Today school performance grades for the 2018-2019 school year will be released. The only positive about those school performance grades in relation to last year is that the NCGA kept the scale at a 15-point scale instead of what was planned for this year: making it a 10-point scale. From Public Schools First NC (PSFNC.org) … Continue reading School Performance Grades Come Out Today – The Gerrymandered NCGA’s Continued Use Of Poverty To Drive “School Choice”

Today's ruling in the Common Cause vs. David Lewis lawsuit over district lines drawn for state legislative races could be one of the greatest victories in the almost nine-year fight against the education reforms that have been tearing away at NC's public education system. It's 357 pages and can be found here - 2018-09-03_Common Cause … Continue reading 357 Pages That Could Change North Carolina Public Education – For The Better

As Hurricane Dorian moves through the Bahamas toward the southeast coast of the US, Mark Johnson sent an email with a video link to help spread the word about ReadyNC.org and urge North Carolinians to prepare for severe weather. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXFZ6GeSKQ8&feature=youtu.be Many North Carolianians have suffered through many hurricanes in the past few years and the … Continue reading The State Superintendent Just Sent An Email About Preparing For Hurricanes – Here’s What He Can Do To Prepare

Follow school-reform history and public school advocacy and you will come across the name and hopefully the work of Pasi Sahlberg, a professor of education policy at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He has devoted a lifetime of study in how different countries run public education and why some do it … Continue reading Why Our State Superintendent Could Never Work In Education In Finland

When a product that supposedly has already been purchased and is now "working for free" has to buy a full-page ad in the Sunday edition in the state's most circulated newspaper (N&O and Charlotte Observer are owned by same company and share content), then it should say something about the doubt surrounding its procurement. But … Continue reading The Absolute Karmic Irony of iStation’s Full-Page Ad In The N&O Today

Courtesy: Tales of An Educated Debutante  As of this morning, Hurricane Dorian had sustained winds of 150 mph which makes it a powerful Category 4 storm. The Carolinas will surely feel the effects. It was about this time last year that State Superintendent Mark Johnson launched a new personal website for his office when Hurricane … Continue reading There’s A Hurricane Coming – Remembering The Launch Of Mark Johnson’s www.ncsuperintendent.com

“We will continue to use data-driven analyses, including feedback from classroom teachers, to drive changes ….” – Mark Johnson last October concerning the report on the ineffectiveness of Read to Achieve. The idea of using data to drive policy is not a new occurrence. But it is sometimes hard to quantify the qualitative aspects of public … Continue reading If Raleigh Wants to be “Data-Driven,” Then Those Decision-Makers Might Want to Look at These Data

I have been a public school teacher for over 21 years. I have taught in the Winston-Salem / Forsyth County School System for over 16 years. My job is to teach the very students who come to my classes regardless of where they come from. If they need modifications or extra assistance, I am bound … Continue reading This School System Needs to Get a Better IDEA Of How It Treats Students With Special Needs

In what has become the daily self-affirmation through the misdirected degrading of others, iStation tweeted the following late yesterday: The "other assessment tool?" The governor who vetoed the Read to Achieve Program bill last week? Maybe, iStation needs to read the following post from last fall that talked about the Friday Institute and NC State's … Continue reading Maybe iStation Should Read That “Is Read to Achieve Making the Grade?” Report Before Sending Misguided Tweets

As of this day, I have yet to hear of a parent in this state with a child in K-3 who has received an email from Amplify concerning their mClass product and the recent events that led DPI to "award" a contract to iStation. iStation has sent many. As of this day, I have yet … Continue reading If Anything, It’s iStation That’s Sowing The “Fear, Uncertainty, & Doubt”