Education Matters

Last month, the Public School Forum of North Carolina, along with the Samuel Dubois Cook Center on Social Equity and the Policy Bridge at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University hosted their second annual Color of Education summit, which focused on racial equity and education in North Carolina. For this week’s episode […]

Topic: Addressing the Unique Rural Education Strengths and Challenges in North Carolina Did you know that North Carolina is home to 568,000 rural students, the second largest rural student population in the United States after Texas? This fall, the Public School forum will convene its seventeenth study group to better understand the unique needs, challenges, […]

North Carolina is a Leader in Global Education In 2011, the North Carolina State Board of Education formed a Task Force on Global Education to assess the state’s effort to produce “globally competitive” graduates ready to live, work, and contribute in an interconnected world. Thanks to their work, the state signed a series of global […]

Every day, youth attend afterschool, before school and summer learning programs across North Carolina, engaging in activities like STEM, physical fitness, literacy, and civic education, to name a few. This week, we will take a look at the impact that afterschool programs have on the lives of youth, and we’ll be joined by the Forum’s […]

In a stunning move last week that sent shockwaves across the political landscape here in North Carolina and nationally, the Republican majority in the NC House overrode Governor Cooper’s veto of the state budget with nearly half of the 120 House members absent, mostly Democrats. With a called vote early on the morning of September […]

Topic: When “A” Means Affluent Last week the NC Department of Public Instruction released its annual A-F School Performance Grades for the state’s public schools and they continue to reflect a clear relationship between poverty and student test scores. This week on the show we discuss the latest school grades and the grading system itself. […]

Topic: Are NC Schools Prepared for the Next Hurricane? While the official Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30, September historically has been the most active month for hurricanes affecting North Carolina, with 35 percent of all hurricanes striking the state in that month including Hurricane Florence last year. As a new school year […]

Topic: Trauma-Informed Schools We know that Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACEs can lead to long-term health issues as adults, but we’re just beginning to understand the impact trauma has on a child’s ability to learn during the critical early years in school. The good news is researchers have identified strategies that help these students learn […]

Topic: Innovative Public Schools While school choice and education privatization efforts grab headlines and generate a great deal of activity at the NC General Assembly, a wide array of innovative and transformative efforts are quietly underway in public school systems all across North Carolina. This week we’re going to introduce you to the state’s first […]

Governor Roy Cooper vetoed the budget passed by the NC General Assembly on June 28th and offered up a counter proposal a week later. Now more than a month has passed and the General Assembly has yet to bring a veto override vote to the floor and publicly there seems to be little movement on […]

Topic: State Health Plan Standoff The North Carolina State Health Plan is managed by the State Treasurer of North Carolina Dale Folwell. His office has been engaged in a bitter battle with the state’s hospitals and healthcare networks over pricing and the contract dispute has more than 700,000 teachers, state employees, retirees and their dependents […]

Topic: Wake Students Chronicle Lynching History Last year, students from Wake County’s Middle Creek High School, along with students from two other local schools, worked with the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative to document the only confirmed lynching case in Wake County. Following this transformative work, students began working with the Wake County Truth and Reconciliation […]

Topic: State Budget Showdown Just one day after the General Assembly passed a new state budget, Governor Roy Cooper announced he was vetoing it, citing lack of investment in public education and failure to expand Medicaid to provide health coverage for low income North Carolinians. So what happens next? We’re joined today by two top […]

Topic:   Early College High Schools on the Chopping Block Some of North Carolina’s top rated high schools are what are commonly referred to as early college high schools. These schools allow students to earn college credits while working towards graduation and are typically paired with a local community college or university.  The North Carolina Senate […]

Topic:  North Carolina Rock Star Teachers  The State of North Carolina is fortunate to be home to thousands of exceptional public school teachers. In fact North Carolina leads the nation in the percentage of Nationally Board Certified teachers, the gold standard for professional excellence in teaching. This week on the show you’re going to meet […]

Topic:  Teacher Rally Recap and Exploring the House Budget The school year may be nearing an end, but education policymaking is heating up in Raleigh. For the second year in a row, thousands of teachers marched and rallied outside the General Assembly. At the very same time House lawmakers were passing their proposed state budget […]

Topic:  How Do We Keep Our Children Safe? The rate of teen suicide in North Carolina has doubled in the last 10 years. Self-harm among 10- to 14-year-old girls in the U.S. has nearly tripled since 2009. Nearly one in seven U.S. children and adolescents has a mental health condition and half go untreated. This week we explore […]

Topic: NC Teachers Marching Again On May 16th last year, nearly 20,000 North Carolina teachers descended on Raleigh for a march and rally outside the NC General Assembly asking for more support for public schools and respect for the teaching profession. Teachers are planning another rally on May 1 this year asking the General Assembly […]

Topic:  Expanding NC’s Teacher Pipeline Our state’s public schools are facing critical teacher shortages and longer term teaching vacancies. At the same time, enrollment in the state’s teacher preparation programs continue to lag. In response, state leaders have been looking at ways to expand the teacher pipeline including recruiting more out-of-state teachers and adding new […]

Topic: Talking Testing with Teacher Legislators There appears to be a growing bipartisan consensus that we’re over-testing our state’s public school students. There’s also increasing scrutiny over how those standardized tests are being used to assign A-F letter grades to schools and to set pay for teachers and principals. This week we talk with two […]

Topic: One-on-One with NC Governor Roy Cooper Two years ago, Roy Cooper was elected Governor of North Carolina as a champion for teachers and public schools. He’s just unveiled his proposed state budget to a more balanced General Assembly than the Republican supermajority of his first two years, but one where the GOP remains firmly […]

Topic: Newsmakers This week on Education Matters we welcome two educators who are making news. First up is Leigh Kokenes. She’s a School Psychologist in the Wake County Public Schools System and was recently named the National School Psychologist of the Year. We’ll talk to Leigh about role of a school psychologist and what our […]

Topic: One-On-One with State Superintendent Mark Johnson It’s been more than two years since Mark Johnson was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction. He’s just unveiled a new initiative that aims to make North Carolina the best place to learn and teach by the year 2030. Superintendent Johnson joins us this week for the full […]