Just shy of a year ago, CNBC North Carolina as No. 1 on its list of America鈥檚 Top States for Business. For North Carolinians, especially those who have lived their entire lives here as I have, this was no surprise. For years, state leaders have been intentional about making investments and building an infrastructure that positions North Carolina as a key destination for businesses across the globe.

In contrast, we have not done the same for public education.

As superintendent of Guilford County Schools,聽a place I have called home since kindergarten, I am often asked about what I have seen change in public education. My answer is always the same: not that much. Most notably, our teachers continue to be undervalued for their hard work and have seen few changes in compensation over the years, which is far behind the national average.

Do you see the problem here? Though business is booming, and our state is growing, our communities remain fragile because of how little we have invested in our public schools 鈥撀爓hich are often the top employers in communities across the state. Flourishing business in North Carolina brings us one step forward, but meager teacher compensation takes us two steps back. Burnout is intensifying, teachers are leaving, undergraduate teaching programs are enrolling fewer students 鈥� and all of this is happening in the wake of pandemic learning loss when our kids need high-performing and committed teachers most.

Our dollars speak volumes about our indifference.

I say this not with bullheaded partisanship or false alarm but with desperation for our state鈥檚 citizens to understand the realities we are facing and the dangerous trajectory we are on. Being the top state in business and the last in teacher pay is a future we cannot afford. It is a future where millions of kids lacking high-performing teachers are robbed of the opportunity that could have been theirs 鈥撀燼nd where our communities, once filled with promise, become fragile. I believe our kids deserve better 鈥� that we all deserve better. Our communities can only be as strong as our public schools, which is why we must invest in them with competitive compensation in order to attract and retain the best teachers.

Consider what our hard-working teachers have been able to accomplish despite decades of underfunding and inadequate pay. I think, for example, about the broad range of choice programs Guilford County Schools offers families that have been developed in partnership with businesses and aligned to workforce needs 鈥撀爄ncluding STEM, aviation, artificial intelligence, global logistics, biotechnology research and advanced manufacturing. We also have early and middle colleges, language immersion schools, top art programs and four public separate schools for students with severe and profound disabilities. These choice programs are completely unmatched in the private and charter school sector 鈥� and they are offered for free in order to transform life outcomes for all students regardless of zip code. Imagine, then, what our public schools might do with competitive teacher salaries and adequate funding. We would be able to attract the best teachers in the nation, giving our own students a competitive advantage to lead in a global economy.

What is special about public schools is that public schools belong to all of us, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, or ability to pay. We take all students. That is not the case for private schools. If the bill to expand private school vouchers passes, however, even more resources will be taken away from our already underfunded schools.

I do not oppose families having the opportunity to choose the best school possible for their children, but that should not come at the expense of public education. If we want to remain a state that attracts global employers, we must invest in our young people at scale.

This is a pivotal moment for the state, and our kids and our communities are waiting on us to show up for them. Will we embrace the opportunity to train our workforce and strengthen our communities? Or will we give up on the schools and teachers that have shown remarkable resilience crisis after crisis? The choice is ours. I hope we can stand united on behalf of our youngest North Carolinians for their future and the future of North Carolina.

Dr. Whitney Oakley is the superintendent of Guilford County Schools (GCS), serving more than 68,000 PK-12 students and 10,000 employees at 126 schools. As the district鈥檚 first homegrown superintendent, Oakley is a long-time educator and school administrator with a proven track record of improving student learning outcomes.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Gov. Roy Cooper and nine other governors to Congress on Tuesday calling for more federal funding for child care as pandemic relief funds dry up. North Carolina tied with Vermont and Arizona for the highest percentage of families with work disruptions caused by a lack of child care in 2020-21, a new report says.

The letter asks Congress to maintain current levels of relief funding and to increase recurring funding in the federal budget for 2024 to ensure that working families have options.

“Of the many funding priorities before you, few are as critical to America鈥檚 working families as ensuring access to child care,” the letter reads. “Quality child care makes it possible for parents to work and employers to hire, all while giving young children a strong foundation to learn and thrive.”

In 2020-21, 16% of North Carolina children under 6 years old lived in families where someone quit, changed, or refused a job because of problems with child care. That’s higher than the national average of 13% and every other state except Vermont and Arizona, according to a 50-state report on child well-being 鈥� 鈥� released Tuesday night by the .

It’s also higher than every state represented in the letter to Congress.

“Across the country, businesses and employers are ringing the alarm that the shortage of available child care options is hurting our economy,” reads the letter, signed by Cooper and the governors of Colorado, Hawaii, Wisconsin, New Mexico, New Jersey, Washington, Kansas, Rhode Island, and Illinois.

Every year, the Kids Count Data Book ranks states in four domains: eco颅nom颅ic well-being, edu颅ca颅tion, health, and com颅mu颅ni颅ty and fam颅i颅ly.

The focus on the lack of child care is specific to this year. The foundation wanted to highlight “how expen颅sive, hard-to-find child care short-changes chil颅dren and affects par颅ents, cost颅ing the Amer颅i颅can econ颅o颅my bil颅lions of dol颅lars a year, imped颅ing women pro颅fes颅sion颅al颅ly and wreak颅ing finan颅cial hav颅oc on families.”

What can be done, from Kids Count

The report recommends:

• More child care funding from federal, state, and local governments. It says governments should maximize the remaining federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act and increase funding for child care subsidies that help working families afford child care, pre-K, and Head Start. On the federal level, it calls for policymakers to reauthorize and strengthen the Child and Development Block Grant Act, which goes to states to expand access to high-quality child care.
• Start-up support for family child care providers from public and private entities. The report says governments should get rid of any unnecessary barriers to capital for new providers and current ones. It says policymakers should encourage networks of family child care homes to reduce isolation and costs and increase access to professional development.
• More funding for the federal Child Care Access Means Parents in School program to support parents who are students. It calls for the higher education and business communities to find ways to locate child care programs on campuses and work sites to reduce barriers for families.

There is work by advocates, educators, business leaders, and policymakers in North Carolina in these three areas. Read more below:

Other state rankings

The Data Book ranked North Carolina 27th in economic well-being, noting the state’s percentage of children who live in poverty (18%) declined from 2019 to 2021. It’s 17% nationally.

North Carolina came in 23rd in education, with measures like the percentage of 3- and 4-year-olds not in school, fourth-graders not reading proficiently, and eighth-graders not proficient in math getting worse since 2019.

North Carolina ranked relatively worse in health (34th) and family and community (35th). The percentage of low birth-weight babies was 9.4%, up from 9.3% in 2019, compared with 8.5% nationally. In the “family and community” domain, the state improved in each measure, including children in single-parent homes (36%), children in families where the household head lacks a high school diploma (11%), children living in high-poverty areas (7%), and teen births per 1,000 (16).

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The Hunt Institute announced former United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan as its new board chair earlier this month, with Duncan succeeding the organization’s founder and namesake Gov. James B. Hunt, Jr., who served in the role for 20 years.

Former Republican New Mexico was also elected as vice chair. She succeeds Thomas Lambeth, the Board’s inaugural vice chair.

鈥淚 cannot think of two better people to serve the Board and The Hunt Institute than Secretary Duncan and Governor Martinez,鈥� President and CEO Dr. Javaid Siddiqi said in . 鈥淓ven during this exciting period of growth and expansion at The Institute, top of mind for me always is how to keep us grounded in the legacy of Governor Hunt. These two bring with them many years of personal experiences with Governor Hunt and share his commitment to equitable access to quality education for all students. I look forward to seeing how they use their new roles to push his mission forward.鈥�

The Hunt Institute, an affiliate of the Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy, was established in 2001 as the the James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy.

The organization works to bring together bipartisan elected officials and policymakers on key issues in public education “to help build and nurture visionary leadership and mobilize strategic action for greater educational outcomes and student success,” per its website. Recently, the institute has hosted its to talk about education policy, along with several partner webinars and conferences to highlight meeting student needs, like the inaugural Avanza cohort focused

The institute honors James Hunt, a former Democratic governor of North Carolina known for his strong support of public education. In 2021, the organization celebrated .

Both Duncan and Martinez were elected unanimously by the institute’s Board of Directors at its biannual meeting on June 1. They will each serve for the next two years.

In their roles, the new chair and vice chair will oversee all institutional activities, the release said, including strategic planning and budget oversight.

鈥淚 am excited to step into this new role as vice chair and serve the institute in an even more meaningful way,鈥� Martinez said. 鈥淎s a member of the Hunt-Kean Leadership Fellows advisory board as well, I鈥檝e seen firsthand the impact this organization continues to have on policy and policymakers across the country. As vice chair, I look forward to working with Secretary Duncan to ensure that impact continues to grow.鈥�

Martinez “has spent decades breaking glass ceilings,” per the release, serving as New Mexico鈥檚 first female governor and the nation鈥檚 first female minority governor from 2011 to 2018.

During his career spanning nearly 30 years, Duncan was the longest-serving secretary of education in American history, the release said. He served during the Obama Administration from 2009 to 2015.

鈥淚 have admired Gov. Hunt and his Institute for many years 鈥� he truly is one of my heroes in this space,鈥� Duncan said. 鈥淚 am deeply honored to have been elected to this position and to have the opportunity to lead the board. The institute has done a phenomenal job pushing the governor鈥檚 vision forward and making real change in schools, districts, and states across the country, and as chair, I will do everything in my power to support the critical work being done and spread that vision even further.鈥�

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

In 2012, it began with a vision in the head of a fellow at The Duke Endowment. What would happen if churches got involved with improving reading proficiency for young people?

A little over 10 years later, the results look promising for both student outcomes and parental choice, organizers say. The Duke Endowment is now investing substantially in studying what exactly is working and why 鈥� in the hopes that they may have discovered something that can be scaled across the state.

鈥淭here’s an element of whatever we’ve been doing, or we’ve been allowing to happen, that has worked,鈥� said Kristen Richardson-Frick, an associate director at The Duke Endowment. 鈥淲e want to continue that, but we also want to figure out exactly why that is.鈥�

What is the Summer Literacy Initiative?

The nonprofit鈥檚 summer literacy initiative started at two sites and has grown to 21. Each site provides small classes 鈥� with a 6-to-1 ratio of students to teachers, and 80 to 90 hours of literacy instruction during camps. The camps range from four to six weeks long.

It is modeled on a framework of six principles. In its infancy, the summer programs focused on hiring the highest-performing teachers, training everyone working with students in literacy instruction. That instruction meant balanced literacy until a couple of years ago, when the state shifted to instruction grounded in the science of reading and The Duke Endowment followed suit.

The principles break down into two primary goals, and The Duke Endowment enlists the help of Harvard literacy researcher Helen Chen for support. Chen came on board in 2016, when there were only two sites.

鈥淗elen will be coaching all of the sites on principles four, five and six,鈥� Richardson-Frick said. 鈥淭hose are the things that really we think drive the student outcomes. And one, two and three are kind of the building of the environment.鈥�

Offering an option for the youngest learners, and choice for others

The reading camps run by school districts, as mandated under the original Read to Achieve law in 2012, are offered to students in first, second, and third grades. The Duke Endowment hopes to fill a need for kindergartners who are striving readers, or whose families want to avoid a summer slide.

The setting in a church offers some other things, too. Some parents don鈥檛 want to send their kids to school for the summer and are more likely to choose to send their kids to church. The church sites have pastors and volunteers that feed the kids and, as Chen puts it, 鈥渓ove on them constantly.鈥� 

The choice of a non-school setting, Duke Endowment leaders say, could get more students help over the summer. Students who complete first, second, or third grade behind benchmark in reading are given priority eligibility for district-run reading camps. Last year, only 21.9% of those first-graders, 36.1% of those second-graders, and 42.9% of those third-graders attended the district-run summer reading camps. 

鈥淪o you have all of these kids who need it out there who aren’t showing up at the school,鈥� Richardson-Frick said. 鈥淎nd this, again, provides a choice for those families that would be open to sending their kids to a non-school-based, but a community-based, site 鈥� more like a summer camp.鈥�

How churches are chosen, and why the church might be the X-factor

The Duke Endowment holds fast to its values of cultural humility and trauma-informed approaches when it chooses church sites. 

鈥淲hat I love about (our) first two principles is, we start with that thriving and engaged church community,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e enlist strong community investment. And we’re pushing for racial concordance explicitly with the churches.鈥�

Given the population they serve, the summer literacy programs focus on wraparound services 鈥� which make the church setting seem just as important.

The churches work creatively to resolve transportation challenges. Sometimes that means use of the church bus or van, while other times it means engaging with a community partner.

The churches also have families who volunteer to cook breakfast and lunch, and prepare snacks. And not just a USDA-approved meal, Chen said, which can be full of sugar and lack some nutrition.

鈥淎nd then you wonder why the kids are bouncing off the wall,鈥� Chen said. 鈥�(The church sites) are saying no, I’m making eggs and making sausages. They can have as much as they want until they’re full because our kids come hungry.鈥�

That鈥檚 part of what Richardson-Frick and Chen mean when they say the churches love on these kids. The love is shown through acknowledging student needs holistically, they say.

鈥淵ou have to go this fine line in churches between being faith-based versus faith-placed,鈥� Chen said. 鈥淭his is faith-placed, which means it’s in a church and we think that is part of the special sauce.鈥�

The church setting, Chen said, puts the mission of teaching kids to read under a broader mission: To do God鈥檚 work.

鈥淲e all love the kids 鈥� I’m a teacher, I know I love my kids,鈥� Chen said. 鈥淏ut what does that mean here [at the churches]? That means it’s incumbent on the church to overcome barriers that the schools might not have the resources to do.鈥�

Gains suggest there may be something to it

Folks at The Duke Endowment believe they鈥檝e found something that鈥檚 working. Now, they鈥檙e trying to measure what that is.

The data they collected using pre-camp and post-camp assessment results show that reading growth is happening. Last year, these sites served 429 kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade students. Of these, the families for 342 students consented to collection of assessment data. 

That data showed gains for students. One of the measures they use is DIBELS progress-monitoring rapid assessment across six skills 鈥� including letter naming fluency, nonsense word fluency, oral reading fluency, and accuracy.

Why is it working? Organizers say it could be the ratio of one teacher to six students, or perhaps the social-emotional attention that comes with being in the church setting with spiritual leaders and volunteers. But, they say, they hear pretty consistent feedback from teachers that leads them to suspect another key factor.

鈥淭hey’ll say there’s something about teaching here that’s special,鈥� Chen said. 鈥淭hey get to love on the kids in a different way. It’s smaller classroom sizes, so obviously they can devote more attention. And then it’s like all the wraparound services. We always hear from teachers that, not only do we get to love on the kids, but there’s an entire community loving on the kids, and that impacts the church volunteers as much as it impacts the students.鈥�

The Duke Endowment wants to understand what seems to be working and why. For that, this year they are working with an outside evaluator. 

What TDE hopes to learn from the evaluation process

Chen remembers the surprise and hope in organizers鈥� voices when she joined the literacy institute initiative in 2016.

鈥淲e think we have something,鈥� they told her. 鈥淲e think we are doing something that’s really special. Our teachers are telling us their students are making huge gains. We want to know if we have a thing and, if so, what’s its impact on kids.鈥�

鈥淎nd I was struck, from the beginning, about the integrity with which they wanted to do this,鈥� Chen said. 鈥淭hey didn’t want to just say, oh, everybody loves it. They wanted to actually identify the factors that contributed to it, and to learn how to scale it so that it could be this great thing for many, many more kids.鈥�

At the time, The Duke Endowment wanted Chen to help put in more systematic processes, as well as develop an overall vision, in order to better measure what was happening. As time went on, Chen told them they needed something else: an outside evaluator.

The team brought in the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in 2020 to fill that neeed. AIR is collecting data on setting, teachers at each of the sites, services offered, family engagement, and 鈥� of course 鈥� instruction. The plan is to use both observational and analytical data to parse out practices that lead to better outcomes, and then share that out to the public.

鈥淭he research has to be absolutely accessible and valuable to the practitioners 鈥� and that means DPI, that means district leaders, school leaders, and teachers,鈥� Chen said. 鈥淲hat they鈥檙e doing, I think, it’s telling the story of not just what this is and who it’s serving, but why we think it works and why we think you could do it.鈥�

Editor’s note: The Duke Endowment supports the work of EdNC.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

It was hard to get a job as a teacher in Whiteville City Schools back in the day. Pam Sutton knows.

鈥淒uring the 鈥�90s, someone had to die or retire for you to get in Whiteville City,鈥� she said.

Sutton worked for three years in Elizabethtown after graduating college, waiting for a spot to open back home. When one finally did, it was because the woman who taught Sutton in first grade finally retired.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 蜜桃影视 Newsletter

鈥淭here was not a lot of turnover at all,鈥� she said. 鈥淢y principal, who was principal when I was in kindergarten, was still here and hired me.鈥�

Her reminiscent smile fades as she thinks about today.

鈥淚t’s different now.鈥�

In 2021-22, Whiteville City Schools was among the five districts with the lowest teacher attrition rates in the state. But it still had high vacancy. District officials say the discrepancy has to do with difficulty in tracking when and why teachers leave. While it’s hard to peg with a single data point, teachers say it’s a problem.

And it’s not isolated. Across many districts, educators say they feel a lack of human capital. That can spell trouble for implementing instruction grounded in the science of reading across the state.

鈥淚f we鈥檙e honest, we’re in a time of hiring crisis,鈥� said Sarah Cain, director of elementary schools in Asheville City Schools. 鈥淎nd it’s a big lift for teachers to do this intense level of professional development, on top of learning new curriculum, on top of addressing learning loss. At a time when our society feels a little fractured, too.鈥�

School districts are desperately trying to keep teachers. It’s difficult, several district leaders said, with increased workloads, persistently low pay, and 鈥� now 鈥� culture wars. But these teachers already have begun a long journey of learning how to teach reading effectively. Districts don’t want to lose out on the time and money already invested.

Why keeping teachers is critical to better reading instruction

The state is in Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS). The training requires two years, and 160 hours, to complete.

When a teacher leaves, that investment goes with them. The state’s investment in LETRS is not ongoing 鈥� at some point, really soon, it stops. As new teachers come in, they won’t have access to the training unless it’s supported by local dollars.

It creates a couple problems, educators say. When a new teacher comes in without knowledge of evidence-based practices for reading instruction, there’s a disconnect among teachers in strategy meetings. Also, it takes time to get comfortable with curriculum and instructional programs — and with teaching them effectively.

鈥淚t’s hard to sit around a table of teachers when they’re planning and they鈥檙e not all on the same page,鈥� said Lynn Plummer, director of elementary education in the Stanly County Schools. 鈥淸It makes it hard] to try to change teachers or try to change their mindsets from what they鈥檙e doing to what may be a better practice.鈥�

Melissa Fields has seen this in Perquimans County, though at a smaller rate. For the most part, Perquimans classrooms are filled with licensed teachers. And nearly all of the teachers who began LETRS training there two years ago are still in the district.

But when there is turnover, there are pain points.

鈥淎 new teacher might come in, and maybe their neighbor teacher gives them a crash course, and then they just pick up the book and go,鈥� said Fields, who has led the shift to science of reading in her district as the chief academic officer. 鈥淏ut there’s so many nuances to implementing the program with fidelity that they don鈥檛 know about.鈥�

What happens when teachers stay

Perquimans is a standout district in implementing North Carolina鈥檚 new reading law. And one of the keys is taking care of and retaining teachers.

鈥淢y top priority when I got here was to fix teacher attrition,鈥� said John Lassiter, the principal who took over for former state principal of the year Jason Griffin at Hertford Grammar School. 鈥淎s turnover happens with administration, typically teacher attrition follows. And so for three straight years, the year before I got here and two years after, we had 30% teacher turnover.

“But that’s gone down a lot. So you can really build a successful model if there鈥檚 consistency.鈥�

The district has worked hard under the leadership of its superintendent, Tanya Turner, and people like Fields. The stories you hear about Whiteville City in the 1990s are what you see in Perquimans now. Lassiter, for example, had Fields as his fourth-grade teacher and Turner as his teacher in fifth grade.

鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 have turned out bad, right?鈥� said Lassiter, this year鈥檚 Northeast regional principal of the year.

Lassiter attributes student assessment growth, in part, to consistency in his teacher workforce. Before this year, a quarter of his kindergartners were on track for proficiency midway through the year. Now that number is more than two-thirds.

That growth is about what the district sees on average.

鈥淚 think our competitive advantage is consistency in leadership,鈥� he said, including teachers as leaders when it comes to students鈥� reading acquisition. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 build something if we’re starting over every two or three years.鈥�

But that constant starting over is a reality for a lot of districts.

The state of teacher turnover in the state

The Education Policy Initiative at Carolina using Department of Public Instruction data to compare educator attrition from 2016 to 2023. It breaks down the distribution of educator attrition across North Carolina school districts.

Between September 2019 and September 2020, teacher and principal attrition fell to 9.8% and 10.4%, respectively. Since September 2020, teacher and principal attrition in public schools rose. Teacher attrition increased to 12.1% between September 2020 and September 2021. It increased again, to 15.6%, between September 2021 and September 2022.

鈥淭o put this increase into perspective, we note that each percentage point increase in attrition represents approximately 1,000 additional individuals no longer teaching鈥� in public schools, the EPIC report said.

Principal attrition increased to 12.5% in September 2021 and 17.5% in September 2022. That means nearly one out of every five principals in September 2021 was no longer one in September 2022.

The northeast region of the state, a concentration of low-income communities and Black and Brown people, had the highest attrition. The mostly white Perquimans County Schools is an outlier in that region.

What’s making it so hard to keep teachers in schools

There are a lot of reasons teachers leave. One often tops the list.

鈥淭eacher shortage comes right back to pay,鈥� Fields said. 鈥淧eople aren’t getting paid.  We have a third-year teacher and her child is income eligible for NC Pre-K because she’s at below 75% of the state median income. She’s a third-year teacher with a four-year degree.鈥�

鈥淚t is unacceptable,鈥� Turner adds.

Low pay is a bitter pill to swallow, made more so by an increasingly toxic environment.

鈥淲hy would I make this less money, for this really big, important work I’m supposed to do, but I don’t feel very supported,” said Ruafika Cobb, principal at Ira B. Jones Elementary in Asheville City Schools. “And I’m always criticized for the work that I am doing. I think that has started to shift the dynamics of teaching in general, and people aren’t even coming into the profession anymore.鈥�

A warns that culture war legislation can result in collateral damage, making it more difficult to keep highly qualified teachers in schools.

鈥淭eachers described working in conditions filled with worry, anxiety, and even fear,鈥� the report reads. 鈥淭hey perceived that carrying out the core function of their roles 鈥� teaching students 鈥� has become more difficult, as restrictions on their classroom instruction limited their ability to engage students in learning, support students鈥� critical thinking skills, and develop students鈥� abilities to engage in perspective taking and empathy building.

“Especially concerning is the potential for these limitations and their politicized nature to lead teachers to consider leaving their jobs or the teaching profession altogether.鈥�

Teacher impact on reading and successful science of reading implementation

Educators report widespread impact on science of reading implementation related to teacher turnover. Not only does turnover create disparity in LETRS training among staff, but it drains student-facing time from teachers who stay as they work to catch up their colleagues.

One of the most alarming impacts is on student continuity of instruction. Reading acquisition is the result of gains in a number of areas that teachers track through assessment. In addition to changes in instructional approaches, the shift to science of reading has changed how districts expect teachers to assess students.

As districts implement the reading law, an increasing number build intervention time into school day calendars to group students by areas needing growth and to provide extra support.

Sometimes that means more training on how to assess and how to respond to assessment. Most times, educators say, teachers learn by doing. Continuity for a student depends on teachers being able to do this with fidelity, but that becomes harder when teachers leave.

鈥淲e always can envision what more teachers can do,鈥� Cobb said. 鈥淎nd we don’t necessarily train them for all the 鈥榤ore鈥� we want them doing. And we don’t compensate them for what they’re currently doing. I think we need to start re-evaluating what all we’re asking a teacher to do.鈥�

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Administrators at Whiteville Primary, a school for kindergarten through second grade in Whiteville City Schools, schedule the day down to the minute. Teachers sometimes schedule their literacy blocks down to the second.

During phonics instruction, teachers might build on things their students learned while working on phonemic awareness earlier in the day. Comprehension work and read-alouds bring in vocabulary words that students worked with that day.

With the shift to instruction grounded in the science of reading, not only has instruction become more explicit 鈥� it follows a specific scope and sequence. Each lesson builds on the one before.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 蜜桃影视 Newsletter

A student can fall behind a lot missing just one day.

That makes the state of student attendance, and on-time attendance, troubling for a state in the beginning stages of implementing the Excellent Public Schools Act of 2021.

鈥淲e just have a different mentality now about the urgency of schooling,鈥� said Pam Sutton, the instructional coach at Whiteville Primary. 鈥淲e’re seeing problems with attendance. I’m not sure if it’s due to the pandemic or what, but the mentality of parents is like attendance isn’t a big deal.鈥�

But it is a big deal, especially for children learning to read.

This year, the State Board of Education heard data showing that chronic absenteeism, when students miss 10 or more days a year, doubled to almost 20% among elementary students in 2020-21, compared with before the pandemic. Elementary students are missing an average of 11 days of school per year.

Several studies show a negative correlation between missing school and academic outcomes. A noted that only 17% of students who were chronically absent in kindergarten and first grade went on to read at grade level in third grade.

鈥淲e’re doing everything we can and then you have a child who’s out, so the continuity of the instruction isn鈥檛 there,鈥� Sutton said. 鈥淚f they’re not here, they miss that instruction and they miss that intervention and they miss that extra help. It all adds up.鈥�

It鈥檚 not just days missed, either. Getting to school late 鈥� even by just a few minutes 鈥� can have a major impact on students’ ability to stay on track for grade-level proficiency, Sutton said.

Her school uses a program that adds up instructional time missed when kids come in late or leave early. That report shows how many days students are effectively missing through tardiness.

鈥淎nd it’s kind of an eye opener to some parents because they didn’t think it was such a big deal,鈥� Katie McLam said. 鈥淏ut everything matters.鈥�

At Whiteville Primary, some kids had racked up 30 or more tardies just 70 days into the school year. Sutton sees them come in, sometimes just 10 minutes late. Then, they walk to their classrooms 鈥� rarely with urgency. Sometimes it takes them a few minutes to figure out what the rest of the class is doing. Other times, they go get breakfast if they haven鈥檛 had anything to eat.

鈥淪o now your 10 minutes late has turned into 30 minutes,鈥� Sutton said. 鈥淎nd you haven’t started your instruction, but the class has moved on.鈥�

Sutton says there鈥檚 a compounding effect of being late on the student鈥檚 ability to catch up 鈥� either that day or in the course of a few days.

鈥淪ome of them, it’s that anxiety of, 鈥榃hat are they doing, what am I supposed to be doing,鈥欌�� she says of students鈥� mindsets. 鈥淎nd then, 鈥極h wait, my homework. Oh wait, my snack. Did I get my snack?鈥� There鈥檚 this whole thing happening in their minds, and it takes time to bring them down so that they can focus to learn.鈥�

But those are precious minutes not spent on instruction. Especially, McLam said, when teachers are already pressed for instructional time.

鈥淭he day goes by so quickly when you’re trying to fit everything in that you want the students to know, and all the other things you have to do,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 not a lot of downtime.鈥�

Disciplinary measures have similar effects, school leaders say. It鈥檚 important to teach students acceptable behavior, but whether the student is out of class because of absences, tardies, or disciplinary punishment 鈥� the impact on learning for the brain is the same.

At Perquimans Central, a school for pre-K through second grade, building leaders identified reading struggles as a contributor to disciplinary issues.

For years, Principal Tracy Gregory said, teachers did the best they could. But some practices they used in the past were not effective in teaching students to read. That caused anxiety and issues with self-esteem, she said, which translated to behavioral outbursts.

So they redesigned reading instruction, going all in with science-of-reading implementation. At the same time, they did all they could to avoid disciplinary measures keeping kids away.

鈥淜ids act out because they don’t want to look dumb, even in first and second grade,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd they would be a class clown rather than being a target. But when we identify their needs, we give them the instruction they need, and they have a safe environment, you’ll see a lot of that reduced.鈥�

And Gregory鈥檚 already seeing results. Incidence reports are down significantly, she said, this year compared to previous years.

鈥淲e are doing awesome,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 feel like this has made my job easier.鈥�

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Enrollment trends for community colleges in North Carolina and nationally are headed in the right direction, but in most cases colleges have not caught up to pre-pandemic levels 鈥� much less pre-Great Recession numbers.

State funding is largely tied to enrollment, so it is a trend colleges can’t afford not to watch.

The budget full-time equivalent (FTE) 鈥� how the NCCCS is funded for enrollment 鈥� is up 1.7% this year, but also down from pre-pandemic levels. The number of students served across the (NCCCS), known as headcount, , but is down 10% from fall 2019. Both trends impact students and colleges alike.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 蜜桃影视 Newsletter

鈥淚ncreasing enrollment is probably one of the that we鈥檙e hearing about from community college presidents, trustees, and administrators,鈥� Patrick Crane, vice president of strategic initiatives at the system office, 鈥�…We know that there are already significant attainment gaps, educational attainment gaps, by race, ethnicity, and by county across the state. And so not addressing this just continues to widen those gaps as well.鈥�

Many variables impact enrollment, including shifting labor trends, and population shifts, barriers to retaining students, and more. NCCCS leaders say solutions require being intentional, serving historically underserved populations, and thinking beyond a one-size-fits-all approach.

鈥�Reversing the decade-long decline in community college enrollment is the highest priority for our system,鈥� Burr Sullivan, chair of the State Board of Community Colleges, said

This article takes a look at enrollments trends, the ways FTE is counted and why that matters, along with headcount data and why we need to be thinking more about the total number of students served 鈥� and how that relates to investment in community colleges.

History of enrollment trends

While the pandemic exacerbated enrollment declines, it did not create them. Enrollment has been trending down since it peaked during the Great Recession in 2010-11.

Many higher education institutions across the country have seen enrollment declines over the last decade, though the pandemic.

Enrollment declines at our community colleges also largely map with population declines, according to Bill Schneider, NCCCS associate vice president of research and performance management.

In December 2021, he told the State Board that 46 of the 58 colleges had.

Counties with declining populations generally experience enrollment and FTE declines, Schneider said, while counties with population growth tend to see enrollment growth.

With this reality in mind, Schneider said it鈥檚 likely more rural colleges will continue to see declining enrollments compared to urban colleges 鈥� which would, in turn, result in less funding.

At the same time, many rural community colleges serve a critical role as one of the only postsecondary institutions in their communities.

That role includes training the early child care workforce, training first responders, training the health care workforce, creating opportunities for students in high school through early college and Career and College Promise, providing customized training for industry, imagining the future of work, providing local leadership, and more. It is not clear what community colleges in the face of enrollment funding declines.

Enrollment determines funding, staffing, and more

Enrollment in community colleges is one of the simplest ways the system and the state can assess its success in meeting its open-door mission to students across North Carolina.

As EdNC has :

Declining enrollment at our state鈥檚 community colleges is problematic for the state as a whole. Growing economies require an educated population, and a robust community college system expands the number of residents able to get an education. 

Understanding this is crucial in the management and evaluation of the community college system. Not only does enrollment signal the demand for education in our state, but it also has significant ramifications for how community colleges are funded, staffed, and measured for success.

Enrollment at community college is broken into three main categories: curriculum, continuing education, and basic skills courses. 

Students do not take a uniform number of classes, and classes can be worth a variety of credits. So universities have developed a unit of measure called full-time equivalent, or FTE, that uses a set number of credits to define a full-time student rather than rely on a traditional headcount. This allows colleges to look at their student body in the aggregate for budget and planning purposes. In plain terms, it allows the college to count multiple part-time students as one full-time student based on the number of credits taken. The state then bases funding on the number of full-time equivalents.

Currently, one FTE is equivalent to 512 hours of instruction.

Many feel that funding based on FTEs, not actual students, misses many of the costs associated with part-time students, such as career counseling, tutoring, mental health, and other wrap around services.

Colleges must provide the same support for students, whether they are taking one course or they are full-time students.

What is happening nationally?

Nationally, community college enrollment is starting to grow this spring (+2.1%), according to February 2023 from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

That growth is largely fueled by increased enrollment among dual enrollees (age 17 and under) and freshmen, the report says. The growth is taking place at community colleges in cities, suburbs, and rural regions, unlike trends across four-year institutions reflecting rural declines.

This research is based on unweighted enrollment counts to emphasize year-over-year changes in enrollment patterns, rather than estimating total enrollment numbers.

Trends in FTE in North Carolina

It is important to note the difference between actual FTE, budget FTE, and instructional FTE.

Actual FTE reflects instruction shared between colleges and also adjusts for errors in previous term reporting. To see actual FTE data, start . Once actual is clicked at the bottom of that page, you can then click on the tabs throughout the dashboard to see the data.

Budget FTE reflects the number of FTE for which colleges are funded through state funding formulas. To see budget FTE data, start . Once budget is clicked at the bottom of that page, you can then click on the tabs throughout the dashboard to see the data.

This year, the NCCCS estimated an overall 1.7% increase for fall 2023 in budget full-time equivalent (FTE) 鈥� also included in Gov. Roy Cooper鈥檚 recommended budget and the proposed Republican House budget.

That 1.7% increase represents an additional 3,800 FTE, NCCCS Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Brandy Andrews .

鈥淲hile the basic skills instruction shows the highest percent increase, I would like to call your attention to the workforce continuing education increase of almost 1,600 FTE,鈥� Andrews said. 鈥淭his shows our colleges are working hard delivering programs for students to meet workforce needs.鈥�

is the dashboard for instructional FTE data. You can select to see system or college data, the reporting time frame (terms or years), and more.

Thirty-eight N.C. community colleges saw growth in their from fall 2021 to fall 2022.

In comparison, only 11 colleges have seen increases in instructional FTE since before the pandemic in fall 2019. NCCCS instructional FTE is down 7% overall since then.

One of those schools 鈥� 鈥� is a sizable outlier, with a 44% increase in FTE since fall 2019. President Jay Carraway said he believes one reason for the continued growth is how intentional the college has been about recruiting and marketing.

“There’s a lot that goes into recruiting and retaining students… We are very intentional about what we do and how we do it,” Carraway told EdNC. “From the time you drive off the state road, and you come onto our campus, you begin to see that we pay attention to detail.”

At , President Maria Pharr credits the school’s success in enrolling more students to “a new approach to education” 鈥� . The Learning Reimagined program aims to increase access, remove barriers, and provide flexibility to meet diverse student needs by expanding learning options like HyFlex, adopting an online textbook model, and creating several short-term credentials, among other things.

“After the pandemic and recent economic challenges, many people have been re-prioritizing their careers and goals, and many turned to higher education to make their new goals a reality,” Pharr told EdNC. “At South Piedmont Community College, we鈥檝e been able to meet that changing demand through investments in technologies and the willingness to meet the contemporary needs of our students.”

A look at headcount data

Headcount data is unduplicated within the time period, within individual colleges, and within the system. is the dashboard.

Approximately 574,378 students were enrolled in the system over 2021-22, which you can find by selecting the “2021-22 reporting year” option on the dashboard.

To get more recent data, you need to compare enrollment year-over-year by term. Data from groups like the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center typically report on enrollment trends using headcount data.

The number of students served across the NCCCS increased 3% from fall 2021 to fall 2022,, with 377,462 students enrolled in at least one class last semester. That’s a 10% decrease from before the pandemic, in fall 2019, or 44,000 fewer students.

Across the system, only five colleges have seen, pre-pandemic enrollment: (5%), (5%), (4%), (2%), (0% but 19 students).

Each of the other 53 community colleges have seen decreases in headcount since fall 2019, ranging from 1% all the way to 34%.

Enrollment of adult learners on the rise

The investments being made in adult learners help us see why headcount matters.

The number of adult learners enrolled in N.C. community colleges increased by 10% since the system launched its two adult learner pilot programs, according to a . The enrollment of adult learners saw particularly strong growth in short-term workforce and continuing education courses, the release said.

North Carolina has two adult learner pilot programs, N.C. Reconnect and REACH, to reach students 25 and older at 29 participating colleges. The initiatives focus particularly on older students who have received some college credits previously, but have not graduated.

From 2020-2022, adult learner enrollment increased

The largest enrollment growth took place in workforce and continuing education courses, increasing 19% in the same time period. Those short-term courses are designed to provide individuals the skills and credentials needed to gain fast employment in high-demand industries. Additionally, adult basic skills increased by 37%.

Roughly half of North Carolina community college students are adult learners, and 58% were employed full time while taking college courses in fall 2022, the release said.

However you count it, who is not enrolled?

Nationwide, than in spring 2020, an enrollment decline nearly double that of female students.

At N.C. community colleges, , with enrollment declining 21% from fall 2019 to fall 2020 for this group. There were still about 10,000 fewer Black men enrolled across the NCCCS last fall from before the pandemic.

Community colleges enroll some of the most , including in North Carolina. That means at least part of the solution to enrollment declines must include colleges meeting diverse student needs.

鈥淭hey are 16 years old and they鈥檙e 73 years old and they鈥檙e everything in between,鈥� Janet Spriggs, president of told EdNC last August regarding community college students. 鈥淭hey are working parents, single mothers, and they鈥檙e facing all kinds of life circumstances that most people don鈥檛 recognize.鈥�

Many NCCCS leaders say their colleges are enrolling more part-time students, and that it often takes more resources to support part-time students. At the same time, colleges must enroll more part-time students to receive the same budgeted FTE as for full-time students.

In recent years, North Carolina community colleges have increasingly added support 鈥� part- and full-time alike.

Over students did not return to college their second year, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC).

Retention and enrollment must go hand in hand, according to President Scott Ralls. Wake Tech 鈥� the system鈥檚 largest campus 鈥� has seen a 10% decrease in the number of students enrolled as of fall 2022 compared to before the pandemic.

鈥淚f you鈥檙e interested, as we have been in the community colleges for years, in student success, student success comes through completion. And retention is about completion,鈥� Ralls previously told EdNC. 鈥淪o the enrollment battle 鈥� much more of it is about how you retain students than it is about just recruiting new students. You can鈥檛 get to your completion goals without retention, and you can鈥檛 get to your enrollment goals without retention either.鈥�

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

While there were many negatives associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the few positives was the expansion of free school meals for all children across the country. But as of the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, the free lunches were over.

Students were able to eat breakfast and lunch at school for free for two and a half years during the pandemic, regardless of what their household income looked like. At the beginning of this school year, . Those who qualify for for this school year, however, thanks to legislation passed by the North Carolina General Assembly last summer.

The State Board of Education and the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI), among others, are asking for recurring funding in this year’s budget to eliminate the co-pay for students who only qualify for reduced-price meals.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 蜜桃影视 Newsletter

When a child doesn’t have the money for a meal, they may charge it to their accounts 鈥� which may have no money in it, thus accruing debt 鈥� or depending on the policies of the district or charter school, they might even be denied a meal.

DPI compiles data on school meal debt that it receives via survey, and that debt is going up quick — it’s now up to over $3 million.

Lynn Harvey, the senior director in the Office of School Nutrition at DPI, spoke on the issue at a recent

鈥淥ne of the most telling statistics that I bring you today to show you the impact of this economic distress is the most recent result of the survey on school meal debt, unpaid school meal debt,” . “You may recall that in November, we recorded that level of unpaid school meal debt at $1.3 million. Well at the end of December, that figure escalated to a little over $3.1 million.”

It is a relatively new phenomenon for DPI to be keeping this data, making it hard to ascertain the significance of the school meal debt. DPI hasn’t historically keep , though beginning this year, it is submitting information on the issue quarterly to the General Assembly.

The following spreadsheet displays the results of the most recent survey, which shows debt accrued since the beginning of this school year through December. DPI will be sending out another survey in a few days to find out debt accrued through the beginning of March.

In the spreadsheet below, you can see school meal debt for each of the 79 districts that responded to the survey. By clicking a tab at the bottom, you can also see school meal debt by charter school for the charter schools that participated in the survey.

We also created a second column that shows per capita school meal debt and sorts it from highest to lowest. The per capita data was calculated by taking the total lunch debt of a district or charter school and dividing it by the most recent student enrollment data.

Here is the .

We’ve broken out the data into a few different charts to show local education agencies (LEAs) with highest and lowest meal debt or meal debt per capita.

The LEAs (districts and charters) reporting the highest school lunch debt are below.

And here are the five LEAs (districts and charters) that had no lunch debt.

When it comes to per capita lunch debt, we split out the LEAs into the two groups for comparison 鈥� district and charter.

The districts with the highest per capita lunch debt are below.

And here are the districts with the lowest.

Here are the charters with the highest per capita lunch debt.

And here are the ones with the lowest.

鈥淟et’s not forget that we continue to be that state that vacillates between the eighth, ninth, and tenth largest for child food insecurity,” Harvey said at the conference last month, adding later that she was most concerned about “households whose children do not qualify for free- or reduced-priced meals, yet their incomes are just too low to afford the cost of school meals.鈥�

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Charlene Wong, a pediatrician in adolescent medicine, continues to see patients while she serves as assistant secretary for children and families in the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). She remembers a recent experience seeing a transgender student in a clinic.

That student鈥檚 experience tracks with data from the state’s latest , which found LGBTQ+ students experiencing greater mental health challenges than their peers.

鈥淪chool is where I feel safest,鈥� Wong remembers the student telling her.

鈥淪o this is work that is really important to me,鈥� said Wong, who co-chairs the .

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 蜜桃影视 Newsletter

The committee met last week as it continues to reboot after the pandemic forced a pause in regular meetings. The committee, established in 2015 by Judge Howard Manning Jr. as part of the trial, advises the State Board of Education on best strategies and practices for supporting students’ non-academic needs.

When it was established, the committee worked to educate the Board on challenges and potential solutions. More recently, the committee has become interested in influencing policy. As such, it asked the Board for flexibility in filling out its membership, specifically so it could adjust its membership over the years as policy foci shift. The Board voted to approve that request on Thursday.

The committee expects to provide the Board with its second set of recommendations in June.聽Its first set of recommendations came more than two years ago, just before the pandemic.

The committee grounds its recommendations in the (WSCC) model. It鈥檚 also finding direction from a DHHS .

That plan, the Unified School Behavioral Health Action Plan, was released last year to address the urgent crisis of children with complex behavioral health needs.

It lists these challenges to getting kids mental health support:

• No centralized repository of partners, programs, funding, services, and outcomes.
• Several overlapping policies addressing youth behavioral health.
• Limited behavioral health workforce capacity.
• Funding challenges.
• A need for more flexible options to address inequities in access.
• Partners working in silos.

The action plan seeks to address these challenges, among others. Some of its strategies overlap with mandates in the plan, which was most recently upheld by the state Supreme Court in November.

As Wong spoke to the committee about the DHHS plan, she made the connection between supporting non-academic needs and achieving academic outcomes. But strategies for non-academic supports need to be focused, she said.

鈥淭his is really a plan of specific strategies,鈥� Wong said of the DHHS action plan. 鈥淲e came together and said: We have a real crisis. What do we think is really going to make a difference for kids and families, and … what do we think are the most important things to be doing in schools now, to really support the behavioral health of students?鈥�

Here are some of those strategies:

Statewide Electronic Health Record System

Provide funding to maintain a school electronic health records (EHR) system that is being built with one-time COVID-19 funding to enable all North Carolina schools to document student health records and to allow health information to follow students if they change schools. The plan estimates $1.7 million in funding would be needed to implement this.

School-based Telehealth Pilot for Behavioral Health

Fund telehealth pilots and technical assistance via contractor(s) to expand access to about 10,000 students in districts without programs and create a sustainability plan. An estimated $4.2 million in funding would be required to implement this.

Project AWARE/ACTIVATE

Sustain Project AWARE/ACTIVATE for two additional years in pilot districts whose federal funding ends in June 2023. Work would focus on a path to sustainability and replication of key programs components that have been effective in North Carolina. You can read more about the pilot . The plan estimates an additional $4 million in funding would be needed.

School Linkages to Community Resource Networks

Expand supports provided to schools with COVID-19 funding to connect schools with behavioral health resources in their communities and to train schools on how to effectively coordinate with these partners to support student behavioral health. The plan estimates an additional $300,000 in funding would be needed.

School Health Advisory Council (SHAC) Support

107 out of 115 school districts have local SHACs that met last year. This strategy is to build on COVID-19 investments to provide sustainable funding to locally run SHACs so that coalitions of school staff, parents, and community members can invest in behavioral health resources based on local needs. This would require an estimated $7 million in funding.

Mental Health First Aid

Facilitate Mental Health First Aid and Youth Mental Health First Aid trainings for school staff and students and evaluate the benefits of this program as a long-term investment in the mental of North Carolina鈥檚 youth.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

When Susannah High heard in 2021 that public funds would pay for one person at each community college to receive mental health training, she jumped at the opportunity.

High, director of student wellness and success at Haywood Community College, was familiar with the training, called Mental Health First Aid, a national program that teaches people how to spot and navigate the signs of mental health challenges.

The goal, she said, is to 鈥渢rain as many people as you can, give skillsets to as many people as you can, so that we can better support ourselves as a society.鈥�

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 蜜桃影视 Newsletter

High has done just that, but says the college needs sustainable funding for training going forward to meet the needs of its community.

Gov. Roy Cooper announced this week a $7.7 million investment to launch new mental health programs and sustain existing ones like Mental Health First Aid. These funds come from the federal Emergency Assistance for Non-Public Schools program and have since reverted to the Governor鈥檚 Emergency Education Relief fund, says. The money will fund suicide prevention training for faculty and staff across community colleges, UNC system schools, and independent colleges and universities, as well as a mental health hotline and resiliency program at UNC system schools.

鈥淚dentifying their mental distress and getting them access to quality treatment is more critical for our students than ever,鈥� Cooper said. “This investment will help our state鈥檚 colleges and universities better support their students so they can thrive.鈥�

The UNC system has created at 116 colleges and universities across the state with a $5 million investment from the same funding source last year.

鈥淚t’s always been something I knew existed,鈥� said High, who is also a clinical social worker. 鈥淚’ve always been interested in it. It’s incredibly expensive. It was always out of our budget.鈥�

High got trained with that original funding from the community college system in March 2021. The college has since used federal pandemic relief funding to pay for the costs of running classes. High immediately prioritized training faculty and staff, including president Shelley White.

After that, her main goal was reaching students. With a dedicated funding source, she would ultimately like to be a resource for agencies and organizations in the community as well.

High has taught five classes and 36 people on Haywood鈥檚 campus, plus another five, she estimated, in partnership with Asheville-Buncombe聽Technical Community College.

“The whole purpose is to put instructors out in the world, who can go and continue to share skills with more and more people, so that eventually, the average everyday person can just be better equipped to recognize problematic signs and symptoms,” High said. “… It’s geared to be accessible for any person and not intimidating, so that you can learn how to recognize and respond.”

She has a sixth class planned for this month, which will include a combination of faculty, staff, and students. It’s the last one that she has funding for, she said.

鈥淚 want to see a line item for this, so that we know every fiscal year, we are contributing a set amount of dollars toward giving back to the community in terms of mental health,鈥� High said.

This is particularly important in light of recent heightened mental health struggles, she said. Though she鈥檚 been seeing reports of higher rates of concerning behaviors, she hasn鈥檛 heard from students as she thought she might.

鈥淭hey’re not reaching out,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd so that means problems still exist, but they’re trying to deal with them themselves, or relying on the friend or family member 鈥� That means we need to be equipping those friends and those families, those community members, with the skills that could potentially help encourage that person who’s struggling to reach out.鈥�

This summer, High said, she’ll be looking for opportunities for extended funding.

“Any new and additional attention and focus that we can put on this is so very important,” High said. “We just we have so many folks struggling.”

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Last fall, EdNC visited all 58 community colleges over the span of four months. We called the campaign , as it was an opportunity for us to learn more about the impact of our state鈥檚 community colleges. 

We spoke to faculty, staff, and students about some of the issues that will be at the forefront of this year鈥檚 legislative session, including dual enrollment opportunities such as 

Given the research showing the many benefits of CIHS and recent legislative changes to the funding model for these schools, we took the opportunity to visit as many CIHS as we could to witness their impact firsthand. Here鈥檚 what we learned.

What are Cooperative Innovative High Schools?

CIHS are one of the three dual enrollment programs offered under  (CCP), which is a partnership between the N.C. Department of Public Instruction (DPI), the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS), the UNC system, and North Carolina鈥檚 independent colleges and universities. CIHS students account for 31% of those enrolled across the three CCP programs in the state.

During our Impact58 visits, we learned about the role community colleges play in CCP as a whole. Read more .

CIHS include early colleges, middle colleges, and STEM and career academies, which are all united under a common goal: to provide students with the opportunity to gain tuition-free college credits, including an associate degree or industry-recognized credential, while in high school.

These schools are committed to making sure they are reaching a wide variety of students, particularly those that may otherwise lack the opportunity or ability to attend college. In traditional dual enrollment programs,  that student participation over-represents white students from affluent, college-going backgrounds. In order to address that equity gap,  states that schools must target one of the following three student populations:

1. First-generation college students.
2. High school students who are at risk of dropping out.
3. High school students who would benefit from accelerated instruction.

Below is an interactive map displaying all 134 CIHS programs operating in the state during the 2022-23 school year, differentiated by those partnering with community colleges and those partnering with the UNC system or other independent colleges and universities. 

Part of what adds to the unique high school experience for these students is their size and location. These schools are required to have no more than 100 students per grade level to ensure an intimate learning environment, and they are often located on the campus of their partnering institution of higher education. Students not only experience college in their coursework but in their day-to-day lives on campus as they interact with professors and other college students.

Of all students enrolled in a CIHS in the 2021-22 school year, 89% attended schools that partner with a community college. 

Below are some frequently asked questions about CIHS, updated in fall 2022.

Student success by the numbers

Research has consistently shown that CIHS students outperform traditional high school students on a variety of metrics.  highlights ongoing research by Julie Edmunds, Fatih Unlu, Elizabeth J. Glennie, and Nina Arshavsky, which has tracked the performance of N.C. early college students for 17 years and has found overwhelmingly positive results. 

A  to the General Assembly offers the following data points from the 2021-22 school year as verification of the success of the CIHS model:

• 鈥淗igh school retention and completion rates for CIHS were above the state averages, with the average CIHS rates above 95%.
• The average high school drop-out rate of CIHS programs was below the state average.
• CIHS students at community colleges received better grades, on average, than the general population of students, with 84% averaging a passing grade of a C or better. This is 13% higher than the general population. 
• CIHS students also earned a total of 1,047 diploma and certificate credentials, based on NCCCS data. This represents a total of 2,231 individual credentials earned from both agencies, an increase of 515 credentials from the previous school year.
• 3,199 CIHS students graduated with an associate degree. This is an increase of 282 students from the previous school year.鈥�

In addition, during the 2021-22 school year, 62% of CIHS (83 out of 134 schools) received a school performance grade of A, 26% received a B, and 7% received a C. In comparison, just  received a school performance grade of A, 16.1% received a B, and 33.3% received a C in 2021-22.

What sets the CIHS model apart?

From our Impact58 visits, we gained insight into the importance of a strong partnership between the college and the district, the factors that contribute to student success, and how changes in funding have and could continue to hamper the implementation of this schooling model.

Stories from teachers and students overwhelmingly attributed the success of the CIHS model to the schools鈥� design and implementation. DPI has a set of guidelines that standardize the practice for establishing and running a CIHS. This ensures that as new CIHS crop up across the state, they are following the foundational principles of existing schools that have proven to contribute to student success.

The design elements deemed essential to the implementation of a CIHS in North Carolina include:

• Preparing graduates for college, careers, and life.
• Collaborative partnerships between the community and the partnering college.
• Innovative instructional practices in the classroom.
• Personalized student supports.
• Leadership and professionalism of staff.
• Innovative design and operations of CIHS.

See the CIHS Design and Implementation Guide by DPI below. The document also highlights best practices from CIHS across the state.

These CIHS design guidelines are facilitated by an intimate learning environment and small student population, a rarity at traditional public high schools. This intimacy allows students to form meaningful relationships with their teachers and peers, making the school feel more like a family. 

Natasha Snyder, the Pender Early College High School (PECHS) college liaison, described the depth of teacher-student relationships, saying, 鈥淲e know our students well enough that we can tell by their facial expression if they鈥檙e having a bad day when they get off the bus.鈥�

That level of intuition is crucial to providing solid wraparound supports for students. It allows students to feel comfortable asking for help when they need it, and it offers teachers insight into which students may be falling behind before it is too late. It certainly contributes to how CIHS students are able to outperform students in traditional high schools despite being in a more challenging learning environment.

If you are part of a local education agency (LEA) and are interested in creating a CIHS in partnership with an institution of higher education, 

Partnership is key

Collaboration between a CIHS and its partnering institution of higher education is key to ensuring that students have access to the resources and support they need as both a high school and college student. It is through this partnership that schools are able to blend a high school and college curriculum, coordinate instructors for college courses, and provide access to college facilities and resources, among other things.

One aspect that helps these partnerships succeed is a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the local school system and the partnering community college. The MOU sets a precedent for proper communication and assigns specific responsibilities to each entity, which are reviewed and revised annually. This ensures that both the school system and the community college are on the same page about how to best serve their shared CIHS students. 

The fact that CIHS are often located on their partnering college鈥檚 campus also facilitates collaborative efforts between the two. Staff at each institution are able to build relationships and work together to ensure students are on track to earning college credits, an associate degree, or a technical credential. On the college campus, staff do not differentiate between high school students and other college students. CIHS students are given equal treatment and equal resources.

Schools not located on the community college鈥檚 campus reported having a more difficult time integrating their students to the college community and ensuring they feel like real college students. These students often have less opportunities to take their college courses in person at the college and instead remain on their CIHS campus throughout the day and take their college courses online. While these students may still be offered the opportunity to utilize college facilities and resources to aid their studies, those who lack transportation to the college campus are less likely to be able to do so, although many schools find a way to offer transportation.

To ensure distance does not impede upon collaboration, schools not on their partner college鈥檚 campus reported relying heavily on their community college liaison to manage the partnership between their school and the college. The community college liaison serves as the go-between for the CIHS and the community college, acting as the point person for managing the partnership between the two and scheduling CIHS students鈥� college courses each semester.

Snyder explained, 鈥淚 feel like it doesn鈥檛 feel like work for two different institutions. We are here together for students. 鈥� We arrange everything so that we are fully knowledgeable on both sides so that we can better serve the students and meet their needs.鈥�

The ability to overcome all of the logistical challenges involved in maintaining this partnership is integral to the success of this model of schooling. And it is clear from what we heard in our travels that there is no shortage of success within North Carolina鈥檚 CIHS programs.

A range of experiences

CIHS provide students with invaluable opportunities upon graduating high school that they may not have otherwise had. Many are focused on ensuring students complete their associate degree and successfully transfer to a four-year college or university. Others are focused on preparing students for a range of post-graduation experiences, such as entering the military or the workforce.

We learned from our time on the road that it is not uncommon for community colleges to partner with multiple CIHS that offer different experiences for students. This often happens when there is a need in the local community that can be filled by opening another CIHS to address the gap.

For example, Wilson Community College partners with two CIHS to serve Wilson County students: Wilson Early College Academy (WECA) and Wilson Academy of Applied Technology (WAAT). While WECA focuses on ensuring students graduate with an associate degree and can transfer to a four-year school, WAAT focuses on preparing students for entry into the fields of biotechnology, information technology, automative systems technology, criminal justice technology, or applied engineering technology.

鈥�(WAAT) came about from some conversations with our workforce development committees across the county about the need for a workforce pipeline,鈥� said principal David Lyndon. 鈥淥ur county commissioners and our school system and our community college all came together to design something so that we could have a pipeline that put our students into work in our county, so it strengthened our county overall.鈥�

We heard a similar story a few hours southeast where Cape Fear Community College partners with four CIHS, including one,  (SEA-TECH), that opened in 2017 with four career academies.

McDowell Technical Community College is home to two early colleges that co-exist peacefully side-by-side, even sharing faculty, classroom space, and other resources. The  moved to the campus in 2021, and Billy Cline is the principal. The  has been on campus since it started in 2006, and Lisa Robinson is the principal.

At , the majority of students get an associate of arts or science transfer degree in four years and go on to attend UNC system universities. The degree 鈥渨aives their liberal studies so they are able to jump right into their career studies as soon as they go to university,鈥� said Principal Melanie Jacobs.

Some early colleges are housed in trailers. The Edgecombe Early College High School is located on Edgecombe Community College鈥檚 campus in a building that once served as a correctional facility. Other early colleges, like the Wake Early College of Information and Biotechnologies and Henderson County Early College and Career Academy, are in new, state-of-the-art buildings that look and feel like a college. A brand new early college is under construction in the Cherokee County Schools.

鈥業鈥檓 trying to set an example鈥�

From our time on the road, we heard plenty of reasons why students chose to attend a CIHS and the effect it had on their lives. Students often cited their parent鈥檚 wishes, the desire for a challenging workload, or the motivation to get a head start on their postsecondary education as reasons for opting into the CIHS model.

Makayla, a current 12th grader, said of her decision to attend Pender Early College High School:

鈥淚 have eight younger siblings between my mother and my father鈥� And neither one of my parents went to college. And so I鈥檓 trying to set an example for my siblings 鈥� and (show) them that you can do whatever you put your minds to.鈥�

The  to the General Assembly shares moving stories about students in CIHS programs across the state as indicators of the impact of this model of schooling. Here is one that encompasses how CIHS programs circumvent barriers to postsecondary access and the value that has for our state鈥檚 future workforce: 

鈥淒ue to time, motivation, and costs, I might not have pursued a two-year degree beyond high school on my own. Early College East has offered me an opportunity of a lifetime and has changed my future. I will graduate with a skill set to enter the job market and have a career with a competitive salary. For this I will always be grateful for the opportunities provided to me while a student at Early College East.鈥�

Isaiah, a student at Challenger Early College, told EdNC鈥檚 Emily Thomas: 

鈥淚 see myself with the group of people I鈥檝e met here鈥 feel like the bond I created at this school is the most caring bond I鈥檝e ever had with people in my life. 鈥� And in 10, 20, 30 years down the road, I think because of this school, (A) I鈥檒l be doing the thing that I want to do most in my life and (B) I鈥檒l be doing it beside the people I鈥檝e met here.鈥�

For all of these students, and many others like them, their early college experiences granted them both the courage and the opportunity to chase after their dreams.

CIHS legislation over time

CIHS programs have been the subject of a slew of legislative changes in the past decade.

Among those changes was a  that reorganized these schools鈥� funding structure. In the past, CIHS programs were able to apply for and receive additional funding totaling $300,000 per year. The 2017 legislation made it such that funding is based on a school鈥檚 , wherein Tier 1 county schools receive an additional $275,000 annually, Tier 2 schools receive $200,000, and Tier 3 schools receive $180,000. The result was effectively a funding cut for all CIHS.

A  attempted to restrict CIHS funding by only providing additional funding to schools in their first three years. Though the bill passed both the House and Senate, it was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. 

A  legislated that the State Board of Education may only approve additional funding for three new CIHS programs each year. This significantly limited the rate of expansion across the state for this model of schooling.

Why funding matters

During our time on the road this fall, we asked school administrators about the effects of these legislative changes. We heard about how changes to funding affected salary allotment for staff members, including the integral college liaison position. After the shift to tier-based funding, schools scrambled to find other sources of funds for those salaries, and some schools mentioned having to cut positions altogether.

Many schools pointed to the cost of college textbooks as a major pain point. College courses require up-to-date textbooks, which can be pricey, and it is important that CIHS students do not have to bear those costs. But, with less funding, schools have found it increasingly difficult to pay these costs themselves.

The photo below depicts how Lori Fox, the principal at Haywood Early College, has reduced the money she spends on textbooks to create money for college field trips.

Some of these funding shortages were partially offset by the federal funds given to schools to counter the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff were grateful that in spite of overall funding cuts, their schools had these supplemental funds. But, as schools begin to wean off of these federal dollars, financial concerns arise yet again. 

North Carolina as a national leader

It鈥檚 clear from both existing research and from the stories we heard on the road that the CIHS model benefits communities as a whole by providing underserved students with educational opportunities they may have otherwise lacked and preparing them for the workforce.

North Carolina is a national leader in the CIHS model, boasting a high number of CIHS that stretch across the state, steady enrollment numbers, continued expansion of the model, and a community college system that is eager to partner with local school districts to maximize educational opportunities for students.

Part of what makes North Carolina鈥檚 CIHS model an ideal blueprint is the buy in from the many different agencies and institutions involved 鈥� not to mention the commitment of CIHS staff and students, which we witnessed firsthand on our trips across the state. It is those very individuals who comprise the success of this model of schooling.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

As the world shut down in 2020, visitors escaped to the beautiful mountains of Ashe County. With its recreational tourism and wide open spaces, Ashe was one of a handful of counties in North Carolina where visitor spending increased during the first year of the pandemic, said Kitty Honeycutt, executive director of the Ashe County Chamber of Commerce.

Yet the service industries could not keep up with that demand, Honeycutt said. And in the years since, it鈥檚 been a struggle to find workers 鈥� a challenge familiar to communities across the state.

鈥淚t would be easier if we had more of a labor pool,鈥� Honeycutt said. 鈥淎nd we would have more of a labor pool if we had more child care.鈥�

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 蜜桃影视 Newsletter

Several businesses in the area expressed a willingness to provide stipends to employees or pay higher taxes to fund more child care access, in a survey by the Partnership for Ashe, the local Smart Start affiliate.

Leaders across sectors in Ashe have created a task force and are planning creative solutions to the child care shortage. This spring, a training facility and lab school for early childhood teachers will open through a partnership with Appalachian State University.

But the task force has found 鈥渢here are so many edges to the problem,鈥� Honeycutt said. Even with stipends from employers, many families can鈥檛 find or afford care. Many facilities are struggling to find teachers. And local investments like theirs can only go so far.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 where the legislature has to step in and fund this for us, so that we can start to make a difference 鈥� a fundamental difference 鈥� and not just try to put a Band-Aid on it,鈥� she said.

Despite the best efforts of communities throughout the state, the early care and education system remains in crisis.

Without access to affordable child care, parents can鈥檛 run the businesses that provide the services upon which we all depend. Experts point to this as a cause of current worker shortages, the costs of which get passed to consumers in the form of longer lines and higher prices at the grocery store.

Without early childhood care and education being high quality, we risk the health and well-being of the children who will become the next generation of workers. The effects of this are already being felt in high costs of health care, public safety, and public assistance programs.

Experts across the state 鈥� from parents and educators to business leaders and policymakers 鈥� agree that nothing less than North Carolina鈥檚 economic future is at stake without investment in early care and education.

Investing in our future

Research shows that investing in the care and education of North Carolina鈥檚 youngest residents has a positive impact on two generations simultaneously, both in the short and long term.

In the short term, the state鈥檚 economy is stronger when parents can earn family-sustaining wages knowing their children are safe and cared for while they work.

Those children benefit in the short term too. Evidence shows their brains thrive when they have caring adults around them who know how to support their development.

In the long term, investing in our state鈥檚 infants and toddlers leads to their improved health, lower incarceration rates, better educational outcomes, and greater workforce readiness.

The economic benefits from these short-term and long-term outcomes are lower burdens on the state鈥檚 systems and a higher tax base to pay for them. Investments in early childhood bring a higher return than investments at any other point in a lifetime, .

鈥楳oving for work鈥�

A big part of Mike Cline鈥檚 job as the state demographer in the Office of State Budget and Management is to think about how the decisions policymakers make now will affect the state鈥檚 population and financial outlook in the future.

In an interview with EdNC, Cline explained that while the fertility rate in North Carolina has held relatively steady over the last decade 鈥� about 60 live births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 鈥� the number of births annually has decreased.

This is due to the state鈥檚 aging population.

鈥淭he first group of baby boomers turned 65 in 2011, and since that time, every year there’s been about 100,000 people turning age 65,鈥� Cline said. 鈥淲e expect that to continue over the next several years, so the fastest-growing population group is 65 years of age and older.鈥�

An aging population can lead to a natural population decrease (more deaths than births).

But according to census data, North Carolina鈥檚 population increased by 9.2% between 2010 and 2020, even while the number of births decreased by 4.5%.

Cline attributes this to migration, people moving into North Carolina and establishing lives here for themselves and their families.

鈥淓ven though there are certainly people who move here for retirement, most of that is people moving for work, looking for opportunities,鈥� Cline said.

Migration accounted for between July 2021 and July 2022, he said. And that will likely increase in the coming decades.

鈥淥ur latest projections show that between 2040 and 2050, all of our growth will be due to net migration,鈥� Cline said.

That migration will happen only if the state remains attractive to workers and their families. Accessible, affordable, high-quality early care and education is an important factor in recruitment.

鈥淐ertainly, you want to make sure that there is infrastructure available in the future to support all types of education,鈥� Cline said. 鈥淚 think there is an argument for making sure those opportunities are there to continue to attract folks.鈥�

Keeping our economy going

A recent from the (NCECF) shows the state鈥檚 economic future is 鈥渋nextricably linked鈥� to child care.

, the limited accessibility of child care contributes to 鈥渄ivergent economic futures for families.鈥�

The authors found that parents are making decisions about their participation in the workforce and postsecondary education based on the availability and affordability of high-quality care and education for their young children.

In a recent panel discussion about the report, J.B. Buxton, president of Durham Technical Community College, described the child care challenges students face.

鈥淔or a lot of community college students, time is the enemy,鈥� Buxton said. 鈥淭hey’re working part time, they’re fitting in school along with life and work responsibilities, and when child care arrangements don’t work for them or they don’t have access to good, affordable care, it’s often education that loses out and has to take a backseat.鈥�

In an interview with EdNC, NCECF executive director Muffy Grant stressed the importance of creating a high-quality, nurturing environment where young children get the focused attention they need to thrive.

鈥淧arents need to work in order to keep our economy going, in order to keep their household going, and to make themselves less dependent on social safety nets,鈥� Grant said.

Grant pointed to lack of child care as a threat to the goal of ensuring that by 2030, 2 million North Carolinians have a high-quality credential or a postsecondary degree.

As part of monitoring progress toward that goal, myFutureNC 鈥� a statewide nonprofit organization focused on educational attainment 鈥� operates a tracking labor force participation. The goal is to have 86% labor force participation for people ages 25 to 44 by 2030. In 2019 (the most recent year for which data are available) the participation rate was 83%.

While it may seem the state is on track, there is a worrisome gap between participation rates for men and women. The rate for men was 88%, but for women it was 79%.

looked at labor force participation in 2021. Among people ages 25 to 44, they found lower participation rates among women, in rural counties, and among 鈥淎merican Indian residents compared to other racial/ethnic groups.鈥�

Last year, Gerald Cohen, chief economist of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, offered one : 鈥淭he gap between male and female is much smaller in countries such as Sweden, which have universal child care and generous paid leave programs.鈥�

One potential challenge to North Carolina 鈥� or the United States 鈥� developing a more comprehensive approach to early child care and education is the traditional belief that mothers should stay home with children to provide their care and education.

While it is true that infants and toddlers benefit from bonding with their primary caregivers (regardless of that caregiver鈥檚 gender), evidence shows they also benefit more generally from any relationship with a caring adult who knows how to support their development.

鈥楻eaping economic and societal benefits鈥�

The vast majority of human brain development occurs in the first three years of life. During this time more than are formed each second. Strengthening these connections during the between birth and kindergarten leads to improved outcomes in education, health, employment, and economic stability.

鈥淚nvesting in our little ones is investing in their high school graduation, too,鈥� said Ariel Ford, director of the Division of Child Development and Early Education for the state Department of Health and Human Services. 鈥淚t just makes sense all around for us to do this.鈥�

Despite the evidence for the importance of early learning, North Carolina and most other states do not treat education as a public good until children reach the age of 4 or 5. Many experts are urging policymakers to rethink that approach.

鈥淟earning doesn鈥檛 start at 5 or 4 鈥� it鈥檚 beginning in utero,鈥� Grant said. 鈥淚t’s our job to ensure that while parents are expecting babies, they’re not afraid about the fact that there’s no one to help care for them.鈥�

And learning isn鈥檛 the only concern.

According to an for policymakers created by Harvard University鈥檚 Center on the Developing Child, 鈥淓xperiences during the prenatal period and first 2-3 years after birth affect lifelong health at least as much as they affect school achievement.鈥�

Researchers studying the of participation in the 鈥� a long-running and oft-cited program of high-quality early care and education operated by the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill 鈥� found participants had 鈥渟ignificantly lower prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in their mid-30s.鈥�

of participants in the Abecedarian Project 鈥� along with two similarly well-known projects based in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and in Chicago 鈥� also found that impoverished children who received high-quality early care and education were less likely to be incarcerated later in life.

The potential of early care and education to prevent crime has been embraced by police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, and violence survivors who have joined forces for more than 25 years under the initiative organized by the bipartisan .

In their members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids state their support for:

investments in policies and programs that put kids on the path toward productive lives. In particular, by providing access to high-quality early education for kids today, we can see less crime and incarceration in the future, while reaping economic and societal benefits.

Those economic and societal benefits are directly attributable to the brain development that takes place in the first 2,000 days of life.

According to a :

During these early years, children begin to develop the skills they will need for later success in school and afterward as citizens and employees. These include attention, persistence, self-regulation, emotional balance, strong interpersonal abilities, curiosity, and critical thinking.

Proper investment in early care and education for North Carolina鈥檚 youngest residents not only enables their parents to fully participate in the labor force, but also improves the children鈥檚 health outcomes, reduces their likelihood of being incarcerated, and provides the foundation for their educational and economic futures.

Reckoning with our present

Though investments in early care and education have the highest return of any point of life 鈥� and serve as a two-generational support 鈥� they compose just over 1 percent of North Carolina鈥檚 state budget.

That includes three main early childhood programs: child care subsidy, Smart Start, and NC Pre-K. Each of these programs struggles with limited reach relative to the needs of children and families.

Early care and education is particularly inaccessible and unaffordable for families with children in the first three years of life. That鈥檚 also the period most critical for brain development, research says.

The pandemic has provided a temporary lifeline to the state鈥檚 early care and education network in the form of stabilization grants.

Those funds will run out at the end of the year. This cliff has experts and on-the-ground providers worried that the early childhood landscape will come out of the pandemic even more broken than before.

‘Several market failures’

A lack of public support leaves the early care and education landscape mostly dependent on parents鈥� pocketbooks.

But the prices are burdensome for most and impossible for many. The average price for infant care in the state is $9,480 per year 鈥� 29% higher than in-state college tuition, the Economic Policy Institute . Average care for a 4-year-old costs $8,113 per year.

This price almost always comes when families can least afford it. by the U.S. Treasury described this as one of 鈥渟everal market failures鈥� that 鈥渉elp explain why the current system is unworkable.鈥�

鈥淓ven though most families鈥� incomes and savings increase as their children age, they are unlikely to be able to borrow against their future savings to cover the costs of care for young children,鈥� the report says. 鈥淭his is an example of what economists describe as liquidity constraints, a classic market failure, which argues in favor of government support.鈥�

Even with prices so high, the true cost of high-quality early care and education is higher.

For an infant, the true cost of meeting base licensing standards in North Carolina is $13,900 per year, the Center for American Progress . If you add quality factors, such as decreasing the child-to-teacher ratio and paying teachers the same as kindergarten teachers, that cost goes to about $25,000 a year.

The largest existing public support to help working families afford child care is the child care subsidy program, which is mostly funded with federal dollars. Parents qualify through financial and situational to have a portion of the price covered, if there are enough funds available.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were thousands of children on local waitlists for subsidy assistance. Waitlists are lower than ever, said Henrietta Zalkind, executive director of Down East Partnership for Children, a Smart Start site that covers Nash and Edgecombe counties.

That鈥檚 not because of a lack of demand, but a flaw in how the program is structured, Zalkind said.

鈥淭he paradigm for subsidizing child care is outdated,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really the perfect storm that is almost collapsing the system right now. The economy has gotten to the point where the people who need help paying for child care are making more than what the income standards allow. The way to work on that is deeper, more permanent child care tax credits.鈥�

Not only does the program have limited reach, but the funds do not cover the full cost of care and are distributed unevenly across the state. The rates the program provides to facilities, set by the state legislature, are based more on what parents in each county can afford than what it costs to provide high-quality care, experts say.

鈥楾eachers can鈥檛 afford to keep teaching鈥�

The market is kept afloat by expensive rates and low teacher wages.

鈥淚 think the biggest challenge in front of us with access to child care right now is the workforce issue that we’re having,鈥� said Rep. Ashton Clemmons, D-Guilford, on an NCECF webinar last week. 鈥淎nd that is very closely tied to an unsustainable funding model that is really asking the workers of the system to subsidize the model by not being able to provide for their own families in choosing to be an early child care worker.鈥�

In 2019, North Carolina child care teachers were seven times more likely to live in poverty than K-12 public school teachers.

In May 2021, the median hourly wage for child care teachers was $11.23 an hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Low pay, a lack of benefits, and a taxing environment 鈥� plus a pandemic 鈥� have left the early childhood teacher workforce in crisis mode.

鈥淭he demand is definitely there, but finding the staff to help meet that demand has been an ongoing problem,鈥� said Denise Worley, director of the Regional Center for the Advancement of Children, a child care center on the campus of Haywood Community College.

, the number of early childhood programs has dropped by 10% and the number of staff has dropped by 3%. for about 18% of all infants and toddlers, and 27% of infants and toddlers with working parents.

鈥淭his current system does not work for a single person involved,鈥� said Elaine Zuckerman, policy and communications director at the NC Early Education Coalition. 鈥淐hildren are missing out on opportunities. Parents can鈥檛 afford it, or they can鈥檛 find it. Teachers can鈥檛 afford to keep teaching. Providers are telling us they鈥檙e going to have to close if things don鈥檛 change.鈥�

Stabilization without a permanent fix

Though providers are struggling to find teachers now, they鈥檙e worried about what鈥檚 around the corner as pandemic relief funds run out at the end of the year.

The pandemic was a double-edged sword for the early childhood teacher workforce.

On one side, early childhood educators were recognized as 鈥渆ssential鈥� next to health care workers and first responders.

The pandemic even prompted some unprecedented public funding. In North Carolina, the Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE) distributed federal relief funds in the form of stabilization grants, encouraging providers to spend the money on increasing teacher pay.

Programs did just that. More than 90% of providers had used the funds to increase compensation in April 2022. It was necessary in order to keep teachers in place, fill empty classrooms, and compete with other employers.

鈥淐hild care providers are competing against Target, Hobby Lobby, Starbucks, the grocery store,鈥� said Ariel Ford, DCDEE director. 鈥淭welve dollars an hour is not competitive anymore.鈥�

The state has distributed more than $740 million to over 4,300 child care centers and family child care homes. In September, DCDEE announced they would be using another $150 million in federal dollars for programs to support teacher compensation through December 2023.

On the other side, child care programs were expected to remain open as schools and everything else closed, often without access to health insurance.

And all of the stabilization funding will run out in December 2023. Advocates are scrambling to put stopgap measures in place this legislative session to avoid the upcoming cliff.

Ford said she has three main concerns without investments to maintain the current landscape: the quality of environments suffering, teachers leaving, and providers having to raise rates, pricing out more families.

鈥淎nd so what we鈥檒l see is that child care is unattainable for most working families across North Carolina,鈥� Ford said.

Without urgent action, the state will likely step backward, Ford said. When EdNC asked her to imagine a future where the state does not invest in high-quality early care and education, she paused for a moment, then pointed to the past.

鈥淭here was a time in North Carolina where people in my role had stacks of child fatality cases on their desks,鈥� Ford said.

These supports should be permanent, Zalkind said.

鈥淪ome of the things we piloted and did with rescue money need to become sort of permanent pieces of the system 鈥� if we want people to say, 鈥榊eah it鈥檚 worth it to me to go to work,鈥欌�� she said.

鈥榃e鈥檙e stepping backwards鈥�

The current teacher workforce is unstable. So is the incoming pipeline.

EdNC visited all 58 community colleges in the fall of 2022 and asked about early education teacher preparation.

Enrollment in early education preparation programs declined by 22% from 2008 to 2017, the NC Early Education Coalition .

From 2017 to 2021, enrollment in early childhood education declined 16%, according to .

When asking about 2022 enrollment on our visits, some reported continued declines, while others reported slight upticks as the pandemic wanes.

鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to climb back,鈥� said Eliza Dean, Haywood Community College early childhood program manager. Dean said the college鈥檚 preparation program was 鈥渉uge鈥� when she arrived 10 years ago. Enrollment is now half what it was four years ago.

During an interview with EdNC, Dean then turned to an early childhood instructor in her program, Lynn Kincaid. 鈥淗elp me out, why are we so low?鈥� she asked Kincaid.

鈥淵ou’re going to invest in your education so that you can have a career where you can sustain your household,鈥� Kincaid said. That鈥檚 often not possible for early childhood teachers.

In interviews with faculty, community college presidents, and students, the issue of low compensation for valuable work arose again and again.

鈥淯ntil those people become professionals, and are recognized and paid as professionals, we’re never gonna solve this problem,鈥� said Dale McInnis, president of Richmond Community College. 鈥�…You’re not going into this to get rich, but you can鈥檛 starve to death.鈥�

Many said they felt a moral obligation to actually guide students away from careers in early care and education.

Even some early childhood faculty, many of whom have dedicated their entire careers to the field, mentioned encouraging students to continue education to get out of classrooms with the youngest children (and the lowest pay).

And some presidents, with post-graduate economic mobility in mind, reported struggling with the decision of whether to continue offering early childhood education programs.

The NC Early Education Credential, which is the minimum requirement to work in child care programs, requires just one course, EDU 119. Legislation to add an option to test out of that course, raising concerns that the state was stepping backward in terms of teacher qualifications.

鈥淲e’ve been working so hard to elevate this field and elevate the perception of the folks who work in this field,鈥� said Katie Mintz, director of the early childhood program at Brunswick Community College. 鈥淚 just think we’re at a turning point where we’re going backwards. We鈥檙e stepping backwards. At the end of the day, it’s going to hurt children.鈥�

Faculty across the state are trying various strategies to increase enrollment, make classes as easy to access as possible, and provide a solid foundation for those working with the youngest children. Some are planning early childhood apprenticeship programs. Some are working to offer trauma-sensitive and culturally relevant programs. And many are advocating for public investment and encouraging their students to become advocates too.

鈥淲here I’m concerned is, right now, because they need people in the classrooms so desperately, that they’re lowering the bar instead of raising it,鈥� Kincaid said.

Shelly Anthony, early childhood education instructor at Cape Fear Community College, described an interaction with a student during class after teaching about the Perry Preschool Project in Ypsilanti, a well-known longitudinal study that has shown the lifelong impacts of high-quality early childhood education.

鈥淎nd one of our students goes, 鈥楾his study was done in the 1960s,鈥� and they go, 鈥楾hen why are we still having issues with this today?鈥欌�� Anthony said she responded: 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a very good question.鈥�

鈥淲e want quality preschool,鈥� added Marie Bergh-Cook, director of Cape Fear鈥檚 early childhood program. 鈥淲e want preschool teachers who are paid what high school and college teachers are paid, who have to have a bachelor’s degree, who can’t walk in there with one four-credit class. That’s what I want for my grandchildren.鈥�

鈥業t鈥檚 time to take the next leap鈥�

North Carolina once was a leader in early care and education policies, establishing programs that others looked to replicate.

In 1993, Gov. Jim Hunt launched Smart Start, a network of 75 local nonprofits that supports early childhood development through local programs and partnerships. The state in this state-local model.

In 2000, the state was one of the first to establish a rating system for its child care programs 鈥� known as QRIS (Quality Rating Improvement System) 鈥� to give parents more information and incentivize higher quality care. Now in the country has one.

Then in 2001, the state established More at Four, now known as NC Pre-K, a high-quality preschool program that targets at-risk 4-year-olds.

鈥淲e did so much infrastructure-building in the very late 鈥�90s, and through the early 2000s,鈥� Ford said, adding that the community college system also ramped up its early childhood offerings then.

But in recent years, other states have taken the lead on innovations.

In Washington state, the legislature invested $1.1 billion in 2021 through the to help families access and afford child care and support providers.

That same year, launched 鈥淢I Tri-Share,鈥� a program designed to distribute the costs of early care and education among employers, employees, and the state.

In November 2022, 70% of voters in approved an amendment to its constitution that guarantees a right to early childhood education. That right will be funded by money from the state鈥檚 permanent land grant.

The infrastructure North Carolina built at the turn of the 21st century provides the foundation on which counties like Ashe can build local initiatives.

鈥淲e stand on the shoulders of giants in this state,鈥� Ford said. 鈥�… And now it’s time to take the next leap, both program- and policy-wise.鈥�

This legislative session, Ashe County leaders have crafted a proposal for a $5.5 million five-year pilot that would open high-quality child care classrooms for 42 children in the school district鈥檚 pre-K facility. Tuition would be subsidized on a sliding scale. Teachers would be paid on the district鈥檚 K-12 salary schedule. The center also would provide paid internships for college students studying to become early childhood teachers.

They鈥檙e hoping to study children鈥檚 outcomes over that period to create a proof point for a replicable model.

鈥淗ow can we make a compelling enough argument that this is important, that this is really going to make a difference 鈥� in Ashe County, and in rural counties across the state of North Carolina for that matter?鈥� said Eisa Cox, Ashe County Schools superintendent.

While local initiatives like Ashe鈥檚 may pave a path forward, there are still more than 300 babies being born each day. Proper investment in their immediate need for care and education would improve their health, reduce the likelihood of their incarceration, and improve their lifelong educational and economic outcomes.

One of those babies belongs to a former employee of Cassandra Brooks, owner and operator of . On a recent panel hosted by NCECF, Brooks described the challenges this working parent has faced since the start of the pandemic.

鈥淚 had a teacher who worked for me in the past, during COVID, and she had to leave and go provide school-aged care for her older child because they were doing virtual schooling,鈥� Brooks said.

That teacher would like to return to working in child care, Brooks said, but she can鈥檛 find child care for her own baby.

鈥淪he has a great skill set, she has a degree, and she can’t work anywhere right now because she doesn’t have child care,鈥� Brooks said. 鈥淎nd that keeps her in a cycle. She has to continue to rely on public assistance because she’s not able to get a job to provide for her family.鈥�

This teacher has experienced the limits of early care and education as a provider, a worker, and a parent. This cycle that prevents parents from working in child care also prevents more parents from accessing child care. And that comes with a cost.

鈥淐hild care is a public good whether people see it or not,鈥� Brooks said.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic still lingers in the number of students at traditional public schools in North Carolina.

While average daily membership (ADM) at traditional schools is up from last year, it is still below where it was before COVID-19. On the other hand, charter school ADM is now almost 20% higher than before the pandemic. But the bulk of the state’s students are taught in traditional public school settings, with charters making up less than 10% of total ADM.

Last week the state Department of Public Instruction released its first look at how many students are in the state’s public schools.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 蜜桃影视 Newsletter

In the chart below, you can see the ADM numbers for traditional and charter school students in 2019 (pre-pandemic), 2020 (in the peak of the pandemic), 2021 (last year) and now. Traditional schools gained 1.1% from last year to this year but are still down 3.2% overall from before COVID-19. Charter schools gained 6.4% over last year and are up 19.2% from before the pandemic.

DPI  and its calculation this way:

The total number of school days within a given term 鈥� usually a school month or school year 鈥� that a student’s name is on the current roll of a class, regardless of his/her being present or absent, is the “number of days in membership” for that student. ADM for each school month is based on the sum of the number of days in membership for all non-violating students in individual LEAs/Charters, divided by the number of days in the school month. The final ADM is the total days in membership for all students over the school year divided by the number of days school was in session. ADM is a more accurate count of the number of students in school than enrollment. 

For more on what ADM is and how if affects school funding, watch Watauga County Schools Superintendent Scott Elliott .

Methodology

To analyze the Month 1 ADM data from this year, we compared it with Month 1 ADM data from the previous three school years. You can find all the original data from DPI  under 鈥淎verage Daily Membership and Membership Last Day by School (ADM & MLD).鈥� The data for this year are the numbers as of November 4, 2022, and are preliminary.

Districts sometimes see an increase in ADM in Month 2. Month 2 data for this year aren鈥檛 available, so we used only the Month 1 data in our analysis.

We looked at the 115 public school districts in the state, which includes the 100 county districts and 15 city districts.

ADM analysis

In last year’s analysis, we found that the single largest year-to-year decrease was 9.13% and the largest increase was 12.47%.

Districts are, on the whole, seeing smaller decreases this year. The single largest decrease from 2021 to 2022 was 4.67%, in the Weldon City School System. The largest increase was 7.62%, for the Cherokee County School System.

Thirty districts dropped anywhere from 0.1% to 4.99% between 2021 and 2022. No districts dropped further. Three districts had no change, and 82 saw an increase.

The numbers are starker when it comes to the changes between 2019 and 2022. The single largest decrease was 22.22%, for Tyrrell County Schools. However, Pender County Schools increased its ADM by 10.94% in that time period. It had the largest increase.

During that period, nine school districts had drops in ADM of 10% or more. Thirty-five dropped anywhere from 5% to 9.99%. Fifty-five dropped from 0.1% to 4.99%. Only 16 districts saw any increases in ADM from 2019-2022.

Reactions

Alexis Schauss, chief financial officer of DPI, said the department usually doesn’t draw conclusions from Month 1 ADM data since it is usually lower than Month 2.

“We usually wait until Month 2 ADM to assess LEAs (Local Education Agencies),” she said in an email. “Having said that, there were many LEAs that were declining in ADM prior to COVID, so that would need to be taken into consideration.”

Lauren Fox, senior director of policy and research for the, said in an email that the increasing enrollment over last year supports the assertion from local education leaders that students are returning post COVID-19. She also said the growth of charter schools is important to monitor for its impact on traditional public schools.

“Enrollment in charter schools and the number of charter schools overall in the state have been growing since the cap was removed in 2011, and it is more important than ever to keep a focus on how this growth impacts equity and opportunity for all students,” she said. “For instance: what is the impact of charter schools on traditional public school budgets and school segregation? To what extent are charter schools serving all students equitably, and how are we ensuring that they are accountable to students and families?”

Brian Jodice, executive vice president of , said that growth in charter, private, and home school enrollment has been going up for the past decade, but that COVID-19 did help bolster those numbers.

“I do think the pandemic caused an additional uptick because those non-traditional options had the flexibility to physically open their doors faster than the traditional public school system, and there were many parents and families in our state who wanted their children physically back in school as soon as possible for a myriad of reasons,” he said. “If you couple the impacts of the pandemic on school enrollment with the growing movement in our state around a belief that all students should have access to the school of their choice regardless of income or zip code, then it should come as no surprise that we continue to see a rise in options like charters and private school choice programs like North Carolina鈥檚 Opportunity Scholarship Program.”

In the map below, you can hover over any district to see its Month 1 ADM data for this year or the previous three. You can also see the percent change in Month 1 ADM from 2021 to 2022 and from 2019 to 2022. Dots represent city school districts.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.