'In It Together': Superintendents Endorse NC’s Five-Year Plan for Public Schools

At this month’s State Board of Education meeting, local and state leaders came together to show strong, unified support for the Achieving Educational Excellence Strategic Plan. Dr. Don Phipps, Superintendent of Caldwell County Schools and President of the North Carolina School Superintendents’ Association (NCSSA), spoke on behalf of school superintendents across the state, as well as the North Carolina Association of School Administrators (NCASA) and its 8,000 members. Together, they offered what Dr. Phipps called their “enthusiastic support” for the plan’s vision of making North Carolina’s public schools the best in the nation by 2030.

Dr. Phipps highlighted that the NCSSA, in partnership with FranklinCovey, is bringing nationally recognized leadership training to North Carolina’s district leadership teams, principals, and other school leaders. The professional development series includes well-known programs such as The Speed of Trust, The Four Essential Roles of Leadership, and The Six Critical Practices for Leading a Team. According to Phipps, this investment in leadership capacity will strengthen trust, collaboration, and accountability while uplifting educators and ensuring supportive learning environments for all students.

“This initiative is fully aligned to North Carolina’s new Achieving Educational Excellence Strategic Plan for 2025–2030,” Phipps emphasized. “It represents a powerful investment in leadership capacity, ensuring we are well positioned to help every student succeed today and prepare for their future.”

The message of unity and alignment resonated strongly with State Superintendent Mo Green, who reflected on his own time as a local superintendent. “This means something extra special to me as a former local district superintendent, to have my colleagues say this is something we want to be a part of and will make successful,” Green shared. “I am overwhelmed at the moment that we have leaders across the state who are willing to say, ‘let’s band together to make this happen.’”

This moment underscored the growing statewide coalition rallying behind the strategic plan—leaders from classrooms to central offices aligning their efforts with a shared goal: excellence for every student in every North Carolina public school.

GRAD-009 Update: Transcript System, Next Steps on Class Rank and FF policy

The Board revisited GRAD-009 (High School Transcript Standards) to clarify how DPI’s statewide transcript system serves both district and charter schools. Staff explained that the new Student Information System (SIS) now lets charter schools generate an official standardized transcript without displaying class rank—consistent with legislation—while still ensuring those students are captured for NC College Connect as long as GPA is entered. 

Board members noted the policy team’s responsiveness since the item first appeared this summer. “This is a perfect example of policy coming together the right way,” Board member Olivia Oxendine said. 

A robust discussion centered on class rank. Vice-Chair Alan Duncan voiced support for charter schools' option to omit class rank, but registered concern that traditional districts don’t have the same flexibility under current statute. “These are our public schools,” he said. “We are treating them differently… in a way that is not necessarily in the best interest of students.” Student advisor Ian House suggested, if rank must remain for districts, exploring alternatives—such as reporting top 10/20/30 percent or quartiles—to reduce unhealthy competition while preserving recognition.

The Board also clarified the scope of today’s action: a sentence that had been proposed to restate existing limits on the “FF” grade—“a student may not fail a course based solely on attendance”—was removed from this package to allow for additional field engagement on that topic.

In the end, the Board approved the GRAD-009 revisions (with the exception of the clarifying sentence to the FF policy) and will send correspondence to the General Assembly requesting that traditional public school units be granted the same option as charters to include or omit class rank now that the SIS can support both approaches. The goal is simple: a standardized, modern transcript that meets legal requirements, works for colleges, and supports healthier school cultures across all public schools.

Remote Academies: First-Year Evaluation Sets a Baseline, Points to What’s Working

The Board reviewed a draft evaluation of North Carolina’s Remote Academies—covering both district-run and charter-run programs—which consolidates two legislatively required reports into a single submission to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee. As Chief Accountability Officer Michael Maher explained, this is “benchmark data… the first year of data,” intended to be used “in an instructive way to help improve performance over the next couple of years.” The report profiles 39 remote academies, summarizing enrollment, school performance grades (A–F), graduation outcomes, and demographics; some schools had incomplete data due to size or newness.

To move beyond a single snapshot of A–F grades, DPI’s research team modeled each school’s performance against its percentage of economically disadvantaged students (EDS), producing an “expected” performance and a residual that shows whether a school outperformed or underperformed relative to its context. Maher cautioned that “no analysis is perfect” and emphasized that the residuals are not rankings—rather, they’re a way to “identify those that are perhaps performing better than predicted, and those who aren’t… to provide them with an opportunity to then look deeper into their own data.” Notably, the baseline shows several academies exceeding expectations.

High-school metrics painted a nuanced picture: most remote academies reported very low dropout rates, though a few exceeded state averages, and graduation outcomes varied—underscoring how program design (e.g., synchronous vs. asynchronous models and the use of vendors vs. in-house instruction) can shape results. Board members asked for deeper cuts of the data in future iterations, including whether dropout differs between fully asynchronous and hybrid-style programs. The report team noted those analyses are feasible as additional years of data accumulate.

The recommendations stress learning from bright spots and building a longitudinal view. DPI proposes documenting and sharing effective practices from schools beating expectations, strengthening approaches to attendance and chronic absenteeism, and analyzing persistence (graduation/dropout) supports and early interventions. “This is the best analysis using the best available data at this given time,” Maher said, adding that more factors will be incorporated as evidence becomes available and consistent reporting takes hold. With another cycle of data next year—and a third the year after—the state can begin to chart trends and refine support for remote learning models that serve students well.

Board Moves Forward on Winston-Salem/Forsyth Auditor Scope of Work

The Board continued its oversight of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools with action on the scope of work for an independent auditor. Last month, the Board approved engaging an outside firm to conduct a full review of the district’s internal controls following the district’s significant financial challenges. This month, members considered and endorsed the scope of work that will guide that review.

The scope defines the responsibilities of the auditor and ensures that the examination is broad enough to uncover systemic weaknesses while providing practical recommendations. Chair Eric Davis noted that the draft had been vetted in closed session, and staff from DPI—including the Office of General Counsel—will now work to expedite the next step: soliciting proposals from qualified audit firms for the Board’s selection and approval.

State Treasurer Brad Briner emphasized the importance of including staffing and allotment oversight as part of the internal controls review. “One of the failings in the auditor’s report that we observed was inattention to allotments and staffing ratios,” he said. He added that local districts must have a clear rationale for their staffing decisions and accountability measures tied to funding formulas.

The Board’s action signals continued commitment to ensuring strong financial management and transparent accountability in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. With a clearly defined scope of work in place, the independent audit process will soon move forward, providing both the district and the Board with the insights needed to strengthen fiscal oversight and restore trust.

Chair’s Opening Remarks – October 1, 2025

We meet today in the quest for educational excellence for all North Carolina students, in a time when a dark shadow of fear lies across our state, and especially our public schools.

It’s a teacher’s fear of how to pay the mortgage, when teacher pay in our state is 42nd in the nation. It’s a business leader’s fear, watching our state’s commitment to educating our children as a percent of GDP dropped to 49th in the nation, in times of robust economic growth. It’s parents’ fears, wondering each day what federal program will end, that will hurt their child. And it’s the fear and uncertainty that we all feel that months into the new school year we still do not have a state budget.

These are anxious days, when many wonder aloud whether our public schools as we know them—schools for all children—can survive. One year ago, Hurricane Helene rocked western North Carolina, causing unimaginable damage, destruction, and fear. How did our communities, especially our public school educators, respond? With compassion, with grit, with charity for all. By turning schools into shelters of safety, creating gathering places for food, water, healthcare, and companionship. And most of all, by turning our schools into shining beacons of hope—lighthouses in the mountains.

Today the clouds have lifted a little, so that new rays of hope can break through. In the 2024–25 school year, our students raised their combined academic achievement in 12 of 15 end-of-year tested areas, achieved the highest graduation rate in history, and thousands of students—like every year—will go on to compete and flourish in some of the most prestigious universities in our nation. So many others will successfully master their employer’s craft, and still others will serve our nation in the military.

For the first time in nearly a decade, a unified step was taken to declare our commitment to our children—North Carolina Public Schools Strategic Plan: Achieving Educational Excellence—in which we dare to proclaim our commitment to have the finest schools in our nation by 2030. The task of building educational excellence for all lies with all leaders across our state, in roles large and small. In this effort, none of us can remain unaligned. To reach educational excellence, none can be uncommitted. It will take a different way of working together: burying one’s adversary and instead working collaboratively and leveraging our differences, because we achieve so much more when we work as a team.

In fact, educational excellence will not be achieved by dramatic victories. Educational excellence is a daily, monthly process—steadily growing our educators’ skills and constantly increasing access and opportunities for all students. How will we achieve educational excellence? We will marshal our state’s unbridled ambition for our children, as expressed in these eight pillars:

• We believe in preparing each student for the next phase in life.
• We believe in revering public school educators.
• We believe in enhancing parent, caregiver, and community support.
• We believe in ensuring healthy, safe, and secure learning environments.
• We believe in optimizing our schools’ operational excellence.
• We believe in leading transformational change.
• We believe in celebrating the excellence in public education.
• And we believe in galvanizing champions to fully invest in and support public education.

The question before us—do we have the courage and commitment to achieve educational excellence for our children—is but part of a larger vision. What kind of North Carolina do we want to leave future generations? Our students’ recent successes are not enough to bring educational excellence, but they are a lever. And as Archimedes, in explaining the principles of the lever, was said to declare: “Give me a place where I can stand, and I shall move the world.”

So let’s all take our stand here, now, in this place. And let’s see if we, in our own time, can move our part of the world—North Carolina—to educational excellence, the best schools in America.

And as we reflect on this opportunity, it’s fitting that we pay tribute to the leaders who embody this spirit every day: our principals. October is National Principals Month, and across North Carolina, these men and women are the steady hands guiding schools, nurturing staff, and keeping students safe and inspired. Their leadership is extraordinary.

On behalf of the Board, I offer our deepest thanks to every principal, including our Principals of the Year and advisors, and I’d ask that we now join in celebrating North Carolina public school principals.