CARY – Leaders of the state’s public universities, community colleges and public schools gathered here Jan. 27 to confront a sharp decline in the supply of teachers in North Carolina.

“I’m not going to make this easy.  We have a crisis in North Carolina,” declared John Fennebresque, the chairman of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors, which hosted the gathering on the campus of SAS Institute. “The number seeking a degree in teaching – 4,300 – is significantly inadequate to meet the demand – 10,900. That’s a crisis.”

“Nothing is more important to the future of North Carolina,” he said.

As North Carolina becomes the ninth most-populous state in the nation, though, enrollment in university schools of education is in sharp decline.

Over the last five years, enrollment in UNC system schools of education has dropped by 27 percent. Alisa Chapman, the UNC system’s Vice President for Academic and University Programs, said the combined undergraduate and graduate enrollment in schools of education across the system declined by 12 percent from 2013 to 2014 alone.

Chapman underscored that even though the University system is the single largest provider of North Carolina teachers, the state remains an importer of teachers.

In Wake County, 45 percent of teachers come from out of state, while just 30 percent were trained at UNC institutions. In Union County, east of Charlotte, 24 percent of teachers were trained at UNC institutions, while 44 percent came from outside the state.

Ellen McIntyre, dean of the School of Education at UNC Charlotte, said that the state’s crisis over low teacher pay has created “a little bit of a pause” among students who might otherwise go into teaching.

While a starting salary of $33,000 might sound good to an 18-year-old, she said, “It’s their parents who don’t want them to go (into teaching).  It’s their parents who are dissuading them from going into schools of education.”

Though legislators approved average raises of 5.5 percent for teachers last year, James Ford, a history teacher from Charlotte who is the NC Teacher of the Year, said that having enough money for groceries remains an issue for many.

Fifty-two percent of public school teachers work a second job, he said.

“The luster, the status of teaching over the last several years, has been diminished,” Ford said.

Retention a challenge

McIntyre said that retention of teachers may be an even bigger problem than the decline in enrollment.

“We prepare enough teachers.  We just don’t keep them,” she said.  “We do keep teachers in the wealthy districts. We’re not keeping them in schools of poverty – and those are the students who need experienced teachers.”

Chapman said that 85 percent of teachers trained in the UNC system remain in teaching at least three years, and 75 percent remain after five years.  Among teachers trained outside the state, 74 percent remain after three years and 57 percent after five.

Beginning teachers need both higher salaries and better preparation, McIntyre said, especially for teaching in impoverished and/or rural areas.  Young teachers would benefit from intensive mentoring in the first few years and work conditions that allow “more time to think,” she said.

Ford agreed that teacher development is an important part of keeping teachers in the classroom.  “Most early teachers are bad – I was bad,” Ford said, adding that great mentors helped him grow as a teacher.

Collaboration on campus and off

Chancellor David Belcher of Western Carolina University said that a debate sometimes emerges between those who say a teacher’s training in a specific field is more important and those who contend that teaching techniques are more important.

“In a way it’s sort of a ridiculous question … because it requires both,” Belcher said.

Administrators must make it clear that colleges of arts and sciences must collaborate with colleges of education, Belcher said, which requires “a fundamental attitude on campus that we’re in this together to produce the best teachers.”

BOG subcommittee’s recommendations

After a year of study, a subcommittee of the Board of Governors recommended just that yesterday in a list of seven recommendations.  The recommendations also include:

• Better partnerships between universities and K-12 schools;
• Year-long clinical practice modeled on medical-school education;
• And scholarships for students preparing to teach in high-need areas like science, mathematics and special education, or in rural areas. “We need to strengthen the recruitment of these candidates,” said Board of Governors member Laura Wiley, herself a former teacher.  “We need to say why it is good to be a teacher.”
• The panel also recommended expansion and full funding of the NC New Teacher Support Program, a program that relies on experienced teachers to act as “coaches” to support younger teachers in their first three years.  The program has shown initial improvements in teacher retention in high-need schools.

“Strengthening the 15 schools of public education is the most important lever the University has in effecting positive change in public education,” said Board of Governors member Hannah Gage, a member of the subcommittee.  “It’s fundamental to the prosperity and well-being of North Carolina.”

McCrory: “Cut through the bureaucracy”

Gov. Pat McCrory also spoke to the education leaders, praising the effort to expand mentorships for young teachers, as well as a proposal for extra pay for teachers in high-demand fields or impoverished areas.

But he also criticized an education bureaucracy that he said gets in the way of putting good teachers in classrooms.

“Do you hear me?” he asked the educators in the auditorium.

While the state faces a severe shortage of teachers in science and mathematics, McCrory said, a SAS engineer who wants to teach high school physics might have to take two years of courses to be certified to teach.

“We’ve got to cut through the bureaucracy,” he said.

UNC President Tom Ross wrapped up the gathering by pointing out that North Carolina is already a national leader in assessing teacher effectiveness and identifying weaknesses.

“We’re way ahead of the curve on that,” Ross said. “I think we need to be proud of North Carolina … but recognize as we leave here there’s a lot more to do.”