Contributing to an informed citizenry, inside and outside the classroom.
North Carolina Treasurer Brad Briner says moving many Atrium Health providers and facilities out of network for the State Health Plan is just “behind the scenes bookkeeping,” and that members who choose Atrium can be “held harmless” by Atrium if it chooses to. That overlooks how the tiered plan works. Out-of-network status raises costs for members,... Continue Reading →
North Carolina has chosen top-10 expectations for students and last-place effort from policymakers. Is it fair to expect significantly more of NC’s public school children than of state budget writers? North Carolina gives its students the 8th highest bar for proficiency standards in the nation… …yet the NC General Assembly ranks last (50th) in PK-12... Continue Reading →
In this post I'll use primary sources with my own pragmatic translations to help folks understand how student growth is currently measured. It's not a secret recipe - it's a published formula. This isn't a "sour grapes" post. When I was evaluated by EVAAS for multiple years of my teaching career, my students "exceeded expected... Continue Reading →
Some policies sound responsible because they’re simple—until you look at what they leave out. A proposal to cap local property tax revenue growth using an inflation plus population growth formula is gaining traction in the North Carolina General Assembly. Framed as a neutral, data-driven safeguard against supposed “reckless spending” by county leaders, the idea is... Continue Reading →
Current status: A new fiscal year started July 1 without a new state budget. Step increases for the current salary schedule were adopted at the end of July, however this leaves out the most experienced educators on steps 15-24 and 26+ who each share a salary level. Full budget negotiations between the House & Senate... Continue Reading →
Yesterday the NC House released its proposed teacher salary schedule for 2024-25. Below is a comparison of the following: - last year's schedule - the current budgeted proposal for year 2 of our state's biennial budget - the House's updated proposal for year 2 - what teachers in 2007-08 could have put in their cart... Continue Reading →
Your kids are doing better than their end of year test allows them to be labeled. Both you and your kid need to know this. The deck is stacked against students in demonstrating their success because nearly all standardized educational testing is built around a curve designed to knock kids down rather than lift them... Continue Reading →
What more would your child's classroom have if the NC General Assembly had not deprived each NC classroom of nearly $100,000 since the Class of 2024 entered kindergarten? For the last few years on this blog I've calculated a Class of 20XX "student tax" to measure the state financial support denied to the current graduating... Continue Reading →
When many students show growth, it should be celebrated. If all students show growth, they should have an opportunity to be acknowledged as growing. So why does North Carolina use a contracted formula originally used in agriculture to plow public school student performance with misleading data? The system is not designed to label all students... Continue Reading →
Last year, Republicans in the General Assembly eliminated an income cap as an eligibility requirement to receive a private school voucher. This decision alone will funnel millions of dollars away from helping public schools in low-income communities and into the hands of wealthy families who never even considered sending their children to their community’s public... Continue Reading →
