‘We want to be deliberate.’ Commission needs more time on NC teacher pay plan.
A state commission said Thursday it needs more time to finalize a model that recommends paying North Carolina teachers based on their performance instead of their experience.
The Professional Educator Preparation and Standards Commission (PEPSC) 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.
Van Dempsey, PEPSC’s chairperson, said at Thursday’s meeting that the group will see if it’s ready to vote Oct. 13 or if the proposal will need more time. He said PEPSC wants to make sure the draft says what the organization intends for it to say.
The timeline for presenting a final model to the State Board of Education has been pushed back multiple times.
“We want to be deliberate about making sure the document is clear,” said Dempsey, the dean of UNC-Wilmington’s Watson College of Education. “But we also want to be respectful of the state board’s interest in us getting the recommendations to them in a timely manner.”
If it’s approved by the state board, it would go to state lawmakers to see if they’d support the change. The Charlotte-based Belk Foundation provided a grant to fund a public relations campaign to get the plan approved.
What the plan proposes
North Carolina teachers start at a statewide 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.
The new model would set a minimum salary of $30,000 for apprentice teachers who haven’t yet received a bachelor’s degree. Teachers who have an education degree would start at $45,000 and reach $56,000 when they reach “expert teacher” status.
The model calls for expert teachers to get a 1% annual raise as well as receive $5,000 or $10,000 more a year if they take on additional leadership roles.
PEPSC will consider a recommendation from a subcommittee to ask state lawmakers to reinstate extra pay for all teachers who have a master’s degree. The model also calls for continuing to pay 12% extra for educators who have certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
The plan recommends a “hold harmless” provision where teachers would not see their pay go down if they’d make less in the new model.
‘Not merit pay’
Instead of advancing with each year of experience, teachers would move up in the model based on whether they’re considered to be effective. Teachers can meet these standards based on student growth on state tests, reviews by their principal, student surveys or other measures that would be developed.
The draft has drawn extensive feedback from teachers, with the North Carolina Association of Educators opposing the model, calling it a merit pay model.
State education leaders and PEPSC members have said it’s wrong to call it a merit pay plan. That argument was repeated Thursday.
State Superintendent Catherine Truitt said the model “is not merit pay.” Instead, she said it’s about compensating teachers for the impact they’re having in the classroom on their students.
“In the private sector, merit pay is when pay is given out in competition with one another,” Truitt said. “This pay proposal is in competition with oneself. You are being measured against yourself, not someone else.”
Dempsey said that the commission will continue to tell people it’s not a merit pay plan as it continues to get more feedback.
“We are paying attention to the feedback and the critiques and the concerns,” Dempsey said. “We welcome and take responsibility for engaging that feedback in the work.”
This story was originally published September 8, 2022 at 3:07 PM with the headline "‘We want to be deliberate.’ Commission needs more time on NC teacher pay plan.."
