Saying NC is in a ‘crisis,’ leaders defend plan to pay teachers based on performance

Amid growing opposition from teachers, State Superintendent Catherine Truitt and State Board of Education chairman Eric Davis gave a strident defense Thursday for switching to paying educators based on their performance instead of their experience.

A state commission is working on a new licensure and compensation model that would pay teachers based on their ratings on student test scores or evaluations and whether they’re willing to take on additional duties.

In joint remarks Thursday, Truitt and Davis argued that the current licensure model isn’t working to encourage enough teachers to enter or stay in the profession.

“Teacher vacancies are soaring in schools across our state while enrollment in our colleges of education has fallen over the last few years,” Davis said. “In short, our state is in a teaching crisis that’s having a significant negative impact on today’s students and if not corrected will damage our state for generations to come.”

But their defense drew criticism from groups such as the North Carolina Association of Educators, which has opposed the new model.

“The current teaching crisis is not about our licensure system,” Tamika Walker Kelly, president of NCAE, tweeted Thursday. “Chairman Davis (and others) are being incredibly disingenuous by continuing to repeat that to push a deeply disliked plan.”

The Professional Educator Preparation and Standards Commission (PEPSC) hopes to present a final model in September to the state board for its approval later this year. It would be up to state lawmakers whether to fund the plan.

Davis said that what they approve this fall will likely be a preliminary final model that will be revised over the next few years. He urged teachers to email pathways.feedback@dpi.nc.gov to share their feedback.

“It’s time to shed legacy thinking and move toward solutions that address the future and not the past,” Truitt said.

Basing pay on effectiveness

Currently, North Carolina teachers start at a state base salary of $37,000. They get annual state raises for their first 15 years, then less frequent raises after that. The scale tops out at $54,000, but school districts and the state often supplement the base pay.

Teachers can get state bonuses based on their students’ test scores, but it’s not built into their base salary.

Davis said the current model is keeping too many highly effective teachers from staying in the classroom. He said changing the model is essential to providing students with a sound basic education.

“Today, licensure is a too frequent barrier to teachers entering and staying in the profession,” Davis said. “The current licensure system does not contribute to a teacher’s growth and development but often limits the opportunity for students to have an effective teacher.”

Under the new model, there would be seven levels ranging from $30,000 for aspiring teachers who haven’t yet received a bachelor’s degree up to the highest level, where the proposed minimum salary is $73,000.

Instead of advancing up with each year of experience, teachers would move up based on whether they’re considered to be effective. Teachers can meet these standards based on student growth on state tests or reviews by their principal, a higher-level teacher and student surveys.

The highest-paid positions would go to effective teachers who take on additional leadership roles in their schools while still being able to stay in the classroom.

“The current draft would allow teachers to move into more advanced levels of licensure by demonstrating their skills,” Truitt said. “Teachers would choose how they demonstrate their impact on students they teach and the conceptual model will provide a menu of options.”

Davis added that the new model would reward teachers for creating better outcomes for students.

Correcting ‘misinformation’

Truitt and Davis said there’s “misinformation” that’s been spread about the new model.

The new model isn’t about revoking licenses, Truitt said, but about making sure they are effectively educating students. Teachers would have two five-year licensure renewal cycles to show they’ve been effective for three years.

“The goal with this reform process is to ensure that our students are growing academically and that they are learning,” Truitt said. “The goal of this process is to ensure that every student has access to a highly qualified and excellent teacher.”

Truitt and Davis also said it’s not a “merit pay” model because student test data is only one of the options that teachers would be evaluated on. But Truitt also said that the current generation of workers expect to stay at their job for up to five years, so experience isn’t a priority for them.

“Recruiting studies show that Gen Z and Millennials want jobs that allow them to advance, not by years of experience, but by demonstrated outcomes,” Truitt said.

Business community supports change

The plan has received the backing of members of the business community. The Charlotte-based Belk Foundation provided a grant to fund a public relations campaign to get the plan approved.

Public records obtained by Justin Parmenter, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg middle school teacher and NCAE board member, show that the Atlanta-based Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) and the North Carolina Human Capital Roundtable helped develop the new model. Other emails show that SREB, the Roundtable and the public relations firm of Eckel & Vaughn plan to create a group called UpliftEd to promote the new model.

The emails show that former North Carolina governors Jim Hunt and Jim Martin agreed to be UpliftEd’s honorary co-chairmen before Hunt opted to back out this month.

Other emails discuss avoiding talking about the complexity of the plan, developing a “proactive media strategy” and working to “gain greater control of the narrative.”

Parmenter wasn’t buying the arguments from Davis and Truitt.

If the State Board, DPI and PEPSC are serious about wanting feedback on this plan, you all need to stop with the disingenuous spin and messaging,” Parmenter tweeted after Thursday’s state board meeting. “In other words, send Eckel and Vaughan packing and start being real...”