| |
Ellen Greaves, Ed.D., J.D.,
Executive Director,
Professional Educators of North Carolina |
Teacher
Recruitment and
Retention in North Carolina
Each fall you may
recall reading about local school systems as they struggle
to fill their classrooms with qualified teachers. A
teacher shortage has existed in North Carolina for many
years. In the fall of 2004, the
State Board of Education was directed by the General Assembly*
to convene a task force to study issues related to the
effective recruitment and retention of teachers in the
public schools of North Carolina. The
task force, co-chaired by Dr. Jane Norwood,
Vice Chairman of the State Board of Education, was
charged with studying impediments to effective teacher
recruitment and retention, and recommending strategies
for increasing the effectiveness of recruitment and retention
efforts. The task force was comprised
of:
I served
as a representative of Professional Educators of North
Carolina, a statewide professional organization for educators.
North Carolina has
many initiatives regarding our public schools of which
we should be justly proud. In many ways North Carolina
has set standards to which other states aspire. The
progress our students have made in improving test scores
is the result of planned actions and collaboration among
all levels of our educational systems, elected and appointed
leaders, parents, and members of the business community.
This progress is primarily the result of hard work on
the part of teachers and administrators in each school
district across the state. Our impressive progress
in public education over the last decade, however, is
threatened by a shortage of qualified teachers and administrators.
Why do we have a
shortage of teachers? Many
of our teachers (estimates run as high as 40% of those
currently teaching) are reaching retirement age. Our
salary schedule for teachers, set by the General Assembly,
stops at 29 years. There is no increase in salary for
teachers who continue to teach beyond 30 years. We
have many school districts that are growing in student
population. Wake County, for example,
has recently reported an increase of at least 6,400 students
over their enrollment last year. That
enrollment increase alone would warrant almost 300 new
teaching positions. The General Assembly
has funded classroom size reductions in grades K-3 (although
decreases in other aspects of the budget have not resulted
in the realization of these publicized reductions**).
When class sizes are reduced,
more teachers are needed for the same number of students.
Teaching must compete with higher-paying
private sector jobs, and as a profession it does not compete
very well pay-wise. In recent
years, North Carolina’s public schools have had
to hire between 10,000 and 11,000 teachers each year.
Our colleges and universities (public
and private combined) produce approximately 3,000 new
teachers annually and approximately 2,200 of these earn
licensure and teach in North Carolina within one year
of graduation. The remaining
new hires must come from teachers in other states or enter
the classroom through alternate routes (e.g., lateral
entry).
We
also have a teacher shortage because we lose approximately
half of our new teachers within five years of their entry
into the profession. Teacher turnover
costs North Carolina economically and in terms of the
quality of education possible for our children***. Approximately
10,000 teachers left teaching positions in North Carolina
during the 2003-2004 year. The cost of
replacing these teachers is estimated at over $112 million‡.
Teacher turnover also detrimentally affects our children’s
opportunities to succeed in a stable learning environment.
While the costs to change the status quo may be substantial,
the costs of doing nothing will be even greater.
No
Child Left Behind creates additional challenges for the
school systems because it requires teachers of core academic
subjects to be highly qualified. North
Carolina has allowed teachers to be hired on temporary
permits, on provisional licenses, and on emergency permits.
As of July 1, 2006, none
of these stop gap measures will be available.
If a school system is unable to find highly qualified
teachers, then long-term substitutes are hired and are
placed in the classrooms. Long-term
substitutes may only have a high school degree, although
some may have some college level work. Others
may be retired teachers who have returned to help out.
For
North Carolina to continue making progress in helping
all students succeed, and if all students are to graduate
from high school ready to learn and ready to work, our
schools must be staffed by highly qualified teachers.
To ensure a constant, adequate supply
of teachers, North Carolina and local communities must
address issues of teacher working conditions, salary and
benefits, recruitment, preparation, induction, and professional
development and advancement‡‡. The
Task Force made several recommendations which will be
the focus of a future article.
*Session
Law 2004-161 (2004)
**A future article
will describe the budget for public education over the
last four years and its impact on factors such as class
size.
***Report and Recommendations
from the State Board of Education Teacher Retention
Task Force, 2005.
‡Report and Recommendations from the State Board
of Education Teacher Retention Task Force, 2005.
‡‡Report
and Recommendations from the State Board of Education
Teacher Retention Task Force, 2005.
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.