The Senate budget provides $15,000,000 in nonrecurring funding to “extend the Student Diagnostic Pilot program an additional year in the existing 40 pilot schools. Additional funding will expand the pilot program to additional school sites while also supporting the training needed for teachers to properly implement the program.” (Emphasis added)
Expand the pilot program, i.e., give more teachers handheld devices and handheld devices training? Really? How did teachers survive before the invention of handheld devices, anyway?
The Race to the Top federal grant competition plays a big role in this. Diagnostic evaluation was one of the centerpieces of North Carolina’s first application and, likewise, will be front-and-center in the second application for federal funds.
The state cannot appear to be pulling state funding from this so-called key educational reform, so I would not be surprised to see the House include it in their education budget.
