Public School Forum of NC releases top 10 education issues of 2017

The Public School Forum of North Carolina on Wednesday released it list of the top 10 state education issues of 2017.

Posted 2:51 p.m. Jan 25, 2017 — Updated 6:56 p.m. Jan 25, 2017

Kelly Hinchcliffe

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Public School Forum of North Carolina on Wednesday released it list of the top 10 state education issues of 2017.

The issues were announced during the organization's annual Eggs & Issues event in Raleigh, which featured an interview with Gov. Roy Cooper. The group's top 10 issues include:

1) Exercise strong education leadership for North Carolina’s children

Maintain a constant focus on excellent teaching and learning
Direct resources to the state’s most vulnerable students and struggling schools
Build on what has worked; fix what hasn’t

2) Fund North Carolina’s public schools fairly and adequately

Prioritize adequacy of funding
Address growing gaps between poor and wealthy school systems
Boost per-pupil spending toward the national average

3) Make teaching in North Carolina great again

Invest in teacher pay
Use differential pay to create more opportunities for teachers who want to stay in the classroom
Restore a teacher scholarship program

4) Improve access, equity and accountability in school choice

Prevent exclusivity, inequity and resegregation under the guise of choice
Hold all schools accountable for serving students well

5) Overhaul principal pay and invest in preparing the next generation of school leaders

Boost pay for principal and assistant principals
Provide incentives both for performance and for serving in high need/low performing schools
Continue to invest in critical principal preparation and pipeline programs

6) Maintain a strong focus on race in public education

Dedicate executive-level district leadership to racial equity efforts
Provide professional development dealing specifically with implicit racial bias and systemic racism

7) Improve grade-level reading through comprehensive investments in early childhood.

Invest in the state’s prove, evidence-based childhood programs and increase funding for child care subsidies
Advance birth-to-eight alignment through the state’s Every Student Succeeds (ESSA) Act
Unite public and private stakeholders around the key metric of third-grade reading success, driven b comprehensive investments in early childhood

8) Enable the transition to personalized, digital-age learning models

Expand the School Connectivity Initiative to provide and support broadband access, internal networks and related services to all schools
Provide professional development for school and district leaders, instructional support staff, and technical staff
Establish standards, review processes, and collaborative procurement for digital learning resources

9) Create meaningful and streamlined assessments

Build on DPI’s study of interim assessments to provide meaningful information about student performance to teachers, parents and students
Align state testing requirements with federal ESSA regulations

10) Increase support for the state’s struggling schools

Improve allocation of vital resources to support interventions that will attract and retain excellent teachers and school leaders in high-need schools
Broaden the state’s accountability system to incorporate the multiple measures of student outcomes
Adopt school improvement strategies that strengthen the capacity of communities to serve all children

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