Education

By Sarah Ostyn

The research is clear: 90% of the brain develops before age 51.

Experiences that occur during this period set the stage for everything that is to come, making early childhood an exciting and significant time in our lives. Children – especially immigrant children and those in low-income households2 – who participate in high-quality early care and education, also known as ECE, have higher educational attainment, resulting in stronger communities and local economic growth […]

As the Charlotte region reckons with both the immediate aftermath of COVID-19 and longstanding challenges such as segregation and educational inequities, the Gambrell Faculty Fellows program has named a new cohort of scholars to help illuminate the way to a more equitable community. The fourth cohort of Fellows will investigate a wide range of challenges, […]

Our Charlotte region continues to wrestle with a vexing challenge: How can we improve economic mobility so that all of our community members can share the benefits of growth? It’s a big question, one that touches on everything from the justice system to the transit system, how much we make at our jobs to how […]

The COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing protests for racial justice have shone a spotlight on the social inequalities present in our country. This is especially true within the U.S. education system. The current state of our country highlights just how inequitable access to education is, and conversations around access to healthcare, affordable housing, poverty and racial […]

The novel coronavirus, better known as COVID-19, has changed the world as we know it. This holds true for the field of education, particularly K-12 schools in North Carolina and across the U.S. COVID-19 has exposed glaring educational inequities that were present before the pandemic, and, in many ways, have been amplified during this crisis. […]

Students lose 20% to 30% of their school year learning gains over the summer and research has found that students of color, students with disabilities and those from low income families experience greater summer learning loss than their peers — and now, the coronavirus pandemic threatens to compound these losses. The last day CMS students […]

Closed bars, restaurants and breweries. Hundreds of thousands of employees working from home while trying to home-school children. Near-empty road and no toilet paper on the shelves. The immediate impacts from the coronavirus crisis are highly visible. But the virus could have more long-lasting and farther-reaching impacts beyond the immediate unemployment and economic disruption we’re […]

This story is one of seven vignettes in the series Rural by Choice: Navigating Identity in the Uwharries. Education is often seen as the ticket out of a rural area. But the Robledo family has sought higher education – often in urban areas – to provide them with job opportunities so they can make their […]

Are more Mecklenburg County parents these days opting for private school over public, or for charters or home schools? With the 2015-16 school year underway, UNC Charlotte Urban Institute researchers looked at how enrollment choices have changed for Mecklenburg families in the past 20 years. The animated graphic below shows how Mecklenburg County public, private, […]

Three months ago my family and I moved into our first home. Something about buying a house makes you feel like a bona fide adult, and with that come adult decisions. When my husband and I were deciding where in the city we wanted to live, like many young families we fell into the trap […]