reading

The N.C. Department of Public Instruction released the 2018-19 state accountability results this week.  The release included end-of-grade and end-of-course test results, growth (or value-added) scores, school performance grades,…

Who could have predicted that North Carolina educators, lawmakers, and media would spend so much time disputing the reading software selected by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction (DPI)?  I…

Click here to view and here to listen to Dr. Terry Stoops discussing this Spotlight report. RALEIGH — International comparisons show North Carolina public school students struggle to…

This study employs multiple studies and data sources to fill the gaps left by the state’s unacceptable omission of international inputs and outcomes. Overall, the evidence suggests that, despite ample resources, public school students in North Carolina fail to meet or exceed the performance of many of our economic competitors throughout the world. Simply put, the state has failed to "produce globally competitive students," and that failure is a cause for serious concern.

In November, the State Board of Education released the final report of the High Priority Schools Initiative, a four-year, $23 million class-size reduction program targeting low-performing and low-income elementary schools. The report offered no statistical evidence that smaller class sizes raised student achievement. Between the first and final year of the program, fewer schools met their state ABC growth targets and even fewer made Adequate Yearly Progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Reduced class sizes failed to significantly increase student performance on state reading assessments. In the future, legislators and policymakers should not fund class-size initiatives because of their expediency or popularity but because they produce measurable gains in student achievement.

RALEIGH – Smaller class sizes do not translate into better public-school performance. That’s the key finding in a new analysis from the John Locke Foundation. The idea behind the state’s…