News
Georgia joins federal school choice program as NC veto override looms
North Carolina faces a pending veto override vote on its own measure to embrace the federal government's new school-choice tax credit scholarship program.
News
It’s safe to reopen schools in counties with low COVID-19 hospitalization rates, study says
A new national study says that it appears safe to reopen schools for in-person instruction in counties with lower rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations. The study, conducted by the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice, is the first of its kind to analyze data from all U.S. counties. As a gauge for safely...
News
CJ politics week in review, Aug. 31-Sept. 4
Each week, staff at Carolina Journal looks back at the week in N.C. politics and chooses several interesting, relevant stories you may have missed. COVID-19 relief: The General Assembly passed a third massive COVID-19 relief package with a $1 billion price tag. House Bill 1105, aka the Coronavirus Relief Act 3.0, passed with a large...
News
UPDATE: State Board of Education member links “white moderates” to “white supremacy” in tweet
UPDATED, Thursday, Aug. 20. State Board of Education member James Ford tied “swing voters” and “white moderates” to “white supremacy” in a late-night tweet Monday, Aug. 17. The tweet was a response to the Democratic National Convention, which opened its virtual nominating convention Monday. Tuesday night, Democrats formally nominated former Vice President Joe Biden as...
Opinion
Relating teacher pay to teacher performance
In May, about 19,000 North Carolina teachers gathered in Raleigh to “Rally for Respect,” an event organized by the N.C. Association of Educators. The choice of the word “respect” was important. It implied attendees felt disrespected. By whom? The Republican-led General Assembly, of course. You can select all sorts of statistics, but many important ones aren’t consistent with NCAE’s argument. For example, we...
Opinion
World without walls: virtual reality’s role in the classroom
It’s a world without walls. Students can explore the vast expanse of the Great Barrier Reef or the microscopic intricacies of the human cell — all within the confines of the classroom. Virtual reality experiences take students “to where they cannot be” because of physical, financial, or other constraints, says Helen Crompton, an international expert on mobile learning...
News
School leaders are more concerned about screen use at home than in schools
Educators are more concerned about how much time students spend on social media at home as compared to the time they spend online in the classroom. Education Week’s annual Technology Counts survey asked principals and school-based leaders across the country about screen time, personalized learning, and social media use. The survey was conducted online in...
Opinion
Misused statistic hurts N.C. in national school ranking
An overemphasis on per-pupil expenditure hurts the education debate in this state.
Opinion
State education rank isn’t low
Living in Mebane is less expensive than living in Manhattan — so if you don’t properly account for these kinds of disparities, any nationwide comparison of school spending is utterly useless.
Opinion
Grades, not tests, are the bellwether for college success
It’s a new year, launching another new and notoriously nerve-wracking season of college admissions testing. High school juniors are hoping they’ll dazzle admissions officers with their smarts, savvy, and content mastery, but what will their test scores really demonstrate? Does a high ACT or SAT score reveal readiness for college rigor, or does it merely...
Opinion
When Education and Politics Collide
Establishing valid relationships between education reforms and education outcomes is challenging. The task doesn’t lend itself to self-serving rhetoric or political gamesmanship.
Opinion
CJ Editorial: Educational Opportunities
Legislative leaders seem poised to build on the positive K-12 reforms they initiated in the last session.
