If you were tasked with making North Carolina public schools the best in the nation, it might be tempting to throw everything but the kitchen sink into your plan. But what begins as a clear mission soon becomes a sprawling, unwieldy project that gets bogged down by its own ambitions.
In many ways, that seems an apt description of North Carolina’s new education blueprint, “Achieving Educational Excellence.” Released in August, this five-year strategic plan aims to vault the state’s public schools to the top of national rankings. It entails more than 100 specific actions, a dozen or so measures of success (of varying relation to student achievement), eight thematic goals (called “pillars”), and the formation of at least two new entities to track progress along the way.
The plan is filled with good intentions. What it lacks, however, is a sufficient emphasis on meaningful academic outcomes. Let me explain.
The clearest picture of student proficiency in North Carolina comes from two tests: End-of-Grade (EOG) exams in grades 3–8 and End-of-Course (EOC) exams in some high school subjects. Parents with children in school are likely familiar with them.
The exams tell us how many students are performing at grade level in reading and math, and how many reach the higher “college- and career-ready” standard in each subject. Science is also tested, though only in certain grades. Scores took a nosedive during COVID and have generally struggled to recover.
Yet unlike other success metrics — such as improved graduation rates, public school enrollment, and AP exam performance — which receive considerable attention and include yearly targets, the document contains no specific goals or outcomes tied to these test results.
Contrast that with South Carolina’s clear, unambiguous vision for student proficiency: ensuring at least 75% of students perform at or above grade level by 2030.
These details may seem small, but they matter a great deal. If this plan is meant to chart the future of education in North Carolina — to say, “here’s where we need to be in five years” — then raising early literacy and math scores must be our north star. With the exception of student safety, everything else is secondary.
Of course, academics are not absent. The plan, spearheaded by DPI Superintendent Mo Green and approved unanimously by the NC State Board of Education, hopes to boost AP and ACT exam scores and students’ performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). But understand that the first two are exclusive for high school students, and the latter is given to a sample of North Carolina students every other year.
Some plan targets, like raising North Carolina’s high school graduation rate, must be viewed in a broader context. A recent study published by Carolinas Academic Leadership Network (CALN), of which I serve as director, found that while North Carolina’s high school graduation rate has risen over the past decade, student proficiency during the same period has remained largely flat or declined. If we fail to close this gap, a higher graduation rate would only suggest that more students are being pushed out of school before they’re ready.
AP exams are another benchmark requiring caution. As the Fordham Institute explained last year, “No matter which way you assess the data … the trend is always the same: AP scores are being deliberately and intentionally increased.” The percentage of students earning a passing score (a three or higher) began soaring in 2022 across multiple subjects — English Literature & Composition, Chemistry, and US History — and has remained inflated in the years since.
To view gains in these areas as a victory, without addressing the deeper issues, would be a mistake. And it would not mean that North Carolina has achieved its goal of having the best schools in the nation.
So, how do we get there? Superintendent Green describes the plan as a “living, evolving framework,” one meant to adapt over time. That’s good. Because what North Carolina needs now is not more distractions — it’s more focus. Simplify the plan. Strip out the clutter that has little to do with academic outcomes. A leaner, clearer roadmap would not only sharpen priorities but also spare schools of the kind of sprawling bureaucracy that would be needed to carry out its original vision.
Only then can we measure what matters and build the schools our students deserve. Only then can North Carolina achieve its goal — one that we all share: to be the best in the nation.