| |
Ellen Greaves, Ed.D., J.D.,
Executive Director,
Professional Educators of North Carolina |
Teacher
Recruitment and
Retention in North Carolina, Part3
In the November
2005 issue, the recommendations of the State Board of
Education’s Teacher Recruitment and Retention Task
Force were discussed*. What
progress was made in the 2005 session of the General Assembly
on these recommendations?
Every child in every classroom
in North Carolina must have a highly qualified, competent
and caring teacher.
HB 706, Facilitating the Hiring of Teachers,
sponsored by Representatives Doug Yongue (D, Scotland
County), Becky Carney (D, Charlotte), Linda Johnson (R,
Cabarrus County) and Jean Preston (R, Carteret County),
and passed with only four “no” votes in both
chambers, eliminated obstacles to recruiting out-of-state
teachers and treated teachers from North Carolina and
from out-of-state similarly**. The
Governor vetoed HB 706 on September 29.
The General Assembly
considered a similar bill two years ago and deferred,
as the State Board of Education appointed a task force
to look at obstacles to teacher licensure. Its report
was adopted in January 2004, with recommendations that
became HB 706. The State
Board of Education (at the direction of the Governor)
decided not to implement the recommendations of its task
force and opposed HB 706 because they claimed it lowered
standards and took away the control of licensure from
the State Board of Education. Supporters
of the bill believed that school districts needed to have
all the tools possible to ensure that every classroom
had a fully certified, highly qualified teacher, and
that many of the current requirements had nothing to do
with whether or not a candidate was a good teacher.
What
HB 706 did do was to move the State Board of Education,
at its April and October meetings, to remove some of the
unnecessary obstacles to hiring teachers.
Many still remain for those with 0–3 years of experience,
and it is this group from which most school systems recruit
to fill teacher vacancies. The House decided to put off
overriding the Governor’s veto, and a
work group was appointed to work out differences to facilitate
the licensure of teachers with 0–3 years of experience
by the end of 2005.
Teachers
must have working conditions that allow them to do their
jobs.
Rep. Maggie Jeffus (D, Guilford County) sponsored
HB 1151, which encourages
schools to use their School Improvement Teams (which should
include administrators, parents and teacher representatives)
to develop schedules that will move toward a target of
5 hours of planning per teacher per week, along with duty-free
lunch periods to the extent possible within current budget
resources. This bill passed the House
and awaits action in the Senate Education Committee during
the 2006 session.
Planning
time for elementary school teachers is one of the most
important improvements the General Assembly could accomplish
in terms of improving the working conditions of teachers.
Elementary
teachers report having no break between the start of school
and when the children leave. They need time to
interact with their colleagues in the same subject or
at the same grade level, to make photocopies, and to call
to arrange conferences with parents.
Teachers
must be appropriately compensated for their knowledge,
skills, and performance.
The General Assembly provided $85 million for
additional salary increases for teachers to be allocated
by the Governor, in consultation with leaders of the House
and Senate. Governor Easley
announced that each teacher would receive a $75 per month
increase for this fiscal year, and that he would work
with the General Assembly to provide salary increases
of 5% per year for the next three years.
Speaker Black and Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight
have publicly committed to addressing the issues of teacher
salary and working conditions that contribute to the challenges
teachers face as they seek employment and evaluate whether
or not they wish to continue in the teaching profession.
A study of the economic
factors unique to North Carolina that would provide assessments
of what is needed to remain competitive salary-wise in
order to recruit students to teaching, to recruit qualified
teachers into the state, and to retain our best teachers
is needed. This proposal will be presented
to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight committee
in November for its consideration in addressing the teacher
shortage.
Administrative support of teachers
and for the teaching/learning process is essential.
Several measures within the 2005–2006 budget address
the preparation and evaluation of principals in order
to create a supportive, professional environment. The
Principals’ Executive Program of the UNC system
received additional funding to train first year principals
in establishing good teacher working conditions. The
statewide evaluation form for principals will be revised
to reflect an emphasis on establishing good teacher working
conditions in each school building.
In the next article,
the facts and figures regarding the funding of public
school education in North Carolina will be assessed. A
subsequent article will report on a fact finding mission
focusing on India’s technology transformation***
sponsored jointly by the Public School Forum of North
Carolina and UNC’s Center for International Understanding.
* Report and Recommendations from the
State Board of Education Teacher Retention Task Force,
2005.
** In October 2004, there were 9,200 teachers
in the classroom with temporary, emergency or provisional
licenses. There were also approximately 1,000 long-term
substitutes, who are only required to hold a high school
diploma.
*** As recently reported by Tom Friedman
in his best-selling book The World is Flat: A Brief History
of the Twenty-first Century (2005. New York: Farrar, Straus
& Giroux).
Dr.
Ellen
Greaves
became
Executive
Director
of
Professional
Educators
of
North
Carolina
in
December
2003.
Dr.
Greaves
is
an
educator,
an
attorney,
and
a
professional
association
manager
with
years
of
experience
representing
state
employees
and
managing
non-profit
organizations.
She
served
on
the
Illinois
State
Treasurer’s
Advisory
Board
on
Women’s
Issues.
She
served
as
senior
staff
attorney
and
corporate
counsel
to
the
Illinois
State
Employees
Association,
representing
approximately
1,000
management-level
state
employees
in
civil
and
administrative
matters
concerning
their
employment.
She
was
a
faculty
member
and
Director
of
Campus
Recreation
at
the
University
of
North
Carolina
at
Greensboro
for
twelve
years,
where
she
built
a
large
and
diverse
campus
recreation
program
culminating
in
the
design
of
an
$8
million
facility
devoted
to
student
recreation
on
that
campus.