NC commission wants more time to refine new way to pay teachers based on performance
A state commission deferred action Thursday on a controversial plan to switch North Carolina to a performance pay model for teachers.
The Professional Educator Preparation and Standards Commission (PEPSC) reviewed the latest draft of a new teacher license and compensation model that ties pay increases to measures such as state exams or work evaluations.
Committee members said they want to continue working at their Nov. 10 meeting on the fiscal implications of the model. If approved and funded, it’s expected to cost more state money to use the new pay model.
“We have been methodical and mindful and intentional about how we have had these conversations,” Van Dempsey, chairman of PEPSC, said at the end of Thursday’s three-hour meeting.
Pay based on performance
Under the current system, the starting base salary for North Carolina teachers is $37,000 and rises based on experience to $54,000 on the state salary schedule. Teachers can earn more money from additional local and state pay.
Under the draft model, teachers with education degrees would start at $45,000. Educators who reach an “expert teacher” license could reach $71,816, not counting things such as extra pay for taking on additional leadership duties.
The new model requires teachers to demonstrate their effectiveness based on student growth on state tests, reviews by their principal, student surveys or other measures that would be developed.
The proposal also recommends a “hold harmless” provision where teachers would not see their pay go down if they’d make less in the new model.
Supporters say the new model will promote student learning. But critics such as the North Carolina Association of Educators say it’s a merit pay model that unfairly evaluates teachers.
Questions were also raised Thursday about whether there would be enough teachers, especially in smaller school districts, who achieve “advanced teacher” status to mentor beginning teachers. There were also questions about whether there will be enough state funding to pay for all the advanced teaching roles.
Time running short
Once PEPSC adopts a plan, it will go to the State Board of Education for its approval. But ultimately it’s up to the General Assembly whether to support the changes, including the additional pay for teachers.
State Superintendent Catherine Truitt, who is a PEPSC member, reminded her colleagues that time is running short if they want the General Assembly to act on it in the “long session” that begins in January. She said bills will be coming as soon as December.
“Our team won’t be our own,” Truitt said. “I guess that’s what I’m trying to say.
“I would just ask everyone to ... want the General Assembly to partner with PEPSC as they are drafting the recommendations that we send.”
Dempsey, the PEPSC chairman and the dean of UNC-Wilmington’s Watson College of Education, said that once a plan is approved by the state board he’d work to help get it implemented.
“The state superintendent raises a good point,” Dempsey said. “Timing is not only up to PEPSC for action on any part of this. There are other autonomous actors in this process.”
This story was originally published October 13, 2022 at 1:38 PM with the headline "NC commission wants more time to refine new way to pay teachers based on performance."
