Category Archives: K-12 education

North Carolina’s Race to the Top grant

Written on July 25, 2014 at 10:52 am, by

Education Week provides an update on the status of federal Race to the Top grants in all states that received a grant, including North Carolina. The Race to the Top competitive grant program was tied to the adoption of Common Core, and North Carolina received its grant months after the State Board of Education adoptedContinue Reading

How to address the “troubling future” of NC’s children

Written on July 24, 2014 at 9:58 am, by

In response to a new Annie E. Casey Foundation report, The KIDS COUNT Data Book, News & Observer editors write, These findings, released this week and reported by WRAL, should disturb all North Carolinians. The report should bother the state’s leaders, Gov. Pat McCrory and those who run the General Assembly. And it must prompt some fact-findingContinue Reading

WRAL interviews mother of NCAE activist

Written on July 24, 2014 at 8:49 am, by

Of the nearly 2,300 teacher assistants employed in Wake County, WRAL just happened to interview Wake teacher assistant Josette Beller, mother of NCAE activist and Wake County elementary school teacher Kristin Beller (pictured below).  Both work at Millbrook Magnet Elementary School. This is just another reason why it is difficult to take WRAL’s coverage ofContinue Reading

Controversial “NEW” Advance Placement U.S. History Standards

Written on July 23, 2014 at 7:56 am, by

The College Board is responsible for Advanced Placement courses in high schools (public and private) across the country. These courses are designed for the best and brightest students. High school students receive college course credit if they obtain an acceptable score on the AP exam in a particular subject.  The College Board’s Advanced Placement U.S. History courseContinue Reading

NC legislature two steps ahead of the cursive “comeback”

Written on July 22, 2014 at 8:52 am, by

According to Education Week, cursive is ready for a comeback.  The article offers an instructive anecdote. When an undergraduate in her university’s [University of Illinois] Rare Book and Manuscript Library asked for help with a manuscript she was reading, library director Valerie Hotchkiss assumed it was something difficult. An obscure Latin text, perhaps, or a letterContinue Reading

Does the media care about boomerang teachers?

Written on July 22, 2014 at 8:25 am, by

We’ve heard countless reports of teachers who flee North Carolina public schools for higher pay. But some of these teachers return to North Carolina after finding that public schools in their destination states were less than ideal.  These “boomerang” teachers rarely receive the kind of attention that their departing counterparts do, but they have anContinue Reading

Why standards and curricula matter

Written on July 21, 2014 at 7:03 am, by

Alex Adrianson offers readers of the Heritage Foundation’s “Insider Online” blog compelling evidence of the importance of monitoring the way high schools teach students. … [I]t will be the curriculum writers who decide what narratives citizens know if the Left succeeds in federalizing high school history. The latest push comes from the College Board, reportsContinue Reading

Common Core’s $66+ million price tag

Written on July 18, 2014 at 12:57 pm, by

The N.C. Department of Public Instruction (DPI) revealed that the state spent at least $66 million on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. For the past few years, Lt. Governor Dan Forest and others asked DPI to provide an estimate of taxpayer money used for Common Core implementation.  They never received it.  NowContinue Reading