Things are quite bad in parts of rural North Carolina, where counties' rather limited financial capacity — read, tax base — makes an ugly picture.

Catapult Learning and the Center on Teaching and Learning (CTL) are establishing the Institute for Scaling Evidence-Based Education. The partnership, which initially calls for Catapult Learning to provide professional development for CTL's Enhanced Core Reading Instruction program, plans to cover CTL's full suite of programs and services.

Charlotte "Nadja" Trez, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' executive director of ELL Services, firmly believes in maintaining rigorous math standards for all ELL students, and embedding language lessons in math instruction.