Representative

D. Craig Horn

North Carolina
House of Representatives
District 68 Union County
300 N. Salisbury St., Room 419A, Raleigh, NC 27603
(919) 733-2406
Craig.Horn@ncleg.net

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 27, 2015

North Carolina has significantly raised its academic proficiency standards in K-12
over the last two years. North Carolina is now among the Top Five performing
states in proficiency and rigor in the most recent survey of all states in the US.
North Carolina received a grade of A in all categories (4th grade math, 4th grade
reading, 8th grade math and 8th grade reading). This is an incredible jump in
proficiency since 2005 when North Carolina received an F in all four categories.
The highly respected Education Next magazine reports in its Summer 2015
issue that North Carolina is among the top five states in the nation for strength in
academic standards. Education Next is published by the Hoover Institute and is
circulated world-wide. The grading is based on comparisons of state test
outcomes to the internationally recognized National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP) also known as the Nations Report Card. The performance levels
considered on NAEP tests are roughly equivalent to those set by international
organizations that estimate student proficiency worldwide.
In five (5) previous reports, it has been shown that proficiency standards in the
average state have been set at a much lower level than those set by NAEP. Prior
reports have shown that up until 2011 the proficiency standards set by states
initially did not, on average, rise significantly.
In receiving an A, North Carolina has now joined Massachusetts and Tennessee
(the only two states that we given a top grade in 2011), indicating that we have
set a proficiency bar that is roughly comparable to that set by NAEP. It was
pointed out that North Carolina should be commended for improving by more
than two letter grades between 2011 and 2013.
This is a very hopeful sign for North Carolina K-12 education which has taken a
shellacking over the last few years for reforms intended to raise the quality of
student outcomes. There has been much resistance across the country to raising
standards, but we all know that we are in an internationally competitive
environment both in education and the economy. We now live in an era of glob
al economic correction that jealously demands attention to corrective economic
policies. An era that shows that jobs and the economy are the issues that most
concern Americans. And era in which reforming public education to be globally
competitive is an economic imperative.

Congratulations to our public schools, our hard-working teachers and the students
that have risen to the challenge.
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