Episode #828 of NCSPIN covered the recent release of test scores in North Carolina.  The host, Tom Campbell, opens up this portion of the show with a statement of ‘at first glance it looks like our schools made great gains’.  The raised passing rate is quoted and then it’s mentioned that the scoring system was changed which made it easier to pass the tests and making it nearly impossible to compare this year to any past year’s scores.

Related:  NC EOC’s Show Less Than 1% Improvement
My commentary on this clip is below the video.

Panel: 
Chris Fitzsimon, Director of NC Policy Watch
Becki Gray, Columnist, Carolina Journal
John Hood, President of the John Locke Foundation
Howard Lee, Former State Senator
Tom Campbell, Moderator

WATCH:

Howard Lee
In a nutshell, Lee tried to play up how awesome the ‘Jim Hunt era’ was. I laughed. Everyone calls Hunt the ‘Education Governor’. What a misnomer. ‘Education Fad Governor’ would be more accurate.
Jim Hunt and his Hunt Institute are some of the biggest Common Core supporters and propagandists in North Carolina. The Hunt Institute has received nearly $11 million to date from the Gates Foundation to that end. By the way, Lee is on the Hunt Institute Board.

John Hood
Hood stresses the need for assessment independence from DPI. I concur and would add we need independence from DPI and its incestuous relationships with Pearson and the SBAC.
Thankfully, Hood corrects Lee’s statements on Jim Hunt. Hood laid out how North Carolina’s gains were increasing and healthy in the 1990’s and into 2000, which is when Jim Hunt’s ‘reforms’ and ‘policies’ were instituted. After that, we see decline and flat-lining.

Chris Fitzsimon
Blah blah.. common core! Blah, blah apologist remark for DPI.
Admits scores were weak by stating Wake’s showed only slight improvement. Just so folks know, Wake has been using and promoting Common Core hard. Weak gains in Wake should speak volumes as to the crapitude of the Common Core.

Becki Gray
Gray was asked about the letter grades to be given to schools and how those letter grades have been put off a year – ‘will we ever get to that?’ Gray goes back to ‘meaningful assessments’ and that is what all parties want. Gray followed up Hood’s theme on getting DPI out of the way.

Gray said, “DPI is the one who is being tested and at the same time they are the ones who are administering the tests.”

BOOM. There it is. The foxes are guarding the hen-house.

Again, I have to concur. That department has become so sprawling and eats up so much money. Their leadership has a lot to be desired in the last 4 years, bringing us the Common Core without proper vetting, entering NC in the Race To The Top using Common Core as a brand name months before the standards were released, entering into huge contracts with Pearson for the disastrous Powerschool and keeping us bound to Common Core by entering into the Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium. All of that, and then we have the botched Read To Achieve roll out.

Shorter: DPI has become too big and too powerful without the ROI.