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¿Cuáles son las acciones que usted o su organización se comprometen a realizar para mejorar las escuelas públicas de Carolina del Norte?

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¿Cuáles son las acciones que usted o su organización se comprometen a realizar para mejorar las escuelas públicas de Carolina del Norte?

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¿Gran idea para las escuelas públicas de Carolina del Norte?

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¿Gran idea para las escuelas públicas de Carolina del Norte?

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¿Cuáles son los desafíos y las posibles soluciones para las escuelas públicas de Carolina del Norte?

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¿Cuáles son los desafíos y las posibles soluciones para las escuelas públicas de Carolina del Norte?

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¿Qué deberíamos celebrar y continuar en las escuelas públicas de Carolina del Norte?

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¿Qué deberíamos celebrar y continuar en las escuelas públicas de Carolina del Norte?

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Click the + above and share your thoughts!

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Curriculum access across the state is limited and inequitable based on funding, knowledge, etc.

Bring High Quality Instructional Materials to every teacher and student in NC.

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 Continuous providing high quality support and teaching for our Exceptionals Children and all by hiring locally and globally competitive international teachers thru the acquisition of the NC state license with the option to do the reading and math coursework which the NC SIP from DPI. 

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 Continuous providing high quality support and teaching for our Exceptionals Children and all by hiring locally and globally competitive international teachers thru the acquisition of the NC state license with the option to do the reading and math coursework which the NC SIP from DPI. 

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Focusing on diversity with a variety of schools with different specialty foci

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LETRS has benefitted teachers with their understanding of the science of reading. Has there been any considerations to accept college credits for our newly graduated hires? The acceptance should have clear parameters that mirror the learning within the LETRS training.

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Across NC, we have opportunities for students to participate in Dual-Language, Montessori, IB, etc. within our public schools which I was not afforded when I was in school in Pennsylvania.

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My nonprofit organization BeYOUU plans to implement social and emotional learning into the school systems. We’re helping schools and the community with tools to build character development, confidence, resilience, and emotional intelligence. We currently hold a SEL mentorship program at Northern High School with the goal to expand all across Durham Public School System and a vision to implement social and emotional learning into schools curriculum and every day interactions.

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The educators who do much for our children and therefore our community despite having scant resources.

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The educators who do much for our children and therefore our community despite having scant resources.

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Constant communication

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Diversity, equity, and inclusion is beautiful and allows students/others to keep an open mind. To learn to accept and celebrate our differences rather than judge them.

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Free lunch for all students

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Continue to uplift, support and encourage diversity, equity and inclusion with our students and staff.

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Diversity of race, gender, physical and mental abilities or disabilities, religion, and sexual orientation. All these different perspectives, collectively, is what makes humanity so beautiful. We have a lot of diversity here, and it needs to be celebrated.

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NC has an Early Intervention program for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing that is recognized nationally for having certified Teachers of the Deaf providing EI service to our D/HH studentsm

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To implement more character development, Social and emotionally learning opportunities into our schools and/or after school programs, and resources for teachers and staff to be equipped to handle students who need behavior medication 

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To implement more character development, Social and emotionally learning opportunities into our schools and/or after school programs, and resources for teachers and staff to be equipped to handle students who need behavior medication 

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NC is the proud home to children and families that come from several parts of the world. Durham Public Schools is a true microcosm of the world. We need to be able to celebrate them and build each of these students into realizing their dreams to become part of ours, of NC. Continue to support English Learners in NC.

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AIG students have so many opportunities in NC like NCSSM, Governors School, CCP, and CDM.

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Taking much needed money from public schools and giving it to private FOR PROFIT schools, that are not accountable to the public.

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We believe something that we should celebrate and continue in the NC public schools is having exceptional teachers for languages and other subjects that motivate students to go above and beyond. Learning world languages gives children life-long advantages. They can explore the beautiful world we live in, and learn about other cultures beyond the American culture. And we aren’t just talking about Spanish. This also includes less known languages like Latin. These exceptional teachers need to be kept in schools, especially with the teacher shortages. Students in our schools have been touched and inspired by these teachers and they have had their lives changed by these exceptional world language teachers. We need to fight to keep these teachers in their positions for the good of our entire community.

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Preparing students, including elementary and middle school students for the workforce and life beyond high school. More opportunities to engage our students with a purpose. Students and families need to know about possibilities.

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The focus on the importance of serving all students. A diverse staff who can better serve a diverse population 

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The focus on the importance of serving all students. A diverse staff who can better serve a diverse population 

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Two majority locals of NCAE (Durham and Asheville)!! More to come

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We can celebrate the arts. We have an incredible arts community in NC & it’s reflected in our schools. We need to keep the arts in our curriculum & continue to value the arts. 

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We can celebrate the arts. We have an incredible arts community in NC & it’s reflected in our schools. We need to keep the arts in our curriculum & continue to value the arts. 

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Durham Public Schools has an amazing Beginning Teacher Support program serving over 500 teachers in their first three years of service. Over 300 of those teachers are alternatively licensed. We would love to expand our program in order to meet the needs of this expanding group of teachers.

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Global perspectives and language immersion programs. Hiring of international teachers

Connecting students to real world application outside of the classroom like the the Wake county STEM Challenge

Diversity within the school system. The types of classes and the partnerships like the CCP program that enables high school students to enroll in college classes for free while they are still enrolled in HS

Tools for schools to help teachers with supplying their students with classroom resources

Access to primary and secondary education for all students regardless of background

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Adjust accountability to accurately determine student growth over time in not only academics, but also in non-academic indicators that impact overall learning.

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It would be great to bring back retired teachers to help with the overwhelming number of lateral and BT hires. Offering a stipend would also be wonderful. 

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It would be great to bring back retired teachers to help with the overwhelming number of lateral and BT hires. Offering a stipend would also be wonderful. 

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As a parent of a DPS kindergartener, I am shocked and at the inequity for resources. Underperforming schools and the lower income areas are getting less funding and teacher allocations per student. This equity was starkly demonstrated during the transportation crisis, as well. I want to see better tracking and transparency when it comes to resources across the district.

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Teachers are expected to perform the tasks of 3 (or more) positions while being paid for 1. Ex) I was hired as Pre-K 3 Inclusion Teacher for Creekside's 1st year in the Pre-K program. I was later told I was also an EC teacher & a Case Worker in charge of IEPs & Behavior Modification. I have no EC degree or Case Worker educ. The workload is immense. How can this even be a legal situation. I know there are many more teachers like me.

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Commit to including translation and ASL during seminars, presentations and videos.

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30 Years of Creative, Engaging Education

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30 Years of Creative, Engaging Education

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A+ Schools of North Carolina is proud to celebrate 30 years of schools that work for everyone in the 2025-2026 schools year.  A+ Schools is a whole-school transformation initiative that views the arts as fundamental to teaching and learning in all subjects. A+ Schools combine arts integration, arts education and arts exposure, offering children opportunities to develop creative, innovative ways of thinking, learning and showing what they know. In A+Schools, teaching the state's mandated curriculum involves a collaborative, many-disciplined approach, with the arts continuously woven into every aspect of a child's learning. For more information, visit: https://www.ncarts.org/arts-council-z/aplus-schools-nc.

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In my 5 years at WCPSS, I have already seen multiple programs/positions come and go due to funding. As a result of COVID, the district hired many more counselors/social workers to support student mental health in schools. This year, only 5 years later, we learned we are losing 20 counselor positions as a result of funding. We also were informed that the state would be offering an opportunity for students to graduate high school in 3 years and earn scholarship money toward attending a 2-year or 4-year public college/university, only to be told a year later that this would be reduced to a smaller pool of eligible students because the resources to fund this scholarship were not yet flushed out.

If there are future programs that the state is looking to begin, please ensure there will be consistent funding for years to come to ensure the continuation of programming, instead of maintaining something for a short period and then cutting it. It creates confusion and frustration for those of us in schools trying to communicate up-to-date information to students and families.

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Board certified teachers and teachers dedicated to honing their craft

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The recruitment of EC teachers is a challenge. Might we incorporate incentives to EC teachers and programs to encourage students to obtain a degree in special education?

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Public school funding is being decimated by legislative decisions with many downstream impacts that take us backwards in equity.

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Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing that live in low incident/low resource counties don't have the same opportunity to learn language and communication with a Teacher of the Deaf or immersion in the students communication modality. Having districts that are willing to provide services across county lines to be able to pool resources to hire Teachers of the Deaf and have cluster programs to provide immersion into the parents' chosen communication modality.

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SEL!! (Social-Emotional Learning) is a concept that helps children develop abilities beyond reading, math, and other key subjects in school. It allows these students to identify their feelings, understand and communicate with others, build strong relationships, and make good, empathetic decisions.  The most important point I am trying to convey is that it helps these students understand their emotions. These critical developmental skills help all kids succeed and is a great tool that benefits all students including mine. I hope we can continue these programs in schools.

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Some middle school students are arriving reading on an early elementary level. Middle School teachers lack skills to teach foundational and need support meeting the students’ needs. Might we consider Science of Reading professional learning for our middle grades teachers? Lexia, the company that currently facilitates LETRS professional learning also has a middle school component called Aspire.

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problem: recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers

solution: increase pay

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Resegregation (racial, disability, etc) will harm the diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts that advocates have worked towards over the past half century. Continue diversity and inclusion efforts to ensure students are learn in environments that reflect their communities.

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There are limited resources that are becoming increasingly restricted on the state and federal level. We will need to ensure they are distributed equitably. Independent financial and resource oversight would be welcome, though politicization of that process is potentially dangerous.

Teachers are held accountable for the progress of the learning progress of their students. Administration (both in schools and in central positions) are seemingly not held to the same standard of outcomes. Effective administration allows teachers and staff to support students. We have to identify and take seriously struggles finding substitute teachers, mistakes in payroll, major mistakes in budgeting, and teachers struggling to get invoices paid.

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One challenge for NC schools is hiring administrators that are hands on with their staff. Some administrators never leave their office to find out what is going on in their classrooms at their schools.

Another challenge is communicating with school boards and school leaders. A lot of issues fall through the cracks due to unanswered calls and/or emails. Several school and district leaders are always unavailable to speak with concerned parents, educators, and community leaders.

Potential solutions would be to hold administrators to a higher standard within their district and also an easier way to contact leaders/administrators.

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Finding and keeping competent high quality principals in our schools. A solution is to have principal mentors (retired principals, business leaders, clergy, university professors, etc) and supports in place to keep them from feeling isolated, which leads to burnout. Inconsistent and a lack of strong leadership leads to high teacher turnover.

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Echoing digital literacy and privacy comment

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Echoing digital literacy and privacy comment

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Children do not understand the consequences of what they do online. We need to educate children on how and when to use tech appropriately as well as the basics of cybersecurity. I am a cybersecurity professional, I teach my children, but would like to be able to arm teachers to help other parents that don’t know what a cyber professional knows. While the next generation of tech is very important, we need to teach it with intention and appropriately.

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BEGINNINGS for Parents of Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing is providing education, emotional support and educational advocacy to parents to enable them to understand their child's hearing loss and to advocate for FAPE for their child. We provide our services in English, Spanish and ASL. We are supporting the teachers at the school level and helping them so they are improving services for all children who are D/HH.

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So many challenges…..

Funding:

Stop cutting public school funding

Release the LEANDRO funds.

Stop private school vouchers.

Cap the charter school expansion, especially for-profit charters.

Pay teachers at least the national average.

Restore masters pay

Restore longevity pay

We need more Instructional Assistants

We need to expand mental health teams in each school. We see so much anxiety in our students.

We need more remediation teachers to help our students that are struggling in reading & math.

More trained specialists to address students with disabilities.

Bring back the Teaching Fellows Program like it was before they gutted it.

Our pipeline to teaching is drying up. We’ve got to be able to recruit & retain teachers.

Solutions: Most of the above are state issues. Most solutions to the above require funding. We need legislators that are public education friendly. NC to needs vote better.

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Public school workers feel undervalued, not listened to, and locked out of decision making about our jobs and the students we know best— this causes retention to be a huge issue. A solution to this is a formal seat the district decision making table for workers through their union via a meet and confer policy (legal alternative to collective bargaining in NC).

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Re: instructional materials - the #GoOpenNC open educational resources page might be helpful or a good place to start if folks are looking for things!

https://www.dpi.nc.gov/educators/home-base/goopennc#FAQs-4237

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#GoOpenNC is the North Carolina, PreK-12 open education resources initiative.

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I appreciate that NCDPI are holding these listening meetings across the state. One of the challenges in each district is that those who create and enforce policy (Superintendents/district admins/BOEs) is that the educators (from all educational service areas ) are not included in conversations before the policy is created. Establishing meet and confer policies in each district will allow for better solutions for our schools.

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NC has thousands of vacancies, larger class sizes, and more unqualified teachers in our classrooms than ever before. When lawmakers in NC brag about budget surpluses and ignore the LEANDRO decision, then they are openly waging a war against public schools. All elected officials should be openly fighting against this.

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Education was a second career for me. I came into education after 15 years in the corporate world. i went through a lot of corporate management training. I have found a lot of admins lack training on how to manage people. They lack leadership skills.

I would like to see better managerial & leadership training for administrators.

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NC DPI Office of Career & Technical Education (CTE) consultants manage the various pathway Moodles. We manage LMS for teachers by hosting discussion boards, facilitating professional development for our teachers, and allow teachers to share activities, quizzes, and projects that we post in a Teacher by and for Teachers folder by standard. We strongly encourage sharing. (Teachers shouldn’t have to pay their colleagues for activities, etc)

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I want to start with the solution. Meet and Confer is LEGAL policy that Durham Public Scools and any Public School district can implement. Where administrators and management work with Educators come to the table to present solutions to the superintendent and the School Board members. This platform would decrease on Staffing turnover, transportation shortages, and increasing transparency...just to name a few.

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When will the Praxis Test be eliminated for those currently enrolled in EPP programs? I have taken Praxis 5511 multiple times and haven't not passed it. The state and my curriculum state in order for me to graduate and keep my job I must past this test.

If these tests are done away with I am willing to add on more licensure area if they are done with.

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I agree about doing away with the Praxis exams.

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School administrators need alot of support to lead properly especially those with 3yrs or less of experience. They should have a strong mentor that meets with weekly. Strong seasoned principals can assist with mentorship of novice principals not just an administrators who works with 15 other principals in a district in addition to their other duties.

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Focus on supporting the whole child by building educator social emotional competencies and providing them the time and resources and respect they need

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Arts based schools

More magnet schools that focus on the arts.

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Literacy, while improved with the science of reading, is still far behind what kids deserved. Consider additional supports for out of school time, especially during the summer.

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Consider funding for Books on Break to support for book abundance and summer reading in Tier I counties/Title 1 schools

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We have so many great educators but as a state we don’t have enough. I would like to see the process for internationally trained teachers streamlined so that refugees and immigrants who have resettled here can have their experience acknowledged and become licensed to teach.

I would like to see a way that better acknowledges their experience. Allowing a certain number of years of teaching to bypass the need for a portfolio/student teaching experience so that teachers can be awarded a CPL or IPL until they pass additional requirements.

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Counselors now do three jobs: college counseling, mental health interventions, and scheduling.

These are three different functions with three different skillsets. Split them among specialists in those skillsets.

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My big idea is to lower the compulsory school starting age from five to three years old. By doing so, we can positively impact literacy rates, increase engagement in S.T.E.A.M. learning, enhance early intervention services, and take a significant step toward dismantling the preschool-to-prison pipeline. Many of the challenges we see in elementary, middle, and high school begin at birth and are deeply rooted by the age of eight. Any meaningful solution to these issues must include a strong foundation in early childhood education. It’s time to start their educational journey at age three.

-Tammy Sneed Early Childhood Education Advocate

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Figure out why schools across the state fail to early identify SLD students (80% are dyslexic). Solutions: Look at the data we already have. For example, we know antidotally that Black dyslexic students aren't identified early, but we can look at the data and let the data inform us. Setup roundtables to understand why schools struggle to identify disabled students.

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I agree with the gentleman who suggested having all schools run on a year round calendar.

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How would it change the experience of attending and working at schools in NC if our school breakfasts and lunches were truly great? Quality food, free for everyone, that everyone can’t wait to eat every day! Community is built around the table and this would drive improved attendance. Follow @dan.giusti on instagram for lots of ideas about schools already really doing this!

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No high stakes standardized testing for students.

Get rid of EVASS-terrible way to evaluate students, teachers & schools.

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Chris Lipscomb’s (sorry if I misspelled your name) idea about beginning teacher programs reminds me of my first two years teaching in Richmond County Schools. All new teachers were assigned a retired teacher who did exactly what Chris mentioned. They came to talk to us during our planning periods, observe our classes, and provide us with invaluable support as we navigated the tough first couple of years. I’m not sure if that’s still how the BT program operates, but I would love to see the program replicated statewide.

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I’d like to touch on subjects that many other people here have brought up. As I am a current student, I maybe am not as involved or in the loop as other people here. But what I’ve noticed is this:

With learning differences such as ADHD or dyslexia, students often don’t get the support they need. As I have several friends diagnosed with these learning differences, I often observe that they don’t get the support or acknowledgment they need. They receive minimal extra help and are expected to live with it, not grow with it. I often have to help one of my friends who has dyslexia in science when we are supposed to read a passage because she learns better when read aloud too. And her mother is a teacher and has helped her adjust and accommodate to this learning differences such. I can’t imagine how hard it is for someone who doesn’t have access to these resources. I would like to see more easily accessible resources for these widespread learning differences.

One other thing I want to point out is the use of devices in school. Blocking game websites or using platforms like Go Guardian is not a solution. Students will always find a way around it and administrative services are wasting resources trying to prevent this. Students in my class are constantly getting distracted by games and websites. In top of this, people are often using smartwatches to text their friends during class. We need to restrict the use of devices.

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I agree with the gentleman on the year round schedule. I currently teach on a single track year round schedule. It is wonderful! Less learning loss, less re-teaching of material. Better behavior. More opportunities to remediate during the break if needed.

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My daughters went to a wonderful preschool with loving teachers and a supportive environment. My wife and I could afford to do so and we had family and friends who could help provide transportation and care when we had to work. It helped set our daughters up for success in public school. And it was a privilege. I believe that high quality universal pre-k, starting at least at age 3 if not age 2, should be a right and not a privilege. I have no research/data to support this claim, just a gut feeling, but I feel this would go a long way towards leveling the field for students and families, and would significantly reduce the later need for reliance on the social safety net and would go a long way towards reducing the number of students who as adults experience poverty and/or incarceration. My big idea: universal pre-k.

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I will continue to volunteer with students and serve as a sounding board and support for the teachers in my life.

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I coordinate our local Public School Strong chapter in my county ( Franklin) 

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I coordinate our local Public School Strong chapter in my county ( Franklin) 

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I attend our local BOE meetings each month.

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As an instructor at NC State, I am committed to instructing early college students. As a working class student who graduated from early college in NC, I am committed to the ✨big idea✨ of expanding early college (e.g., to community colleges and more universities). I am also committed to mentoring first generation, LGBT+, and marginalized communities in higher education - and in partnership with early college programs- and including these demographic groups in my research.

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nonprofit organization BeYOUU that equips youth with social and emotional skills like character development, confidence, and building resilience to thrive in school in the community. 

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nonprofit organization BeYOUU that equips youth with social and emotional skills like character development, confidence, and building resilience to thrive in school in the community. 

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In research I did 34% of Durham county middle schoolers and 41% of high schoolers here reported feeling sad and hopeless or express depressive episodes that impact their school performance.

BeYOUU is here to support schools in those resources. We currently host our L.I.F.E. Mentoring sessions here at Northern and plan to expand across the school system for In school and after school programs

I also love what the young lady said about implementing trauma informed care to teachers and staff but I too agree that it is needed and we also are working on providing those resources as well.

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We love to use this word but we don't actually do it. We need real collaboration between administrators, teachers and staff. Were all here for the same purpose but were all in our separate corners. We need true collaboration through an honest process like meet and confer. Instead of pointing fingers and waging war against each other. Educators and staff who work with students everyday shouldn't have defend themselves when trying to improve working conditions bpowe

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Who decided that school social workers are on the lowest branch of school support services. Many school social workers are assigned to 2 or more schools, including Durham County Schools. Also, a primary responsibility for us has become truant officers but with no support for the work. The Durham County District Attorney has deemed truancy as a non-priority thus we can no longer use the courts even in extreme truancy levels in elementary school.

I recommend that DPI adopt standards of social workers services in the school that actually has some teeth to it, I.E. one social worker per x number of students.

I recommend that DPI establish a memorandum of understanding with the court system to reinstate charges for parents of extreme ly truant students, especially elementary and middle school students.

Thank you for coming and listening.

Zenobia HatcherWilson

Retired School Social Worker

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Bring back retirees. Allow them to draw retirement and work part time or full time unless they are drawing ssi benefits.

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We continue supporting the arts, humanities, and CTE classes in public education. We are often relegated to being lower on the hierarchy scale because many of us are not in tested areas. However, we should keep in mind the education of the whole child.

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Media and digital literacy should be an integral part of contemporary public education. These areas should be embedded in core instruction as students (and adults!) are being bombarded with a surplus of information daily.

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My big idea for NC Public Education is Arts Integration!

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Transition all schools to a 4-day school week while still meeting the 1,025 hour requirement (i.e. school day may increase or length of year may increase). Increase teacher contracts to be 11 month employees and require specific days each month for teacher work days and/or training on the 5th day.

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Hi Mo,

It was truly a pleasure to meet you last night. I texted Bill McNeal to share that I had the honor of meeting you as well and he was happy to hear that your listening tours are going well. In addition to supporting NC with implementing HQIM, I am particularly interested in both assessment practices/accountability and innovative scheduling, as I listed on the Padlet.

Last night, I created a 4-Day School Week Example that I feel would be highly advantageous for NC to pilot in the 2026-27 school year.

I would love to speak with you and/or members of your staff to determine ways in which I can continue to support HQIM, assessment practices/accountability, and innovative school scheduling. As a former Comprehensive Support Specialist at DPI and administrator in Durham Public Schools, I am highly invested in the future of education in North Carolina.

I look forward to hearing from you and your team!

ANNETTE SHAKINOVSKY, MSA

Senior Learning & Development Designer

greatminds.org

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We need to lift up both the idealism and the real benefits underlying public schools and their mission to education any student who enrolls--unlike the private schools that are being funded with public money.

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The concerted, years-long effort to de-fund public schools in North Carolina and give public money to literally anyone else.

The DPI and the entire executive branch of government in NC needs to think creatively and pursue any means at its disposal to (a) curtail these efforts and (b) illuminate what these people are doing, why they are doing it, and why it's bad for North Carolina.

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Eliminating suspensions across the board is a big idea, and a reach. But at the very least, we should be doing more to cut back on suspensions and to understand which students are getting suspended most often and what those students need in order to prevent the events that lead to them getting suspended. Suspensions disproportionately impact students with disabilities and Black students. Students with disabilities are suspended more often than their non-disabled peers, and because of their disabilities, they may be more deeply impacted by a suspension's emotional effects and the withdrawal of educational and therapeutic supports.

There is not robust evidence to support suspension as an effective solution in either the short or long term, even for the students who are left in a classroom when other students are suspended. In fact there is ample data showing connections between suspensions and multiple negative outcomes, including poor health outcomes, dropping out of school, contact with law enforcement, and imprisonment. The American Academy of Pediatrics in 2024 released a report outlining the ill effects of suspension and calling for action by policy-makers.

It is too easy for educators and administrators to just suspend a student. Sometimes you have to take a tool away or severely restrict its use before people realize that there are other ways--ways that maybe weren't as hard as they thought, and that are better for the student, the school, and the community.