Retooling of NC student literacy efforts on fast track March 31, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — An overhaul of North Carolina's efforts to improve reading proficiency for early-grade students in the public schools is advancing quickly through the legislature, clearing the Senate on Wednesday by a unanimous vote. A House education committee later approved the same “Excellent Schools Act” in a rare evening meeting. It signaled the General Assembly's hope to give final legislative approval to the popular measure and send it to Gov. Roy Cooper before the legislature's spring recess next week. The measure seeks to improve upon the 2013 “Read to Achieve" program, which was championed by Senate leader Phil Berger but has not lived up to expectations. Berger advanced a 2019 bill to address its weaknesses, but Cooper vetoed it, saying it wasn't enough to fix the problems. Fourth-grade reading proficiency scores have seen little improvement in recent years.