Stoops

RALEIGH – Charter, private, and home school students have saved N.C. taxpayers nearly $900 million in school building costs since 2000. That’s a key finding in a new John Locke…

RALEIGH – Raising the mandatory school attendance age could cost North Carolina nearly $9 million a year, with no positive impact on the state’s graduation or dropout rates. That’s the…

North Carolina is among the 26 states that have a maximum compulsory age of 16. Among the 50 states and D.C., there is no consistent relationship between the maximum compulsory age and graduation and dropout rates.

RALEIGH – Smaller school and class sizes, innovative curricula, and better discipline are leading more North Carolina parents to choose charter schools for their children. That’s a key finding in…

For many years, charter-school research has almost exclusively focused on the issue of academic performance. While this issue deserves attention, research indicates that parents choose charter schools based, not on one factor, but on a number of factors related to the schools' social and academic environments.

North Carolina’s public schools students are falling behind, and the State Board of Education is to blame. As Governor Easley prepares to fill two vacancies on the board, it is time to appoint members who can bring fresh approaches and new ideas, not more groupthink, to the body that controls our beleaguered public school system.

RALEIGH – The average North Carolina teacher already earns $2,700 more each year than her average peers across the country, once their pay is adjusted for cost of living and…

Adjusted for cost of living, pension contribution, and teacher experience, the state’s average teacher salary is $993 higher than the U.S. adjusted median salary and $2,733 higher than the U.S. adjusted average salary. There is little evidence that a higher average salary or better benefits will, in any significant way, improve recruitment and increase retention of teachers. A system of merit-based pay would provide an incentive for highly qualified individuals to enter and stay in the teaching profession.

RALEIGH – State education officials canceled a news conference today, a move that helps hide problems with new statewide math scores. Those scores show how North Carolina’s education testing program…

Beginning in 1996, the state implemented a comprehensive program of education testing called the ABCs of Public Education. It did not take long for state leaders to declare North Carolina a national leader in implementing state-level accountability measures. In 1999, then Governor James Hunt declared that, “we’re holding our schools accountable for results. Education Week Magazine says no state is doing more than North Carolina to put in place real and meaningful accountability measures.”