Any experienced, veteran teacher here in North Carolina knows the differences in the salary schedules that have guided pay for the last ten years. Sometimes one graph can put things into sharp perspective. Derek Scott has been following trends in public education and possesses that gift of explaining concepts that many politicians hope to keep … Continue reading Negative $31243: Career Change in Pay Received – This North Carolina General Assembly Does Not Want to Have Veteran Teachers

The Titan Women’s Basketball Team will always hold a special place in the heart of Malcolm. Basketball is his favorite sport and he watches the games with an attentiveness that he does not give any other event. And those ladies who play for the high school in Clemmons, NC have treated him with nothing but … Continue reading That Basketball Team is All Heart And All For Each Other

Below is the salary schedule for a teacher in North Carolina for the 2018-2019 school year. Any teacher new to the profession in the last four years would never be on the second schedule because newer teachers are not allowed a pay bump for graduate degrees. Notice how the salaries also plateau after year 15. … Continue reading What NC Teachers Made 10 Years Ago

As a teacher, I cannot legally give a student an aspirin tablet. My high school has five counselors for over 2400 students. There is one part-time social worker. There is one school psychologist assigned to multiple schools at one time. A school nurse is on campus only one day a week. As a country we … Continue reading Dear Rep. Pittman – As a Teacher, You Will Never Arm Me With a Gun in School

In the long session of 2014, the NC General Assembly raised salaries for teachers in certain experience brackets that allowed them to say that an “average” salary for teachers was increased by over 7%. They called it a “historic raise.” However, if you divided the amount of money used in these “historic” raises by the … Continue reading Remember Longevity Pay? There’s a Bill Coming To Restore It.

The following is a February 27, 2019  press release from NC Public Schools about the resignation of Dr. Eric Hall, the Deputy Superintendent of Innovation at DPI. State Superintendent Mark Johnson announced today that Eric Hall will be leaving his post in March, returning to his home state of Florida to become chancellor for innovation … Continue reading Job Opening at DPI: The First Deputy Superintendent of Innovation Lasted Only Seven Months

Sen. Phil Berger delivered a prepared rebuttal to Gov. Roy Cooper's "State of the State" address in which the governor made public education and investments in teachers and schools the top priority. What Berger tried to spin in response is the same drivel as his past exclamations. Berger talked about the "record-breaking" investments the GOP … Continue reading Debunking Phil Berger’s Claims About Public Education After Gov. Cooper’s “State of the State” Address

There are no “silver bullets” or “magic pills” when it comes to changing a school. There is no one thing that can be done, no standard blueprint, no Harry Potter spell that can be executed that will make a struggling school turn its fortune around overnight. Rather, transforming schools is a process – one that … Continue reading There Are No “Silver Bullets” or “Magic Pills” in Changing Schools – It’s About School Culture

If only we could amend this bill and have current state lawmakers take the course and the standardized test that would come with it to measure their own civic responsibility. Of course that standardized test score would go through a secret algorithm and then be translated to a data point to create an EVAAS score … Continue reading About That “Civic Responsibility Class” in Public Schools Bill – HB 73

In 2016, then Rep. Rob Bryan and the House Committee on Education, pushed through a bill that would establish an ASD (Achievement School District) in North Carolina allowing the control of some of the state’s low-performing schools to be outsourced to out-of-state entities. That ASD was renamed the Innovative School District (ISD) in 2017 in … Continue reading Did You Know This About The Innovative School District?