Yes. Election Day is approaching. And it seems like every political sign that I see on the sides of roads and at interchanges is for one particular race: the local school board. Throw around terms like “CRT,” “learning loss,” “mask mandates,” “indoctrination,” and “transparency,” add to them some righteous anger, and you have some rather … Continue reading To The School Board Candidate Who Knows Nothing About How Schools Really Operate

It launched in August of 2019. A superfluous program that even the idea of would have never been needed if North Carolina had not done so much damage to the teaching profession in the last ten years. It’s called Teach North Carolina or TeachNC. Remember back in May of 2019 when then State Superintendent Mark … Continue reading So, How Are Those Vacancies Going?

When State Supt. Catherine puts out a survey or questionnaire to get "input" about a subject, it usually is constructed to become a self-fulfilled prophecy that is only a win-win situation for DPI's image. Here is the latest one: It's really not that long. Publicity stunt pure and simple. Why? BECAUSE WE ALREADY KNOW THESE … Continue reading That Survey From DPI About The School Performance Grades? It’s A Sham.

The formula is 80% achievement and 20% growth. Ridiculous. A school's grade on its report card is mostly based on standardized test scores. Name another state that does that. Still waiting. Anyone who has followed the use of these school performance grades knows that the only real metric that gets measured accurately is how much … Continue reading Don’t Reconsider The School Performance Grading System, Catherine – Eliminate It. But We All Know Who Helped Finance Your Campaign.

The teacher licensure / pay proposal that has taken over 18 months to not even get a full rough draft constructed still is based on merit pay. And no matter how many times State Supt. Catherine Truitt tries to spin, redirect, or pivot, she still seems to be in denial that merit does not work. … Continue reading Dammit, Catherine! It’s Still Merit Pay Even If You Say It Isn’t.

The day before the NC State Supreme Court was to hear arguments about funding the LEANDRO case directive last week, State Supt. Catherine Truitt sent out the following tweet (along with other data points). The data is below: Please understand that there is a difference between recurring and nonrecurring funds. Recurring funds means that that … Continue reading Looking At Recurring Vs. Nonrecurring Funds For Public Education

There are no “silver bullets” or “magic pills” when it comes to changing a school. There is no one thing that can be done, no standard blueprint, no Harry Potter spell that can be executed that will make a struggling school turn its fortune around overnight. Rather, transforming schools is a process – one that … Continue reading There Are No “Silver Bullets” or “Magic Pills” in Changing Schools – People Make Schools Work. Invest In Them.

There is no doubt that the new merit pay-based teacher licensure and pay proposal is not beneficial to the teaching profession and the state of North Carolina. When the Department of Public Instruction has to hire a public relations firm whose past includes marketing controversial menthol-infused cigarettes to a certain demographic for a profit to … Continue reading I Don’t Need To Drink DPI’s Kool-Aid To Tell A “Truthful & Authentic” Story About Teaching In NC

Today school performance grades for the 2021-2022 school year were released. The only positive about those school performance grades in relation to the last time they were issued (three years ago) is that the NCGA kept the scale at a 15-point scale instead of what was planned originally for the 2020-2021 school year: making it … Continue reading School Performance Grades Come Out Today – The Gerrymandered NCGA’s Continued Use Of Poverty To Drive “School Choice”