Liz Schlemmer

State Superintendent Mark Johnson and the Department of Public Instruction are taking steps to reduce the amount of time North Carolina students spend taking standardized tests. Johnson says the moves are meant to help relieve stress on students.

North Carolina's Read to Achieve program, enacted by the General Assembly in 2012, is continuing to get lackluster results. The program is a statewide intervention for third grade students who are not proficient in reading. Struggling students are placed in summer reading camps, receive other specialized instruction, and could be held back if they do not pass an alternative test.

The partial federal government shutdown has food bank operators nervous that they could lose food distributions from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Meanwhile, the families they serve could also lose food benefits.

A new study from Duke University shows that life expectancy is decreasing for Gen-Xers and older Millennials. The study comes after widely-publicized health research that shows life expectancy for white Americans has gone down for the first time in decades.

A law that allows for town-run charter schools in four Charlotte suburbs has been criticized because it could lead to more racially segregated schools in that area. Now, a bill to offer state pensions to teachers at those proposed schools could make it easier for the model to spread to more cities.

That bill (S469) is on the governor’s desk awaiting veto or signature.

The Department of Public Instruction considers about 1 in 5 North Carolina teachers chronically absent, which it defines as taking 10 or more non-consecutive sick days in a school year. State education officials say chronic absenteeism is costing schools in student test scores and pay for substitute teachers.

Durham Mayor Steve Schewel says he's confident the Durham-Orange light rail project will move forward. That comes despite hesitation from Duke University President Vincent Price to commit land needed for the project. Price has voiced concerns this week about the potential impact the rail line’s construction could have on Duke’s campus.

NAACP officials are calling on senators to vote against President Trump's nomination of Thomas Farr for a U.S. District Court seat serving eastern North Carolina, ahead of an expected Senate vote on the nomination.

Parents at Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools continue to voice concerns about their school board's September vote to convert an elementary school to a magnet school.

You may have have heard that last year's flu vaccine was a little less effective than usual, but state health officials say that's no excuse to skip the vaccine this year. Studies show getting vaccinated not only helps prevent the spread of the disease, it also reduces the severity of illness in people who are vaccinated but still get sick.

The Human Rights Campaign recently ranked more than 500 U.S. cities for how inclusive they are to LGBTQ people, and Greensboro took the top ranking in North Carolina.

Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment has received a $20 million gift from the Grainger Family Descendants Fund at The Chicago Community Trust. The grant was recommended by an adviser to the fund who graduated from Duke University in 1979. It is one of the largest gifts ever received by the Nicholas School, or by any school of the environment, according to Duke University communications staff.

"These kinds of gifts don't come along all that often," said Toddi Steelman, the school's dean.

Since the day Hurricane Florence began battering the North Carolina coast, WUNC’s education reporters have been following staff and families in New Hanover County Schools, as they first weathered the storm, and now work to put their classrooms and schools back together.

State education leaders are calling for donations to assist students and educators who lost belongings and school supplies during Hurricane Florence.

State education officials are still tallying up the damage to schools, but this week, the latest estimate had risen to $40 million in losses.

"That is a big number and a lot of claims, and it's very difficult to say where that number will end up,” said Chief Officer of the North Carolina Public School Insurance Fund Eileen Townsend in her report to the State Board of Education.

State lawmakers have passed a bill to address all the days some schools have missed in the wake of Hurricane Florence.

State lawmakers say they are drafting a bill to help schools deal with all the missed days they are having due to Hurricane Florence. Some schools in the southeast part of the state plan to miss two weeks or more as they clean and repair buildings and grounds damaged by the storm and flooding.

State transportation officials are warning hurricane evacuees from Wilmington not to go back home this weekend. They say residents shouldn’t let the good weather fool them into thinking it is safe to return.

Schools across the southeastern part of the state remained closed this week as administrators begin to assess the damage from Hurricane Florence.

Updated at 4:45 p.m.

Florence has been downgraded to a tropical storm, but surges and flooding are expected to continue as it lashes South Carolina, according to the National Weather Service.

Updated 5 p.m. | Sept. 13, 2018

Hurricane Florence's leading edge battered the Carolina coast Thursday, bending trees and shooting frothy sea water over streets on the Outer Banks, as the hulking storm closed in with 105 mph (165 kph) winds for a drenching siege that could last all weekend.