Free Republic

RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina students had a little trouble with their reading skills, with scores on achievement tests dropping slightly in a national measure of student performance released Wednesday. Nearly 40 percent of fourth-graders and 31 percent of eighth-graders performed below a basic level of proficiency in reading, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. But math scores held steady for both grade groups, and the North Carolina students generally performed at or slightly better than the national average in both subjects. "The trendline for North Carolina students is positive in mathematics. This year we held...

RALEIGH -- The U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Education recently released a report that should hearten parents worried about the safety of their kids in school. " Crime in the nation's schools fell sharply from 1992 to 2002, part of the broad decline in crime in the last decade," according to the November 2004 Bureau of Justice Statistics report. Despite the welcome national trend, school violence in North Carolina has increased over the past year. Recent events in Guilford County and many other communities around the state are creating concern about the safety of children in North...

For the Catawba County (North Carolina) School District, it was three strikes and you're out. River Bend Middle School had allowed school supporters – such as tire dealers, security companies, and other churches to purchase advertising space on the school's athletic field.  When the Oxford Baptist Church asked to display a sign with the Bible verse: "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God," (1 Corinthians 10:31), their request was denied. When negotiations were fruitless, ADF attorney Gary McCaleb sued the school district in the U.S. District Court for the Western...

<p>HAYESVILLE - When Tami Smith's 10-year-old son got in trouble at school in February, she told the principal it was OK to spank him.</p> <p>But when she later found bruises on her son's leg, she decided principal Mickey Noe had gone too far.</p>

T-shirt Controversy Surrounds Caldwell Co. School POSTED: 2:13 pm EST March 23, 2004 UPDATED: 5:56 pm EST March 23, 2004 HUDSON, N.C. -- Racial tensions at South Caldwell High School have prompted a crackdown on T-shirts with the Confederate battle flag on them. Fifteen students were sent home from the school Monday for violating the dress code. Principal Byron Jones says the students ignored a letter sent home last week announcing the crackdown, which began Monday. Jones says the school superintendent and school attorney told him to enforce the rule strictly. The T-shirt worn by 17-year-old South Caldwell student...