Tagged: American Graduate

Back in the 1980s, North Carolina had a serious teacher problem. There were shortages in much of the state, but the bigger problem wasn’t how many teachers, but who they were.

“We had a real need to raise the scholastic profile of candidates for teaching and also to increase the numbers of males and minorities in teaching,” remembers Jo Ann Norris, President and Executive Director of the Public School Forum of North Carolina.

North Carolina’s high-school graduation rate is headed in the wrong direction. In the past two years, the state’s rate has dropped by about one percent. 

Two years ago, North Carolina beat the national graduation rate average for the first time. Two years later, the state is back below the national average, as rates have gone up across the country and North Carolina’s have dipped.

This school year, WUNC partnered with the group Sacrificial Poets to host a series after-school programs called Poetic Justice.  They're designed to help under-served youth turn their life-stories into poetry and performance art.

This semester they were at Northern High School in Durham.  That's where poet Kane Smego, a writer and youth leader with Sacrificial Poets, met Justavis Monique Brooks.  The 16-year-old senior graduates from high school today.