News this past February that a “fix” for the class size mandate was “agreed” upon by both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly should seem like a welcome outcome. On the surface, it was a victory for parents, advocates, and schools in that the mandate will be pushed back for a while and some … Continue reading Using Our Students As Political Pawns (HB90) – Reason #20 To March For Students & Rally for Respect On May 16th

Political leanings and lenses aside, sometimes data can create a picture so vivid that it is really hard to argue against the conclusions. Just like in recent years, the state of North Carolina this year released its school performance grades for the with pretty much the same parameters kept in place with a similar conclusion. … Continue reading Too Many of Our Students Live In Poverty in a Gerrymandered State – Reason #19 To March For Students & Rally for Respect On May 16th

It is rather odd that in the same session that produced the nebulous and de-professionalizing SB599 bill a sanitized and highly truncated version of the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program was reintroduced. As reported by Matthew Adams in the “Under The Dome” section of the News & Observer on July 1st, 2017: North Carolina will pay college … Continue reading The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program Was Purposefully Made a Shadow of its Former Self – Reason #18 To March For Students & Rally for Respect On May 16th

Raleigh, buy us some damn textbooks. With real pages and hard covers. Yes, technology in the classroom can be a great avenue for learning. However, technology for technology’s sake can block many roads for students. And if technology is to be looked at as a simple substitution for other resources to save time and money, … Continue reading We Need Some Damn Textbooks! – Reason #17 To March For Students & Rally for Respect On May 16th

Remember when Sen. Chad Barefoot said this in February of 2017 concerning House Bill 13? “For years, the General Assembly has been sending tens of millions of dollars to districts for new classroom teachers for the purpose of lowering classroom sizes,” he said. “The question we keep asking over and over again is, ‘What did … Continue reading Class Size Chaos: The NCGA’s Deliberate Distortion of the Truth – Reason #16 To March For Students & Rally for Respect On May 16th

In October, the venerable James Ford of the Public School Forum delivered the keynote address at the North Carolina English Teacher’s Association. It was more than exceptional as Ford highlighted that what hurts our schools most are external factors that are not being dealt with such as systemic poverty. Part of his presentation included a … Continue reading The Secret Algorithms of EVAAS and SAS – Reason #15 To March For Students & Rally for Respect On May 16th

If you want to look at the reason why a school performs well, then look to the relationships that surround the people: student, teachers, parents, community, staff, and what might be one of the most underappreciated roles in public education – the principal. The responsibility of a principal is hard to even describe, much less … Continue reading Principals Need More Respect Than This Horrible New Pay Plan – Reason #14 To March For Students & Rally for Respect On May 16th

Irony makes this world go ‘round and North Carolina is providing plenty of it in the form of vouchers, or as we call them, Opportunity Grants. The following definitions for the word “voucher” come from the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/voucher): 1:  an act of vouching 2a :  a piece of supporting evidence :  proof b :  a documentary record of … Continue reading Taking Public Money to Fund Private Schools Through Vouchers – Reason #13 To March For Students & Rally for Respect On May 16th

A little over two years ago, an extended editorial appeared in newspapers across North Carolina concerning public education. I happened to read it in the Winston-Salem Journal. It was written by Walter McDowell, a board member of BEST NC. McDowell, a former executive with Wachovia, talked of the dire need to transform education in North Carolina. … Continue reading North Carolina Should Not Allow the ACT to Have This Much Power Over Our Schools – Reason #12 To March For Students & Rally for Respect On May 16th

An amendment offered by none other than Sen. Chad Barefoot on May 10, 2017 was yet another assault by the North Carolina General Assembly against the arts in our schools. Amendment #2 to Senate Bill 257 proposed to establish a “Legislative School For Leadership and Public Service” using the very funds that would have financed … Continue reading Attacks on North Carolina Governor’s School – Reason #11 To March For Students & Rally for Respect On May 16th