EdNC. Essential education news. Important stories. Your voice.

Search ednc.org

My predictions for public education in 2016

Share this story

Our republishing policy

EdNC is a nonprofit, online, daily, independent newspaper. All of EdNC’s content is open source and free to republish. Please use the following guidelines when republishing our content.
  • Our content must be republished in full. If your organization uses a paywall, the content must be provided in full for free.
  • Credit our team by including both the author name and EdNC.org in the byline. Example: Alex Granados, EdNC.org.
  • If republishing the story online, please provide a link to EdNC.org or a link to the original article in either the byline or credit line.
  • The original headline of the article must be used. Allowable edits to the content of the piece include changes to meet your publication’s style guide and references to dates (i.e. this week changed to last week). Other edits must be approved by emailing Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected].
  • Photos and other multimedia elements (audio, video, etc.) may not be republished without prior permission. Please email Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected] if you are interested in sharing a multimedia element.
  • If you republish a story, please let us know by emailing Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected].
Please email Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected] if you have any questions. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Canonical tag

Please include the following canonical tag in the <head> of the republished story.

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.ednc.org/predictions-public-education-2016/">

HTML content

This includes the title, byline, content, and tracking pixel required for republishing this story.

Copy & paste HTML
This story is tagged:

Many make predictions at the beginning of a new year. The following are my thoughts on what 2016 may mean for public education in North Carolina.

  1. The General Assembly will give teachers the largest salary increase in a decade. Rationale: This is an election year and teachers deserve a raise so that education can be more competitive with other professions.IMG_9030 Allison
  2. A new state testing pilot will be expanded so that teachers, students, and parents can receive immediate feedback after assessments test-taking time is reduced. Rationale: The preliminary results of DPI’s testing pilot show very positive feedback from teachers.DSC_0078
  3. Enrollment in university teacher preparation programs will decrease for the sixth year in a row. Rationale: Young people and adults starting a second career will not be attracted to jobs in this field until salaries have improved and teachers have the resources and support that they need to do their jobs.
  4. The high school graduation rate will reach another all-time high of over 86 percent while the State Board of Education will continue to maintain higher standards for meeting graduation requirements.
  5. Investments in early reading instruction will begin to pay off and more students will be able to read well by the third grade. Rationale: Investments in summer reading camps for 1st and 2nd graders will have a positive impact.immersion 8
  6. Quality preschool programs will continue to be an issue even though research clearly shows that early learning programs bring great financial benefits individuals and to society as a whole.