Agenda 2012: Teaching Profession | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Agenda 2012 is the John Locke Foundation's charge to make known their wise political agenda to voters, and most especially candidates, with our twenty-second instalment being the "Teaching Profession," written by Dr. Terry Stoops, Director of Education Studies at the John Locke Foundation. The first installment was the "Introduction" published here.

    No system of public education can thrive without a high-quality teacher workforce. The problem is that state education bureaucracies enforce certification and licensure rules that seldom distinguish excellent teachers from poor ones. Indeed, a large body of research shows that certification status, advanced degrees, years of experience, education school courses, and teacher test scores are unreliable indicators of teacher quality. Unfortunately, the state continues to use these criteria to determine who can and cannot teach in North Carolina's public schools, as well as how much we pay them.

Key Facts

   • Since 1992-1993, teacher pay has increased 119 percent. This outpaced the 53 percent increase for state employee salaries and the 66 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index.

   • According to the state salary schedule for the 2011-2012 school year, teachers on the typical 10-month contract had a base salary range of $30,430 to $67,280. The average teacher salary was $45,947 during that school year.

   • Position on the state salary schedule depends on the number of years of experience and credentials earned by the teacher. In addition to the base salary, many teachers receive a salary supplement from the local school district. The average salary supplement was nearly $3,500 per teacher in 2011. Eleven school districts provide no local salary supplement. Wake County Schools offers the largest average supplement at just over $6,000 per teacher.

   • Matching benefits for teachers add 7.65 percent for social security, 13.12 percent for retirement, and $4,931 for hospitalization to the 2011-2012 base salary. To put a value to the benefits package, the average teacher receives nearly $13,000 in annual social security, retirement, and hospitalization benefits.

   • During the 2011-2012 school year, North Carolina public school districts employed nearly 94,000 teachers. Districts averaged one teacher for every 14.6 students. Hyde County had the lowest teacher/student ratio, while Mooresville City Schools had the highest.

   • The state's teacher evaluation system addresses six areas --— leadership, fairness, content knowledge, instructional abilities, self-evaluation, and student performance. Evaluators rated teachers in each area by a five-category scale: not demonstrated (lowest), developing, proficient, accomplished, and distinguished (highest).

   • Value-added analysis is the most accurate teacher evaluation tool available. This method uses standardized test scores to project the future performance of individual students based on their past performance. The difference between the projected and actual performance of students determines the value added by the teacher. North Carolina's public schools calculate and record value-added scores for teachers in a computer system called EVAAS (Education Value Added Assessment System). State officials have not released EVAAS data to the public.

   • As of the 2010-2011 school year, 99 percent of North Carolina's teachers were fully licensed by the state and over 19,000 teachers (18 percent of all public school teachers) obtained certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS).

   • During the 2010-2011 school year, 72 percent of teachers had a bachelor's degree, 26 percent had a master's degree, and 2 percent had a vocational, advanced, doctoral, or no degree.

Recommendations

    Broaden the teacher applicant pool by loosening or eliminating certification and licensure requirements. Although the state puts a premium on licensure, advanced degrees, and National Board Certification (NBPTS), there is little evidence that these factors guarantee good teachers or raise student performance.
    Implement a merit pay system for teachers that will pay a portion of their salary based on the value that they add to their students' academic performance. North Carolina's salary scale is based on years of experience and credentials, neither of which are sound indicators of teacher quality.
    Improve the quality of education school graduates by raising program admissions standards, increasing subject-area course requirements, and providing rigorous instruction in research-based teaching methods.


    Analyst: Dr. Terry Stoops

     Director of Education Studies
     919-828-3876 • tstoops@johnlocke.org