Category Archives: K-12 education

Lefties are giddy about a survey released by Robert Smith and Scott Imig, education professors at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW).  Frankly, the survey reflects poorly on the Watson College of Education at UNCW. “The Public Schools Our Children Deserve? North Carolina Residents React to State Legislative Changes” reports on the survey ofContinue Reading

The John Locke Foundation’s research staff spent the afternoon briefing candidates who are preparing for this year’s elections in North Carolina. Topics included taxes, government spending, health care, regulation, K-12 education, and the role of the N.C. Constitution. Click play below to watch the 103-minute formal briefing session. To watch individual portions of the session,Continue Reading

North Carolina should set up two new permanent commissions to study English and math standards tied to the controversial Common Core. That’s the recommendation from Terry Stoops, who discusses his proposal during the next edition of Carolina Journal Radio. Jon Sanders discusses the John Locke Foundation’s partnership with environmental group NC WARN to sponsor aContinue Reading

At the Washington Post’s Volokh Conspiracy law blog, Emory University law professor Sasha Volokh (full disclosure: he was on the research staff at the Reason Foundation when I was an editor at Reason magazine, and one of the Volokh Brothers, rock stars of the legal academy) looks at the order Superior Court Judge Robert HobgoodContinue Reading

On the website promoting Heritage Calendar 2014, AT&T posted nearly 70 lesson plans, developed by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, that celebrate the “lives and experiences of African Americans in the State.” The lesson plans span most major subjects and grades.  Several of the lessons are excellent.  Teachers and students would be well servedContinue Reading

Dan Way reports for Carolina Journal Online that more than 50 state lawmakers will face no opposition during this election season. John Hood’s Daily Journal explains that North Carolina’s public schools are average “by virtually every measure of student outcomes.”

You may have heard about a study written by UNC-Charlotte professors Paul Fitchett and Tina Heafner, “Maybe not such a blue moon: The substantial phenomenon of teacher moonlighting in North Carolina” (PDF).  The three-page report is available on the Public Schools First NC website and has been promoted by their comrades at NC Policy Watch.Continue Reading

Earlier to this week, Scholastic and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation released Primary Sources: America’s Teachers on Teaching in an Era of Change, a report that details teacher attitudes about a number of issues relevant to the profession. Similar to their colleagues in other states, North Carolina teachers identified four main challenges, including ChangingContinue Reading