State Board of Education Vision:Every public school student in North Carolina will be empowered to accept academic challenges, prepared to pursue their chosen path after graduating high school, and encouraged to become lifelong learners with the capacity to engage in a globally-collaborative society.
State Board of Education Mission:The mission of the North Carolina State Board of Education is to use its constitutional authority to guard and maintain the right of a sound, basic education for every child in North Carolina Public Schools.
Friday, August 11, 2023
Highlights
North State Journal Gary D. Robertson, AP | August 8, 2023:North Carolina state budget won’t become law until September, House leader says - RALEIGH — A final North Carolina state budget won’t be enacted until September, the House’s top leader said Monday. House and Senate Republicans are whittling down dozens of outstanding spending and policy issues within a two-year spending plan that was supposed to take effect July 1. While some big-ticket items like tax cuts and worker raises have been settled, other details remain unresolved.
DPI Press Release | August 9, 2023: Agency Provides Portrait of a Graduate Classroom-Ready Resources to School Districts - The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction released a comprehensive set of resources today to help schools and teachers successfully implement the North Carolina Portrait of a Graduate in classrooms. These resources are aligned to the statewide Portrait initiative launched by the agency last fall to ensure that North Carolina students are exposed to key skills and mindsets during their K-12 journey. These skills and mindsets, known as durable skills, were identified by North Carolina educators, students, families, higher education and business leaders to better equip students for success after high school and to prepare them for the pathway of their choosing after graduation: career, college or military.
Students deserve to be prepared for a changing world once they graduate from high school. Global landscape shifts like the pace of change, the speed of innovation, and how the workforce is evolving impacts how — and what — our students must learn in the classroom.
Preparing our youth for strong postsecondary outcomes is the most important job of our public schools. As State Superintendent, I’m a firm believer that all learning is in service to postsecondary success. Students deserve to graduate prepared for the post-graduation pathway of their choice, be it employment, enrollment in higher education, or enlistment in military service.
Research shows that in North Carolina, two-thirds of the jobs in growing sectors require more than a high school diploma. Employers seek both durable and technical skills and trends across the country demonstrate a gap between what employers seek and the labor available. Generally, the country has 9.9 million job openings, but only 5.8 million unemployed workers.
In creating the North Carolina Portrait of a Graduate in the fall of 2022, we set out to identify the most important durable skills that North Carolina employers seek—adaptability, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, empathy, learner’s mindset, and personal responsibility. These skills were identified in grassroots regional conversations with multiple stakeholders throughout the state, both inside and outside of education. Through virtual convenings, the seven skills were identified and then compared with more than two million North Carolina job postings.
As the leading state agency responsible for serving 1.5 million North Carolina public school students, this data constitutes a clarion call to begin teaching the durable skills that employers deem lacking in their current candidate pool. It means the K-12 public school system can and should be the perfect partner helping to meet these unmet workforce demands.
We know that deeper learning means combining academic excellence with durable skills development in all K-12 classrooms, like the two districts highlighted are beginning to do now. Students deserve to be prepared for a changing world once they graduate from high school. Global landscape shifts like the pace of change, the speed of innovation, and how the workforce is evolving impacts how — and what — our students must learn in the classroom.
Read the entire OpEd here | Learn more about Superintendent Catherine Truitt here
EdNC Rupen Fofaria | : NCICU colleges and universities collaborate on best ways to train future teachers in the science of reading - Fecher and her colleagues across educator preparation programs in the North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (NCICU) are redesigning course syllabi and expanding opportunities for college students to practice instruction grounded in the reading research. And they’re doing it together, as a system, using grant money to pilot individual projects at each of their institutions and gathering at an annual literacy summit to share their experiences.
The third edition of Superintendent Truitt's newsletter for parents, Coffee with Catherine, will go out next week!
To sign up for the newsletter, click here and enter your email address. When prompted, select "Superintendent Truitt's Parent Newsletter." Check out the most recent edition of the newsletter here.
NC STEM Center - The NC STEM Center is a Web Portal for All Things Related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education in North Carolina.
The Story of North Carolina - Resources that reach across time periods, making connections throughout North Carolina history.
