A new report analyzing the performance of North Carolina students during last year’s far-reaching COVID-19 disruptions finds that learning progress slowed across all grades and subjects. The report from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction’s Office of Learning Recovery and Acceleration (OLR) showed that students made less progress, on average, than students in the same grades and courses in previous years. Results presented today to the State Board of Education show also that students who experienced more face-to-face learning in the classroom, and where specific and targeted resources and supports were implemented immediately, made stronger gains than students who learned only virtually.

As schools across North Carolina focus on efforts to recover ground lost last year to COVID-19, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt released details today of her strategic vision, called Operation Polaris, aimed at achieving gains for public education in the state – now and in the future.

With today’s announcement by the U.S. Department of Education that it has approved North Carolina’s spending plan for the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) Fund, the state will receive $1.2 billion remaining from a $3.6 billion allocation to help public schools and students recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today, the State Board of Education approved the allocation of $10 million in federal COVID-19 relief funding to help local school nutrition operations across North Carolina recruit and retain needed staff.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt released the following statement in response to updates made to the StrongSchoolsNC Toolkit.

When schools across North Carolina sent children home a year ago Sunday due to COVID-19, educators were uncertain what lay ahead. They had no roadmap, no past experience and no preparation for a pandemic. But within days, they began finding new, if unfamiliar, ways to help students they could no longer see in person. They improvised by creating new methods for teaching and engaging students. Support staff hustled to organize meals and delivery strategies to keep students fed. School leaders went to extraordinary lengths so that students could continue learning and growing. 

Today State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt, Gov. Roy Cooper, Senate leader Phil Berger, House Speaker Tim Moore, Senate Democratic Leader Dan Blue and House Democratic Leader Robert Reives made a joint announcement on legislation to reopen schools across the state.

SB 37 “In-Person Learning Choice for Families.”

Thousands of North Carolina parents with school-age children will soon begin receiving additional assistance to purchase food through the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer Program,

In today’s meeting of the State Board of Education, Superintendent Catherine Truitt presented her overarching vision and three key priorities to transform public education in North Carolina: literacy, testing and accountability, and human capital. Truitt said these three priorities will guide the Department of Public Instruction’s immediate efforts to address the effects of COVID-19, including learning loss, while also laying the groundwork to achieve her long-term vision: every student deserves a highly-qualified, excellent teacher in every classroom.