This is an important read from North Carolina Health News. Here are some of the highlights as reported by Hannah Critchfield: "North Carolina currently lacks data for deaths by suicide in young people in 2020. The state doesn’t have a comprehensive electronic death registry – meaning it has a slower system for reporting deaths than … Continue reading Is NC Seeing An Increase In Youth Suicide Due To The Pandemic?

If you remember back in 2018... When Rep. Bill Brawley of Mecklenberg County first championed HB 514, he promoted a bill that allowed for cities to use property tax money to fund local schools. It also allowed for some select cities and towns to establish their own charter schools with enrollment preference for their citizens … Continue reading Dear North Carolina Public School Advocate: Get Ready For “Local Bills”

This is an important tweet thread by one of our fiercest advocates for public education in the North Carolina General Assembly. It's that second tweet that says it all. "A lack of resources, infrastructure needs of over $8 billion & understaffing have created unsafe conditions for teachers and students- all a direct result of Republican … Continue reading #LeadWithLeandro

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