I believe every policy maker who touts “personalized learning” and screams  “differentiated instruction” in our schools to reach every child maximally without supporting the LEANDRO decision should sit in on some IEP meetings – the tough ones where parents and schools struggle to find what is not only appropriate for the student, but how those … Continue reading Dear Lawmaker Who Does Not Support LEANDRO, You Are Invited to My Son’s Next IEP Meeting (And While You Are At It, Spend a Day Following an EC Teacher)

Upon looking at the 2.0 version of Operation Polaris from the State Superintendent, it's hard not to sense that it is just another coat of glossy "educationalese" from a gallon of propaganda painted on an education system that already has a solution mapped out and outlined: the LEANDRO decision. Released this week, Operation Polaris 2.0 … Continue reading Supt. Truitt’s “North Star” Should Be LEANDRO – Looking At Operation Polaris 2.0

The hypocrisy of Sen. Phil Berger's explanation of not funding the court ordered LEANDRO plan seems to know no bounds. In fact it is blatant. The man who says that public schools will not imporve if given more money wants to literally give more money to corporations via tax cuts so they can ... be … Continue reading Why Won’t Berger Honor LEANDRO? It Would Hurt His Plan To Fuel School Choice.

So much has been written and posted in education news outlets concerning the use of technology in North Carolina over the years. From the newly released Operation Polaris 2.0 on page 34: That's coming from the same person (Supt. Truitt) who screamed about learning loss from remote learning during the pandemic and still has not … Continue reading The Best “Technology” In Education Is Still The Well-Resourced Teacher

There seems to be something amiss when your high school’s football team plays a home game before students even attend their first class. Why? Because we start school too late in North Carolina. As it stands right now, a special provision in the budget bill in the 2012 legislative session (Senate Bill 187, Session Law … Continue reading Again, Why Do We Have Exams After The Winter Break? Change The Calendar!

It's a headline that no person who works in public schools ever wants to hear or see. It's that "the gunshot was not an accident" part that really shocks me above being already shocked. First grade. Not a high-schooler or college student. A six-year-old premeditatively brought a loaded gun to school, knew how it worked, … Continue reading A Six-Year-Old Deliberately Shot A Teacher. We Really Need To Ask Some Tough Questions – And Seek Real Answers.

Despite what lawmakers and reformers may say, you can’t really be measured. Not even EVAAS scores come close to attempting to measure you. In fact, those who are measuring you do not have instruments complex enough to really gauge your effectiveness. They are too busy trying to disparage public education. If you are a public … Continue reading Dear Fellow NC Public School Teachers – What We Do Cannot Really Be Measured

Last summer BEST NC published its annual report called Facts & Figures: Education in North Carolina. BESTNC stands for Business for Educational Success and Transformation North Carolina. Their legal name is North Carolina Business Leaders for Education. They tout a very impressive list of business leaders among their ranks, but their name is in direct contradiction to … Continue reading Damn! The Average Teacher Compensation In NC Is $79,996? But Maybe Consider…

In the summer of 2017, BEST NC released an op-ed on EdNC.org about Shamrock Gardens Elementary School and their use of “advanced roles” for educators. And the piece made reference to BEST NC’s Education Innovation Plan, a bit of which is outlined below. It’s an ingrained part of the new teacher licensure path as proposed by The … Continue reading About Those “Advanced Roles” For Teachers

There are very concrete reasons to not trust our State Treasurer Dale Folwell. Any remaining trust that this teacher had in him faded even more with news yesterday that he was awarding the state's health care contract to a new company after 40 years with Blue Cross / Blue Shield. The new plan is supposedly … Continue reading This Teacher Does Not Trust The State Treasurer. Why Switching To Aetna From BCBSNC Is Concerning.