Education

North Carolina is not spending enough on education, according to a new report commissioned by Superior Court Judge David Lee. The report outlines that due to the state’s declining public education spending, public schools and academic performance are declining.

Elan Hope grew up in one of the wealthiest majority-African American counties in the United States: Prince George’s County, Maryland. She went to talented and gifted schools and attended a STEM-focused magnet high school.

The 2019 legislative session ended with no compromise on teacher pay raises. Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed Republican leaders’ final proposal of an average 3.9% increase, calling it “inadequate.”

Teachers in North Carolina are going without a pay raise until at least next year.  That’s after the General Assembly and Governor couldn’t come to an agreement on a budget this past session, or even a so-called mini-budget, focused on teacher pay. 

Do you remember watching educational movies in elementary school? Older generations might think of the teacher setting up the 16 mm projector, while younger folks were assigned YouTube videos to watch at home.

Does homeschooling prepare children for society? Stereotypes about parents who pull their children out of school may not hold as true as they once did. For example, homeschooling is becoming less religious in North Carolina. Last school year, 58 percent of home schools registered as religious as compared to 80 percent in the 1988-89 school year.

Exhausted by the longest legislative session since 2001, state lawmakers are pushing through piecemeal spending measures as the full budget sits in the senate. Governor Cooper signed off on raises for most state employees, but public school teachers as well as staff at state universities and community colleges are still waiting.

XKCD is a stick-figure webcomic. While the drawings might be simple, the ideas explore universal concepts like romance, sarcasm, math, and language. The exchanges between stick figures can capture the imagination and attention span of a child while wading into complex astrophysics and existential dilemmas. 

I'm in the 11th grade at Riverside High School, and I'll begin attending Durham Tech this year. I intend to graduate, and I've never considered dropping out. That's because I know I have a great opportunity in this country that my parents never had.

Every Friday night at 9:19 there’s a cypher on the streets of downtown Durham. You know that big bull right across from the Marriott? That’s us. We meet there to freestyle – to release - to find reprieve from your everyday routine and express your innermost feeling. 

For Maia Dery, sitting still has never been much of an option. Her teacher had her sit out in the halls to not disturb other students, and as soon as she had her precious drivers license, Dery routinely skipped school to escape to Duke Forest. As Dery says, she never did well in boxes.

More than 4,700 North Carolina students were eligible for migrant education services last year. These are the children of migrant workers who move from state to state as their parents follow seasonal crops. This frequent relocation means these students are often changing schools and even moving from one state to another. 

As Hurricane Florence flood waters continue to recede, thousands of students are still out of school in North Carolina. Estimates show this storm caused three times as much damage to the state’s schools as Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

Each summer, teens from diverse backgrounds pitch, report and produce radio stories for the WUNC Youth Reporting Institute. 

On Thursday, State Board of Education Chair Bill Cobey submitted his resignation. His resignation will go into effect in September, six months before his term as chair was set to end. This move comes after State Schools Superintendent Mark Johnson shared his reorganization of the State Department of Public Instruction. 

A controversial charter school bill passed in the General Assembly on Wednesday. The bill would allow four municipalities outside Charlotte to run their own charter schools.

The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily blocked new voting maps for Wake and Mecklenburg counties. The districts are in the state’s two most populous counties, and the decision comes just days before candidates are set to start filing for office.

Human beings have been learning long before schoolhouse walls were ever built, bubble tests invented and recess bells rung. So why is there still so much confusion and debate about the purpose of school, the goals of education and the best ways to empower students to succeed in life? 

WUNC's My Teacher Series explores student-teacher relationships across North Carolina and tries to find out what it takes to make a connection in the classroom.

WUNC's My Teacher Series explores student-teacher relationships across North Carolina and tries to find out what it takes to make a connection in the classroom.

WUNC's My Teacher Series explores student-teacher relationships across North Carolina and tries to find out what it takes to make a connection in the classroom.

WUNC's My Teacher Series explores student-teacher relationships across North Carolina and tries to find out what it takes to make a connection in the classroom.

WUNC's My Teacher Series explores student-teacher relationships across North Carolina and tries to find out what it takes to make a connection in the classroom.

WUNC's My Teacher Series explores student-teacher relationships across North Carolina and tries to find out what it takes to make a connection in the classroom.

Katie Wyatt first fell in in love with classical music when she joined her school’s orchestra in third grade. Wyatt played the viola and appreciated being part of a group that created art together. Wyatt was a military kid, so her family moved around about every four years. But no matter where she lived, Wyatt found a way to plug into her community through music. 

WUNC's My Teacher Series explores student-teacher relationships across North Carolina and tries to find out what it takes to make a connection in the classroom.

Joceyln Casanova grew up in North Carolina and was a high achiever who dreamed of going to college and becoming a lawyer. A few days before she graduated from high school near the top of her class, a college interviewer revealed a secret her parents had kept from her her whole life: Jocelyn was undocumented.