Chapel Hill Review

With the recent release of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's accountability results on student progress in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, the chairman of the state House Education K-12 Committee insists that improvements be made in basic subjects like reading and math.

“The eye is 20 times the organ of the ear – you pick up more of what you read compared to what you hear,” North Carolina state Rep. Craig Horn (R-Union) told the Chapel Hill Review. “We have got to significantly improve our ability to deliver a reading pedagogy that works for kids. Most states are facing this very same problem.”

Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, the district met 24.2 percent of 265 goals, according to figures published in The News & Observer. One telling result was the decrease in the graduation rate gap between black students and those of other races. 

North Carolina state Rep. Craig Horn (R-Union), chairman of the House K-12 Education Committee

There also was improvement in overall ACT scores, as the difference went from 32 percentage points in 2017-18 to 21 percentage points in the 2018-19 school year. The goal was 26.8 percentage points.

Overall, 94.4 percent of district schools earned either an A or B on school report cards, which is up from 88.8 percent last year.

Horn also noted that an independent consultant’s report released last week advises North Carolina to increase school funding by $8 billion over the next eight years in order to provide a sound basic education for all students. The report was issued as part of the resolution to the long-running Leandro court case.

“It’s a huge deal and quite a challenge for North Carolina, but we’re up for it I hope,” Horn said.

The annual state budget is currently about $24 billion, with approximately $10 billion set aside for K-12 education.

“We need to need to understand what that decision means and affects how North Carolina funds and implements a sound basic education,” Horn said. “What are the keys – reading, writing, arithmetic – that’s where the sound basic education actually begins.”