State Funding Provides NC School Districts With New iPads For K-3 Teachers

Kindergarten through third-grade teachers in North Carolina Public Schools are getting a new tool to help improve student literacy. They'll have a new iPad or similar tablet waiting for them when the school year begins.

State Superintendent Mark Johnson says the devices have already been delivered to districts and charter schools across North Carolina.

He says the goal is to provide a better way to track students' reading progress through apps and to identify where students need help.

The tablets were purchased with unused funds from the Read To Achieve program at a cost of $6 million.

“The General Assembly began Read to Achieve because there is bipartisan consensus that early childhood literacy is a key metric for a student's future success,” says Johnson. “Having more of these tools in each classroom will reduce burdens on teachers, giving them more time to focus on instruction.”

Many school systems already provide iPads for educators, but Kevin Sherrill with Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools says the upgrade will allow the district to direct funds elsewhere.

“It's going to affect roughly around 1,000 classroom teachers on the K-3 level that will have a new device to focus solely on literacy,” says Sherrill. “So it's a fairly big initiative for us to not have to tackle that with solely local funds.”

State education officials say each classroom will also receive a new set of books.

It's part of their effort to focus on early literacy initiatives. In March, Johnson announced DPI's plan to allocate $4.8 million to help educators buy supplies and books. That amounted to around $200 for each K-3 teacher in North Carolina.

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