North Carolina Schools

    Since 1990, North Carolina has made excellent progress toward raising its SAT scores. In 1990, North Carolina’s average SAT score was 53 points lower than the national average. In the 2006 testing season, North Carolina college-bound seniors closed the gap to just 13 points below the national average.

North Carolina is doing a wonderful job making sure no child is left behind. Although as a whole the state did not meet its Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements (as determined by the federal government) the state as a whole did well. North Carolina met 61 of its 83 requirements, including attendance and on-time graduation rate requirements. Only six of North Carolina’s 117 districts made their AYP requirements in the 2005-06 school year.

The state also jumped up three spots in the annual “Smartest State” rankings, from 25 to 22 out of 50. The Smartest State rankings are based off of Morgan Quinto’s “Education State Rankings” annual reference book, and rank schools on 21 factors including student performance, personal attention by teachers and positive outcomes.

North Carolina is budgeted to spend $6.7 billion on public education, not including federal funding for schools that are falling behind. This will put per-student spending during the 2006-07 school year at almost $7,000 per student.

For more information on North Carolina’s schools, visit http://www.ncpublicschools.org.