SBOE Report: February 2025
The North Carolina State Board of Education met for its Planning Meeting last Wednesday, February 5th, and for its Regular Meeting on Thursday, February 6th.
Both meetings contained the same agenda for when and where the action items are voted on and/or when action items/reports receive final approval to be sent or shared with the NCGA or adopted as policy for the NCSBOE.
2/5/2025 Planning Meeting Report
Morning action and discussion items included the Student Learning and Achievement Committee report to the NCGA on the 2024-2025 Excellent Public Schools Act Approval and Denial of Literacy Interventions Plans. A link to the report can be found here.
Next was a report to the NCGA on Statewide Trends in Student Digital Learning Access. Following this discussion, a consent action item was reported to the NCGA on the Cursive and Multiplication Tables Report. They discussed the data and concluded that over 90% of LEAs and Charter Schools complied.
Much of the morning was spent reviewing data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2024 Mathematics and Reading Results from 4th and 8th graders. The 2024 data reflects students impacted by the 2020-2021 COVID-19 interruption and shows improvements across the board in mathematics.
None of the data showed NC students behind the rest of the nation. Instead, NC was ahead of most states in much of the data. The NAEP slideshow and summary can be found here.
The Education Innovation and Charter Schools Committee considered new business in their Meeting Review. The Committee discussed a required report to the NCGA on Career and College Promise Cooperative and Innovative High School Programs, and the new Cooperative Innovative High School Programs (CIHS) application recommendations.
After lunch, The Healthy Responsible Committee met and submitted their report to the NCGA called the 2023-2024 Consolidated Data Report (regarding violence in public schools). A link to the presentation can be found here.
Next, The Educator Standards and Practice Committee met to discuss Rules Updates for Educator Preparation Programs (EPP) Accountability and Sanctions Rules. This has been a multi-month process to modify and reform accountability and sanction rules that govern educators. It was presented for action approval. A link to the presentation can be found here.
For consent, the Board reviewed the report to the General Assembly: Completion of Educator Preparation Programs (EPP) Clinical Internship Requirement for Certain Students Impacted by Hurricane Helene.
Continuing from last month, The Government and Community Affairs Committee presented their Proposed 2025 NCGA Long Session Legislative Priorities.
Late afternoon content items included Reports to the NCGA on Instructional Hours and Flexibility and Compensation for Public School Employees, Reports to the NCGA on Increased School Mental Health Support for Hurricane Helene, and Reports to the NCGA on School Health Personnel.
2/6/2025 Regular Meeting Report
The Regular Meeting of the February State Board of Education followed the Planning Meeting agenda, with action items showing up for consent approval votes at the end of the day.
The morning continued with special recognitions. The Superintendent gave the monthly Superintendent’s report, which consisted of rolling out his “cabinet” of key advisors.
The Student Learning and Achievement Committee Report reviewed yesterday's short agenda and celebrated the 100% student access to a 1 to 1 device.
The rest of the meeting followed the agenda from the Planning Meeting with some additional discussion centered on FY 2025-26 Recommended Legislative Priorities and Government Affairs update.
There was discussion on including standardized testing requirements for schools receiving Opportunity Scholarships. Several proposals were discussed ranging from national norms type testing, financial accountability, student outcome accountability, and tying Opportunity Scholarship funding increases to overall public-school funding increases. The proposals listed in the presentation are suggestions for the time being. A link to the presentation can be found here.
High-impact tutoring programs were also a point of discussion. Some districts are taking part in the program. The proposal from the SBOE would be to scale up this program and offer flexibility for schools to propose their plans going forward with high-impact style tutoring.
There was also a review of the recent PowerSchool data breach with assurances made that PowerSchool was reaching out with mitigation measures. The State's relationship with PowerSchool ends this summer as the state is switching to Infinite Campus (IC) in June 2025. Infinite Campus has assured education leaders in NC that IC's data protection is above standards.
Finally, action items and consent items were approved. These items have been in the pipeline for several months and are usually non-controversial.
The meeting concluded by 11:00 am.
The next State Board of Education meetings are scheduled for March 5th and 6th.
Comments