The North Carolina Chamber Foundation leads a broad-based coalition of more than 60 private and public organizations, known as HIRE Standards, NC, in support of college and career ready standards. As part of its commitment to an on-going dialogue as North Carolina continues to elevate the education standards in our state, the Hire Standards, NC coalition released more than a dozen videos of North Carolina teachers as they share first-person perspectives on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards.

At the Second Annual North Carolina Teacher of the Year Summit in Raleigh, the Hire Standards team sat down with some of North Carolina’s best teachers to talk about how the implementation of higher standards has improved both learning and teaching in the classroom:

“I am excited because at every turn I am lifting out concepts, I am lifting out themes, and then I am teaching them [students] why this is important, so it is empowering as an educator.” – James Fords, 2014 North Carolina Teacher of the Year

“If we are going to be able to prepare our students for the 21st century, we need those [Common Core] standards there.” – Everlene Davis, Sandhills/South Central Teacher of the Year

“I came to teaching so that I could ensure that this country is competitive… What I see that the Common Core is doing is it’s allowing me to teach in a way that I have to focus on those critical survival skills that we need for this country to be competitive.” – Ben Owens, Cherokee County Teacher of the Year and former engineer

“It promotes equity and it gives an equal learning opportunity to every student in the classroom because they come in from the year before and they’ve learned the things that they need to do to be prepared… Students should be the core of all our decisions.” – Kathy Sanders, Piedmont-Triad/Central Teacher of the Year

Each video shares personal classroom stories from teachers who have been implementing higher standards for the last two years. These videos are critical to the statewide conversation around this issue. The videos can be watched on the Hire Standards YouTube page.

I encourage you to watch the videos and share them with your social networks!

Gary J. Salamido
Vice President, Government Affairs
North Carolina Chamber