Education Key Facts

For the 2010-2011 school year there were 1,434,436 students enrolled in the
NC public school. The dropout rate for grades 7-12 is 2.6% while the graduation rate is 74.2%
In the 2009-2010 school year, 66.3% of students passed the ABC’s End of Grade tests. This was an increase of 2.4% from the previous year.
For 2009-2010, the total percentage of students reading at or above their grade level was 70.1%. When looking solely at students with Economic Disadvantages, only 57% were reading at or above grade level, compared to 84.5% of non-economically disadvantaged students.
In 2009-2010, the percentage of students who performed at or above their grade level in math was 81.8%. Comparatively, 73.2% of Economically Disadvantaged students performed at or above grade level in math, versus 91.2% for non-economically disadvantaged students.
In 2009-2010 North Carolina did not meet its Adequate Yearly Progress
(AYP) goals. North Carolina reached 68 of 82 targets on its adequate yearly
progress goals. For elementary and middles school the AYP is determined
by assessing end of course and end of grade tests. For high schools the
AYP is determined by end of course testing in Algebra I, English I, and the
tenth grade Writing Assessment. Although high school students take
end of course assessments in seven other subjects, only Algebra I,
English I, and the tenth grade Writing Assessment are calculated into
the AYP goals.
The average teacher’s salary for 2009-2010 in NC was $46,850, compared to the national average at $55,202. NC ranked 36^th in the nation. In 2006-2007, NC ranked 26^th in the nation in teacher pay.
The North Carolina Commission on Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps
has devised twelve recommendations and the twelfth one states:
“Conduct formal studies of best practices in the education of major
racial/ethnic groups, in particular Hispanic/Latino and Asian students,
including research from countries of origin. Most teaching practices
in North Carolina classrooms do not reflect knowledge of cultural,
social, and learning factors represented by the full range of the racial
and ethnic composition of the students being taught. As with the
recommendation to document the history and educational practices
of African American and American Indian students, the purpose of
these studies is “to build a credible body of knowledge about minority
cultures that can be used to prepare educators, especially teachers,
to more comfortably exchange or interact across ethnic/cultural lines
in the classroom and beyond.”
Some other recommendations from The North Carolina Commission
on Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps include: (1) reduce then
eliminate the disproportionate number of minority students in special
education programs; (2) fund then apply instructional strategies that
expose low functioning minority students to more advanced content
curriculums; (3) design and implement a public information campaign
encouraging a greater measure of involvement from local communities;
(4) devise strategies to increase involvement of parents; (5) that school districts allow teachers the time needed to update and/or improve their skills.

Sources

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