This pilot program to revamp NC teacher licensure and pay deserves a chance

Far too often, North Carolina’s K-12 licensure system creates a series of barriers that prevents teachers from entering the profession, fully developing as professionals, and remaining as leaders in our classrooms.

As a result, these barriers to entry and advancement impact the quality, diversity, and effectiveness of the teaching workforce. Most importantly, these barriers negatively impact our students and our goal of providing a highly effective teacher in every classroom.

North Carolina students and educators deserve more. Our state needs a licensure system that supports increasing the size and the diversity of our teaching teams across the state. The N.C. State Board of Education (SBE), which I chair, is working to do this with our advisory partner, the Professional Educator Preparation and Standards Commission (PEPSC).

The commission is composed of teachers, principals, superintendents and experts in education policy, with assistance from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI). The SBE has received PEPSC’s blueprint for a new K-12 teacher licensure system, called NC Pathways to Excellence for Teaching Professionals. It offers a system with:

▪ Multiple entry points including apprenticeship opportunities,

▪ Support to teachers in overcoming challenges especially in the early years through coaches and mentors,

▪ Opportunities for teachers to continue to grow professionally throughout their careers, and

▪ Expanded leadership roles that allow teachers to reach beyond their own classroom without having to leave the classroom.

This Pathways initiative has the potential to significantly impact our teachers and students in many positive ways.

Because licensure sits at the intersection of many components of our education system, this initiative can spark the systemic changes so needed in nearly every aspect of our K-12 system, including educator standards and preparation, student learning and achievement, education innovation, business operations, human resources, and government and community affairs.

This comprehensive blueprint also includes revisions to how teachers are compensated. We believe that teachers should be paid a higher starting salary that increases with increased certification, expertise and responsibility, and is competitive with professions that are vying for the same talent.

Moreover, there are teachers across the state who, on their own initiative, are using their skills to support other teachers and positively impact student achievement, but are not sufficiently compensated for those positive outcomes, including those not measured by standardized tests.

We need a system that empowers these teachers, highlights their expertise, and integrates their practices so that other teachers and students can benefit from their work.

This blueprint is a starting point to empower and compensate all teachers based on their expertise and experience.

In short, We need a licensure system worthy of elevating the profession of teaching to its rightful place, as the one profession upon which all others depend, the profession that as a state, we must better value, cherish and support.

By reforming our licensure system so it better supports teachers throughout their careers, both financially and professionally, our state can recruit and retain more teachers who are creating great outcomes for all students.

Over the next few weeks, we will develop an approach to piloting these concepts in a few districts and will seek legislative authority to conduct these pilot programs.

We will learn from these proof-of-concept efforts, continue to listen to our educators, parents and students, and if the results support it, develop a state-wide model for implementation.

This will take several years and throughout that work, we welcome constructive feedback as we seek to improve how North Carolina recruits, retains, prepares and supports classroom teachers — and most importantly, as we strive to improve outcomes for every student.

We look forward to bringing this vision to fruition in our classrooms as one of the pathways to a more excellent North Carolina.

This story was originally published December 18, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "This pilot program to revamp NC teacher licensure and pay deserves a chance."