Ann Doss Helms’s recent report for WFAE entitled “Why North Carolina’s push to revamp teacher pay and licensure stalled” pretty much confirmed what many educators in this state already knew: the new Pathways to Excellence initiative has no true foundational support.
There are a lot of reasons why the Pathways to Excellence initiative has “stalled.”
First, it is very unpopular. Why? Because it is about merit pay in a state that weighs so heavily on EVAAS and standardized test scores and not student growth.
Secondly, it is focused on the amorphous idea that what teachers really want is a chance to have advanced roles.
Here’s the problem – we already have advanced roles. All teachers are doing more than they did in the past not because they opted-in, but because that’s what has been forced on them. Add to that many teachers are teaching more students in more classes.
Next, it ignores all of the other reforms that have been enacted by the same crowd in Raleigh who have put the state in this position of teacher and teacher candidate shortages. When the state refuses to do the following, a new “pathway to excellence” just becomes another layer of the intentionally ignorant stance it has on public education.
1. Move Teacher Pay To The National Average
2. Reinstate Due-Process Rights
3. Reinstate Graduate Degree Pay Bumps
4. Reinstate Retiree Health Benefits For New Teachers
5. Stop Merit Pay
6. Reinstate Longevity Pay
7. Restrengthen Health Insurance and Benefits
8. Stop Attacks on Teacher Advocacy Groups (NCAE)
9. Stop The Revolving Door of Standardized Tests
10. Place Caps on Class Sizes
11. Stop Relying On Amorphous Measures Like “Graduation Rates”
12. Stop Using A School Grading System That Weighs Test Scores Over Growth
13. Hire 10,000 Teacher Assistants
14. Stop The Read to Achieve Initiative
15. Stop Unregulated Educational Savings Accounts
16. Stop The Opportunity Grants
17. Cap The Number of Charter Schools
18. Revitalize The Teaching Fellows Program And Expand It To ALL UNC-system Campuses
19. Stop The Frozen Salary Scale For Years 15-24
20. Follow Through On LEANDRO Decision
But what Helm’s report does highlight is that the biggest reason that this plan has stalled is that this NC General Assembly really has no intention in strengthening public education.
Dempsey is the outgoing Dean of the UNCW Watson College of Education. The reason for his being replaced is another story of partisan interruption into public education.
And speaking of legislative focus, the NC General Assembly has not passed a new budget, which means that teachers will be making the same this next school year as they did this past one as law dictates that NC revert back to the amounts set in the previous budget for any state financed entities.
caffeinated rage 