April 11 Policy Updates

Now that we have passed the bill filing deadlines for both the House and Senate, over 130 K12 education bills have been filed this session in the NC General Assembly. As the legislative session continues, we will track bills that align with our Top Education Issues and highlight several policy areas each week. 

• 23 bills filed concerning school finance. H832 would revise how grants for school safety can be used.
• 31 bills filed concerning teacher compensation and working conditions. H846, filed this week, seeks to address issues with teacher recruitment and retention by reinstating the teacher bonus and retired teachers programs. The bill would also revise the teaching fellows program, provide teacher licensure reciprocity, and strengthen the reporting requirements for assaults on teachers. 
• 51 bills filed concerning child well-being. H883 is a bipartisan bill filed this week that would establish a grant program for districts to apply for funds from the Special State Reserve Fund for children with disabilities for the purpose of covering the extraordinary costs of certain students with disabilities, including costs associated with the placement of students in private schools with approved nonpublic education programs. 
• 20 bills filed concerning assessment and accountability. H840 would not only modify how school performance grades are calculated, but also would separate student achievement and growth grades. Currently, school performance grades are 80% student achievement and 20% student growth. 
• 24 bills filed concerning student learning. H947 or “Every Child Reads Act” is a bipartisan bill filed this week that would require schools to provide dyslexia screenings and interventions, mandate that middle school literacy instruction align to science of reading, and transfer NC Pre-K to DPI. 

School Performance Grades and Accountability

North Carolina currently utilizes an accountability model that assigns A-F grades to all schools in the state based on a formula that combines student achievement (80%) and student growth (20%). All other states that use A-F grades place a greater emphasis than North Carolina on growth while deemphasizing achievement. The reason for this is simple: school achievement scores reflect single point-in-time test results, over which schools have far less control than growth, which is designed to measure the impact schools and teachers have on students’ academic progress. 

The current model of accountability has drawn criticism for years. This session, a few bills have been introduced that would overhaul the school grading system, each taking a slightly different approach. H773 (School Performance Grade Changes) is one that may be most likely to move forward given that its primary sponsors – Rep. Brian Biggs, Rep. Tricia Cotham, Rep. David Willis, and Rep. Heather Rhyne – are all Chairs or Vice-Chairs of the House Education- K12 Committee. If passed, schools would still receive one grade (A-F), but the grade calculation would favor growth more than in the current formula. Other models introduced include H448 and H840, which would give schools separate grades for school achievement and growth.

In other accountability news, two additional bills were filed in the House that would address private schools that receive taxpayer-funded vouchers. H815 (Voucher School Accountability Act) and H816 (Voucher School Transparency Act) contain many of the same elements proposed in previously introduced Senate voucher accountability bills, including additional school safety and hiring requirements, stricter financial reporting requirements, and comprehensive reporting requirements for participating schools.