From June of 2016 concerning the Achievement School District, now the Innovative School District (ISD): With just days remaining in the N.C. General Assembly’s short session, leaders on the Senate Education Committee have given their approval to achievement school districts, a GOP-backed model of school reform that may clear for-profit charter takeovers of low-performing schools. Committee Chair Jerry Tillman, … Continue reading Sen. Jerry Tillman, How’s That ISD Working For You?

North Carolina is one of only one of 14 states that had state laws that governed school calendars? The above graphic is from the Feb. 2017 Final Report to the Joint Legislative Program Evaluation Oversight Committee on school calendars. What is also shows is that North Carolina was at the time was one of the TWO … Continue reading Surprise: School Calendar Flexibility Has Been “Shelved” Again This Year By NCGA

Remember this from February of 2018? Sen. Phil Berger’s words in reference to the teacher merit bonuses based on 2017 scores reflected a growing willful ignorance that is still being bred in secret chambers in Raleigh amongst GOP stalwarts. In fact, his statement was so preposterous and outlandish that the only thing keeping this teacher … Continue reading For This Teacher, Bonus Pay Does Not Work. Never Has.

"Istation will help NC students read and save teachers time." - That's the title of the op-ed written by Ossa Fisher, the President & COO of iStation, the new reading software that Mark Johnson unilaterally decided to use to replace the existing mClass for the Read to Achieve initiative. It appeared in the Charlotte Observer … Continue reading About That Charlotte Observer Op-Ed From iStation’s President & COO

A couple of days ago, the blog posted that there was no longer an acting superintendent of the Innovative School District (ISD). Whether LaTeesa Allen resigned or was relieved is still a matter of discovery, but it has been verified that she is no longer at the helm of the ISD. And then yesterday as … Continue reading The ISD of NC – Where Leadership Turnover is the “Innovation”

Say in 2008, a school district had 1000 students in its school system and spent 10 million dollars in its budget to educate them. That’s a 10,000 per pupil expenditure. Now in 2018, that same district has 1500 students and the school system is spending 11.5 million to educate them. That district is spending more … Continue reading When A North Carolina Lawmaker Says, “Well, We Are Spending More on Education Than Ever Before,” Then Tell Him This

It's July 4th and with it comes good more wishes from our state superintendent full of platitudes. Last year, educators were sent this email: And this year, we educators and parents alike were sent this message through email: Some of the same verbiage. And there's the plug for his personal webpage. And there's that statement … Continue reading Another Year, Another Misguided “American Dream” Message From Our State Superintendent

First, it might help to read this morning's post from Tales of An Educated Debutante. It is written by an anonymous person in DPI with knowledge of what is happening. There is a reference to the office of the ISD superintendent among other things. The Innovative School District here in North Carolina was formed well … Continue reading Does Anybody Know Who the ISD Superintendent is Right Now? Can’t Seem to Find One.

For years the official state motto for North Carolina has been “Esse quam videri” which is Latin for “To be, rather than to seem.”  This motto (along with “In God We Trust”) was part of a 2018 bill that would have had all public schools in North Carolina display such words for all to see. … Continue reading “To Seem, Rather Than to Be” – The Motto of the State Superintendent

It all started with HB17 that was “passed” in a special session of the North Carolina General Assembly after the 2016 elections and before the new terms began. That bill gave the office of the state superintendent more power over the public school system than any previous state superintendent had and removed part of the … Continue reading The “Department of Private Interest” – DPI’s Transformation Under Mark Johnson