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State Board Approves Licensure Plan for Teachers from Out of State
Ending several months of debate, the State Board of Education approved a policy revision at its April meeting intended to make it easier for out-of-state teachers to be licensed to teach in North Carolina by changing the state’s current testing requirement.
Under the new policy, teachers from other states will need to meet the passing scores on licensure exams set by the developers of those tests, regardless of the cut scores used by the states themselves. The Professional Educator Preparation and Standards Commission (PEPSC) recommended the change as a way to uphold the state’s standards without requiring out-of-state teachers to clear extra hurdles.
Tom Tomberlin, director of Educator Recruitment and Support for the Department of Public Instruction, told the board that by using the cut scores set by test developers, PEPSC recommended those standards as a way for out-of-state teachers to meet North Carolina’s requirement for exams that are comparable to the exams required of in-state candidates.
“If you’re an out-of-state teacher coming to North Carolina, your cut score has to meet – not the state’s cut score – but the cut score that was recommended by the test developer,” Tomberlin said. “It is possible that a state sets the cut score below what’s recommended by the test developer. … We’re going to trust that sufficient research went into that determination to set that cut score and that it’s valid.”
The board delayed action several times in recent months on changing the licensure policy after concerns were raised by members about ensuring the state’s standards for teacher quality were maintained. The board has sought a balance between satisfying the needs of local school districts to fill vacancies and upholding those standards.
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Board Drops Final Exams in Science and Social Studies for Elementary Grades
The State Board voted this month to eliminate final exams in science and social studies that have been administered to a relatively small number of students in fourth and fifth grades.
The tests had been given only to those students whose teachers didn’t also teach reading, math or both with state end-of-grade exams. As with those tests, the student-growth data from the final exams are an indicator that schools may use in teacher evaluations.
But board members agreed that the additional tests in science and social studies were an extra testing burden for just a small number of students. Last year, the science final exam was given to 11,500 fourth graders; state final exams in social studies were given to 5,000 fourth graders and 6,660 fifth graders.
“It’s a small number of students being administered an additional assessment that others are not,” Accountability Director Tammy Howard told the board. As a result of the board’s vote, the three tests will not be given for the current, 2018-19 school year.
State Superintendent Mark Johnson said that the department is also looking at eliminating final exams at the high school level.
“We need to have fewer, better tests,” Johnson said.
Several board members expressed concern that although they agreed the elementary-grade final exams should be dropped because of testing inequities affecting a small numbers of students, the board must continue to take steps to ensure strong instruction in both subjects.
“I understand why we’re eliminating these tests,” said board member Tricia Willoughby, “but what are we doing proactively to improve instruction?”
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Advanced Teaching Roles Models Gain Momentum, Board Learns
Three years into a pilot effort to create teacher leaders and new professional opportunities, Edgecombe County Schools is making gains in both student achievement and teacher retention.
That message was delivered to members of the State Board of Education during an issues session at this month’s meeting devoted to a grant-supported effort aimed at developing advanced teaching roles and organizational models that link teacher performance and professional growth to salary increases.
Erin Swanson, director of innovation for Edgecombe County Public Schools, told the board that the approach – which puts strong teachers in positions to coach and support other teachers – is changing the culture of schools where the model is now in place.
“Students are beginning to gain access to excellent teaching,” Swanson said, “and teachers are advancing in their profession. We now have a career ladder in Edgecombe County that we never had before. New and struggling teachers are getting support that they didn’t have before.”
Under the district’s “Opportunity Culture” initiative, excellent teachers within their schools are paid more to take on roles as multi-classroom leaders, working with small teams of teachers, or as expanded impact teachers, who teach a larger number of students. The approach, developed by the Chapel Hill-based group, Public Impact, gives teachers the opportunity for career advancement and higher pay and more students benefit from the most effective teachers in a school.
“Edgecombe County has struggled for years with retaining teachers and filling vacancies,” Swanson said. “We’re starting to see the needle move on that.” At the same time, she said, schools are seeing gains in student performance.
Bertie County Schools Adopting Similar Approach
The board also heard about a similar effort now in planning in Bertie County, one of four small districts that joined the Advanced Teaching Role pilot this year, with implementation to begin during the 2019-20 school year.
Catherine Edmonds, superintendent of Bertie schools, said her district faces acute challenges with retaining teachers. It offers no local supplemental pay, she said, and has one of the highest attrition rates in the state.
Edmonds said the district began planning for the initiative by asking, “what do we need to have happen in the school district to ensure that every student will have the opportunity for that sound, basic education that we talk about all the time?”
Given the district’s staffing challenges, she said, “how do we get teachers that will come to Bertie County, feel like they want to stay in Bertie County so we can retain our teachers?”
The key, she said, is giving teachers the opportunities to grow professionally and advance in their careers while providing them with meaningful incentives, differentiated pathways and supplements tied to student and teacher performance.
“We believe that will improve teacher recruitment, development and retention and increase the number of highly effective instructional leaders,” she said, “so that every student has equitable access to an excellent teacher.”
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Student Voices Needed in Policy Decisions, Board Told by Two Top Students
Two high school seniors headed to top North Carolina universities with prestigious scholarships offered the board praise for the state’s public schools and the educational opportunities they benefitted from, but the near-graduates also had a bit of youthful advice:
Find more ways to hear from students when making decisions that affect students.
Myles Cyrus, who will attend Wake Forest University after graduating from Fike High School in Wilson, led the board through an upbeat and occasionally humorous odyssey covering several districts across the state where he attended school. He recalled at each stop a teacher or experience that helped him learn and grow, starting with his parents, both educators themselves and NC Teaching Fellows alumni. (Full disclosure: his mother, Stephanie Cyrus, is a consultant with DPI’s Advanced Learning and Gifted Education division.)
From his kindergarten teacher who he remembers as believing in him to his eighth-grade math teacher who was an important role model for him as one of the two African American teachers he’s had, Myles said that the relationships he formed with teachers was critical to his education.
He concluded with a number of suggestions for board members about how they might gain insight from students:
- A representative student advisory board that meets with the board periodically to discuss certain policies about how they’re implemented and their impact;
- Student surveys, focus groups or other forms of information gathering;
- School visits and student interviews when the board convenes in locations outside of Raleigh’
- Inviting more students, during regular board meetings, to reflect on policies affecting them.
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The board heard also from Greear Webb, a senior at Raleigh’s Sanderson High School who will attend UNC Chapel Hill as a Morehead-Cain Scholar. “This honor has caused me to think deeply about why what you do in this room is so important,” said Greear, also a recent intern with the board’s legislative staff.
“This system of public education works every day to prepare students for the world ahead, and the structures in which they do this provide much more to a student and a community that a seven-hour schedule of classes,” Greear said. “Our school will always be more than classrooms.”
He praised the schools for their embrace of diversity and as a force for social justice by offering equal opportunities to all students. But like Myles, he also told the board that students deserve to have more of a voice in their own educations.
“If public education exists to serve students, it is the student’s perspective that requires the most attention and respect,” he said. “Only students can tell you what environments best facilitate their learning, the kind of culture that allows them to growth and reach their potential. … If we are in the room where the decisions are made, we can clearly and intentionally help you to structure our education in the most effective and successful way possible.”
Greear concluded by calling on the board to include more student input:
“If we have the chance to advise our leaders on the system that influences our lives, we all have the chance to be great leaders. To be great listeners. To be honest and capable students, and to realize our potential in a system built to educate the most promising generation this world has ever seen.”
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FAST NC Hurricane Relief Effort Continues to Assist Affected Districts
Districts and schools hardest hit by Hurricane Florence continue to receive financial support from Florence Aid to Students and Teachers of North Carolina - FAST NC.
Former State Superintendent Mike Ward announced these grant awards during this month’s state board meeting:
- Brunswick County Schools, North Brunswick High School, Callahan-Hayes and Brown: $16,350
- Columbus County Schools, Tabor City Elementary School, $2,970
- Craven County Schools, J.T. Barber Elementary School, $2,000
- Onslow County Schools, Jacksonville High School, $2,870; Onslow Early College High School, $1,038
- Whiteville City Schools, Central Middle School, $1,000
- New Hanover County Schools, Trask Middle School, $3,500
FAST NC will continue to receive grant requests and fund approved applications. Round 12 applications will be received from April 20 – May 3. Round 13 applications will be received from May 4 – 17. To secure an application form, go to the FAST NC website (http://www.ncpublicschools.org/fastnc/) and click on the “Apply Now” link.
Donations of library books, school supplies and materials have been received at the North Carolina state textbook warehouse. These resources are available to the districts in the 34 counties that were declared federal disaster areas in the wake of Hurricane Florence. If you’re interested in obtaining books, materials, and supplies from the warehouse, email FASTNC@dpi.nc.gov or contact Drew Fairchild at Drew.Fairchild@dpi.nc.gov.
Please continue to help us get the word out and encourage others to give. Together, we can do so much to help students and school staff members who’ve suffered because of the hurricanes.
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