Education

Students of Ben Martin Elementary School in Fayetteville are back in class after a tornado devastated the campus last weekend. Forecasters say one of Saturday's fiercest tornadoes touched down in Cumberland County with maximum winds of 140 miles per hour. Damages to Ben Martin Elementary could be more than $5 million. Principal Crystal Brown surveyed the school grounds on the day of the storm.

This is a period of unrivaled education reform. Charter schools, teacher merit pay, diversity policies - all efforts to improve what many see as a failing public school system. But every effort needs evidence as to whether it is working. Much of it comes from standardized testing. That puts even more emphasis on the most effective way to analyze the growing amount of data. The information is being used in all kinds of ways, from what classes a student takes to teacher merit pay and, in some cases, termination.

Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata says the task force he created to come up with a new student assignment plan is making progress.

Tata re-assigned 6 staff members to work on the plan full-time. He says they are working on specific plans now, checking to see how viable they might be.

A bill that would lift the current limit of one hundred charter schools in North Carolina has tentatively passed the state House.

The bill would allow the addition of up to fifty charter schools every year. It has been the subject of hours of debate, discussion and even compromise in committees. But lawmakers were still wrangling over the bill on the House floor yesterday. House Majority Leader Paul Stam told the body he was growing impatient.

President Richard Brodhead says Duke University will end its salary freeze. In 2009, the school froze wages and made cuts to deal with a shrinking endowment.