Why We Need a Moratorium on the High Stakes of Testing
The president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, called late last month for a moratorium on the high stakes attached to new Common Core-aligned standardized tests. (You can read about that here.) Here’s a piece in support of that call, written by Jeff Bryant, an Associate Fellow at the Campaign for America’s Future , who happens to reside in North Carolina. Read the entire...
Read MoreA Must-Read: School Safety in NC
Great Schools in Wake is among 50+ organizations in North Carolina and around the country that have endorsed a new issue brief released by youth justice advocates. The brief, School Safety in North Carolina: Realities, Recommendations and Resources debunks common myths driving much of the school safety debate and provides a comprehensive, research-based approach to the issue. The issue brief was submitted to the N.C. Center for Safer Schools, a state program created in March 2013 that is currently seeking public comment on school safety issues. The authors, Barbara Fedders, a UNC law...
Read MoreNo Rich Child Left Behind
Pre-K is a huge difference maker in a world where family income is a strong predictor of children’s success. Early childhood preparedness is critical if we are to surmount the challenges of poverty. In the New York Times, Sean F. Reardon writes, “…much of our public conversation about education is focused on the wrong culprits: we blame failing schools and the behavior of the poor for trends that are really the result of deepening income inequality and the behavior of the rich. We’re also slow to understand what’s happening, I think, because the nature of the problem —...
Read MoreTake Action! School Board Redistricting Bill Passes Senate
On April 22, 2013, the NC Senate passed SB 325 with a 33-17 vote along party lines. The bill now moves to the House for consideration. The bill calls for the following: Seven board members elected by district; two members elected at-large. All will ultimately serve four-year terms, beginning in July (formerly December). All nine seats will be up for election in 2016 Candidates who win seats up for election this year (Districts 1, 2, 7, 9) will serve only a two and one-half-year term. The terms of board members elected in 2011 (Districts 3, 4, 5, 6, 8) will be extended by seven...
Read MoreNC Lawmakers Widening the School-to-prison Pipeline
By Jason Langberg It’s difficult to keep track of the unyielding missteps and destruction by North Carolina lawmakers. Their anti-poor people, anti-people of color, anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, anti-environment, anti- democracy, anti-public education, anti-gun control, anti-religious freedom agenda has generated widespread outrage and media attention. But absent from public discussion about their countless failings is a recognition of how their policy agenda will expand North Carolina’s school-to-prison pipeline. The school-to-prison pipeline is a system of laws, policies and...
Read MoreLegislators’ ‘Fixes’ for Public Education May inflict Irreparable Damage
From the Wilmington Star News: “For a group of politicians who claim they want to strengthen our public schools, the Honorables have a strange way of going about it. In their world, better public schools can be had only by siphoning off students and money into charter and private schools, and by eliminating the cap on class sizes in the lower grades, a factor that has been shown to improve academic achievement. At the same time, the same group of lawmakers is working to put tight caps on preschool education, another success story in education.” Read...
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