Contributing to an informed citizenry, inside and outside the classroom.
At yesterday's WCPSS school board meeting, it was shared that some middle and high school students may only receive regular school transportation on an A/B every other week basis because there are 17 bus driver vacancies. While many folks' knee-jerk reaction is to assume this is a local problem with local deficits needing a solution... Continue Reading →
Today the NC General Assembly published a proposal that would make changes to parenting and teaching in North Carolina. You can read the full text here. There's a lot of nonsense in this proposal, but here are 5 items that most jumped out to me after a first round of notes. 1. Create another curriculum... Continue Reading →
A bill making its way through the NC General Assembly seeks in part to make the first day of school more nerve-racking by requiring parent notification before a school staff member may address a student by any altered name. From SB 49 "Parents' Bill of Rights" My student rosters after Day 1 are full of... Continue Reading →
Yesterday I watched my students cross the stage to receive their diplomas and listened to speeches recognizing the unique challenges they faced during the pandemic. I couldn't help but think about a less unique but deeper and more lingering crisis faced by previous classes and set to continue unless more NC residents recognize the problem... Continue Reading →
How much have you, or a teacher in your life, sacrificed to NC classrooms in lost wages compared to the purchasing power of the salary schedule in the year they "signed up" for or was once offered in 2007-08 before the Great Recession? Derek Scott and I partnered on a project to help folks quantify... Continue Reading →
Last year when the PEPSC/SREB licensure proposal was first unveiled, I wrote a solution-oriented alternative to what I believed would more effectively address the NC teacher pipeline issue. You can read the original post here. If you haven't been following this issue for the last year, I encourage you to read the original post first... Continue Reading →
According to this Raleigh News & Observer article, we'll find out over a year from now before fall open enrollment in 2024 just what the change in health plan administration from Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC to Aetna will cost members in terms of plan benefits, coverage, access to current providers, treatment paths, etc.... Continue Reading →
A draft teacher licensure proposal soon to be considered by the North Carolina State Board of Education has been labeled “Pathways to Excellence.” It begs two questions: Where do the pathways lead? And for whom are they excellent? Where do the pathways lead? Credit: Dan4th Nicholas https://www.flickr.com/photos/43264265@N00 As the draft proposal is currently written, it... Continue Reading →
Kudos to the North Carolina Association for Colleges of Teacher Educators for their strong statement calling out the history, current issues, and future consequences of the draft teacher licensure and compensation plan being laundered through PEPSC. PEPSC plan promoters have written off the concerns of Educator Preparation Programs (EPP) as sourced in EPP's self-interest to... Continue Reading →
The Dallas Morning News published an article titled "Texas’ ‘wild west’ teacher prep landscape could make teacher shortage worse." It reflects on Texas' decades-long experiment with exposing children to underprepared classroom teachers in the name of rejuvenating the teacher pipeline. It neither served students nor addressed the pipeline. Here are some highlights: “It’s about getting... Continue Reading →
