Tag Archives: NC Department of Public Instruction

In June 2010, the State Board of Education adopted the Common Core State Standards. On the third anniversary of that (largely ignored) event, the NC Department of Public Instruction developed a new web page – NC Common Core Explained. Apparently, state education officials did not feel that it was necessary to “explain” Common Core atContinue Reading

I’m just kidding.  There is nothing bizarre about “State Board of Education considers charters, teacher pay and evaluation” by Lindsay Wagner.  (As far as I know, she is the new education reporter at N.C. Policy Watch, not The Bionic Woman.) Anyway, her article is pretty informative. Unfortunately, it omits a few pieces of critical information. Continue Reading

The results of the TIMSS (Trends In International Mathematics and Science Study) were released today.  North Carolina was one of a handful of U.S. states to participate in TIMSS testing of fourth- and eighth-grade students in math and science. At 11:00 am, my weekly newsletter was published.  In it, I remarked, The most important thingContinue Reading

This week, the Office of the State Auditor released an audit of Real G.I.R.L.S., Inc., a Wake County non-profit organization that received nearly $100,000 in 21st Century Community Learning Center grants administered by the state. The executive director of the organization – presumably T. LaShon Ormond – could not account for thousands of dollars awarded to RealContinue Reading

In a recent blog post, Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson wrote, Some have said that the North Carolina’s all-time high graduation rate must be a product of the state’s high unemployment rate. Knowing how hard our entire community has worked – students, teachers, parents, administrators and even nonprofits and volunteers – I have neverContinue Reading

At next week’s State Board of Education (SBE) meeting, the topic of “significant shifts in student enrollment from an LEA to a charter school” will be on the table. Earlier this year, a handful of district administrators and school boards complained that new and expanding charter schools would limit their ability to provide a soundContinue Reading

Today, approximately 100,000 high school juniors throughout North Carolina will take the ACT exam.  According to the NC Department of Public Instruction press release, The ACT is a curriculum- and standards-based educational and career planning tool that assesses students’ academic readiness for college. In December 2011, the State Board of Education approved the ACT toContinue Reading

A new document available on the NC Department of Public Instruction website, Trends: Growing Student Population, Fewer Adults, Fewer Dollars, (obviously) contends that enrollment growth has outpaced education spending and personnel changes.  The major weakness of the presentation is that the author includes only five years of data. Speaking of the author, the document wasContinue Reading