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2003 - 04 School Year


	No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is a federal law affecting every public K-12 school in the country. Key requirements of the law are: closing achievement gaps, holding schools accountable for all students and having a Highly Qualified teacher in every classroom. High standards are new for many states but North Carolina has had a top-rated testing accountability program since the implementation of the ABCs of Public Education in 1996. With the passage of NCLB in 2001, the state also provides information about other academic indicators, such as attendance and the Cohort Graduation Rates.

EVERY CHILD READY TO LEARN

Every Child with Access to Quality Child Care

Target: NC children will have access to high quality child care

Ratings of child care program quality

	1-star	2-star	3-star	4-star	5-star	Target Score	Total at 3-5 Stars
% of licensed child care programs receiving each star rating	27%	2%	37%	25%	10%	90%	72%

Gap in access to high quality child care

	% of economically disadvantaged children in 4- and 5-star rated child care programs
	Latest NC Score	Prior NC Score	Change	Target Score
Children receiving subsidies	42%	35%
All children	52%	46%
Difference in access	10%	11%		No Gap

Preparation of child care teachers

	Latest NC Score	Prior NC Score	Change	Target Score
Child care teachers with some college or community college coursework	85%	85%		90%

Child care teachers' average salaries

	Latest NC Score	Prior NC Score	Change	NC Rank	US Average	Target Score	First
Average salaries	$8.06/hr	$7.61/hr		26th	$8.37/hr	$9.04/hr	$10.45/hr (MA)

Every Parent a Good First Teacher

Target: Nine of 10 NC families will provide support for their children's learning

Family support for children's learning

	% of families who engaged in educationally important activities with their child
	Latest NC Score	US Average	Target Score
Read to a child	91%	90%	90%
Told a story	79%	75%	90%
Taught letters, words, numbers	82%	88%	90%

Target: NC will be one of the nation's top 10 states in home support for literacy

Home environment support for literacy

	Latest NC Score	Prior NC Score	Change	NC Rank	US Average	Target Score	First
% of 4th graders reporting presence of literacy materials at home	66%	67%		Tied for 32nd	66%	72%	77% (VT)
% of 8th graders reporting presence of literacy materials at home	69%	72%		Tied for 28th	68%	73%	78% (VT)
% of 4th graders spending 4 or more hours watching TV daily*	32%	31%		Tied for 19th	34%	28%	24% (MT)
% of 8th graders spending 4 or more hours watching TV daily*	37%	35%		37th	33%	25%	18% (UT)

Target: NC will rank among the top 10 states in the percentage of working age adults continuing to pursue their education

	Latest NC Score	Prior NC Score	Change	NC Rank	US Average	Target Score	First
Perentage of 25- to 44-year-olds currently enrolled in any post-secondary education	6%	6%		Tied for 21st	7%	7%	11% (DC)

Target: NC kindergartners will arrive ready to succeed in school and NC schools will be ready to meet their needs

	Latest NC Score	Prior NC Score	Target Score
Percentage of at-risk 4-year-olds enrolled in high quality pre-kindergarten programs	64%	49%	90%

NC kindergartners' readiness scores

	Latest NC Score	US Average	Target Score
Health status	85%	83%	90%
Social development	98	100	110
Approaches toward learning	81%	83%	90%
Language development	97	100	110
Math development	95	100	110

NC schools' readiness for kindergartners

	Latest NC Score	Prior NC Score	Target Score
Average kindergarten class size*	19	19	18
Kindergarten teachers with early childhood licensure	6%	5%	90%

LEGEND

*		On this indicator a lower score is better, a higher score is worse.
Latest NC Score:		This is the average score for North Carolina taken from the most recent data collection available. Most recent data collection dates range from 1996 to 2003.
Prior NC Score:		This is the average score for North Carolina taken from the preceding data collection.
Change:		Change arrows show North Carolina's progress from the prior data collection to the most recent data collection.

NC Rank:		North Carolina's rank among states for which data are available. States are ranked from best to worst.
US Average:		This is the average score for the United States taken from the most recent data collection available.
Target Score:		This is the score North Carolina currently needs to achieve to reach the First in America target.
First:		The score and state abbreviation are listed for the state receiving the best reported score.