About: Terry Stoops

Protip for the Triangle media: Wake County’s new superintendent, Jim Merrill, is a career administrator, not a career educator.  An educator provides instruction.  An administrator manages the enterprise that allows instruction to occur. Yes, he was a teacher before he became an administrator, presumably in 1984, but since then, he’s held various administrative posts.  That meansContinue Reading

In a new report, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) evaluated the nation’s teacher education programs.  They examined 18 elementary and 22 secondary teacher education programs in North Carolina. The big winner was the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  NCTQ placed the secondary education graduate program at UNC-CH on its Teacher PrepContinue Reading

Today’s News & Observer features two op-eds on the Common Core State Standards.  I wrote the first one.  Bill Harrison, former chairman of the NC State Board of Education, wrote the other one. Harrison seems to admit that standards formerly developed by the NC Department of Public Instruction (and approved by the State Board ofContinue Reading

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius recently remarked, We’ve got to make sure that kids by the time they hit kindergarten aren’t so far behind that they don’t ever catch up, and by the third grade they may as well drop out because they’re never going to catch up. Of course, Secretary SebeliusContinue Reading

Hopefully, digital learning “ennvironments” have spellcheck. H/T: Facebook; SC

Researchers Parantap Basu and Keshab Bhattarai published a fascinating article on the relationship between government-funded education and economic growth.  Their study, “Government Bias in Education, Schooling Attainment, and Long-Run Growth,” appeared in the July 2012 issue of the Southern Economic Journal.  They argue, Our calibration experiment shows that nations with a larger government bias haveContinue Reading

The folks at Public Schools First NC hate private school vouchers but apparently love public school choice.  Recently, members of the organization distributed a flyer (posted below) to members of the NC General Assembly.  Note the paragraph that begins, “Public Schools First NC agrees that it is critical to expand choice for all children withinContinue Reading

Today, Education Week officially released their newest edition of “Diplomas Count.“  The report includes state-by-state graduation rates, which are calculated by Education Week (using the Cumulative Promotion Index method) and reflect those of the class of 2010. North Carolina’s 71.7 percent rate was lower than the national average of 74.7 percent and ranked 38th out of theContinue Reading