Is SB37 – That “ReOpen” Bill