K-12 Education | 2008 Archive

When special needs children aren’t well-served by North Carolina’s K-12 public education system, what recourse do they have? Unfortunately, the answer has historically been “not much.” This year, a bipartisan, forward-thinking coalition of state lawmakers has set out to change that.

Tough times may be in store for the nation’s first federally-funded voucher program. Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) released its latest evaluation (.pdf) of Washington, DC’s Opportunity Scholarship Program.

RALEIGH – North Carolina could save millions of dollars, improve student performance, and boost parent satisfaction by adopting new education tax credits for special-needs students. That’s the conclusion of a new John Locke Foundation Spotlight report.

North Carolina posted some of the largest test-score gains in the nation during the early to 1990s, before the state invested heavily in preschool programs.

North Carolina has no business making up its own tests and then changing them periodically to suit political and institutional interests.

It’s that time of year again. This week marked the end of another academic year for students attending traditional public schools in North Carolina. For high school seniors in the midst of graduation ceremonies, this time also represents a proud and much-anticipated rite of passage from the K-12 years to the world of higher education or work.

Contrary to popular impression, there has never been good evidence for the notion that preschool intervention explains differences in educational attainment.

The past 30 years have ushered in dramatic changes to American education. That’s the principal message of The Condition of Education 2008, the National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) annual compilation of education facts.

Total participation in state school voucher and tax-credit programs exceeds 150,000 American students, and has nearly doubled in just five years.

My favorite provision of the state-budget proposal from the House is to rationalize the treatment of teachers and state employees on pay increases.