Admit it -- you're watching for news from St. Mary's Hospital, London, where the royal baby is due to make an appearance at any moment. (And possibly kicking yourself for it!) Let us distract you for a minute with a development that the media hasn't covered.

Flash back to June 6, 2012, when we saw this intriguing story in the News Observer: New licensing test in the works for N.C. teachers . We were excited (and pleasantly surprised) to see that North Carolina was considering adopting the Massachusetts Test for Educator Licensure (MTEL), considered to be one of the most rigorous certification exams here in the states. A vote to approve adoption of the test was expected, but time passed and we never heard more about the initiative. (No. It had nothing to do with our attention being on the royal pregnancy in London.)

We suspect that we are not alone in learning just now that on December 6, 2012, the North Carolina Board of Education changed the state's testing requirements. According to its website, as of July 1, 2014, all elementary and special education general curriculum program completers are required to pass the MTEL.

This big news has not received the fanfare it deserves!

We've reached out to Angela Quick, Deputy Chief Academic Officer, and Susan Ruiz, Section Chief, Licensure, to learn more about how the initiative advanced and how North Carolina teachers and prep programs have received the news. No word yet. Any readers in NC have more insight?

In the meantime, we'll try not to be too distracted waiting for news from Buckingham Palace.