April 2, 2013
Education advocate, advisor, and author Tom Vander Ark has been exploring where innovations in learning are occurring and the organizations that are making an impact across the country in his Smart Cities series. In this week’s Education Week series, Vander Ark writes about North Carolina’s Triangle Region, including its “top-notch” universities and some extraordinary schools making significant improvements in innovation. Moreover, Vander Ark mentions the successful educational leadership efforts of former North Carolina Governor James B. Hunt, Jr., as well as The Hunt Institute, and its efforts as a leader on high standards, college/career readiness, and preparing education leaders.
“An introduction to education in North Carolina would be incomplete without a focus on four term governor James B. Hunt. I met Gov. Hunt in 1999, the year he called for the state to be first in America by 2010–and he handed me a little blue book with the formula. His leadership was instrumental in boosting NC achievement from near the bottom to above national averages (along with the rise of the south spurred by a notable group of education governors including Bush (2), Clinton, and Riley).”
