NC LEGISLATIVE UPDATE - CHOICES HAVE CONSEQUENCES

NRMPS EDUCATORS:

Last summer the NC General Assembly enacted several new pieces of legislation affecting education and the manner in which schools operate across the state. 

Regardless of your political persuasion, these changes have sparked strong feelings from teachers, parents, and both supporters and detractors of traditional public education.  It is clear that a new conversation is necessary regarding how we educate students and how we recruit, reward, support and retain good teachers in our classrooms. In fact, I would go so far as to say that these changes have served as the catalyst for much needed debate on several key issues that will ultimately shape the direction of the profession, and educational reform.

Since the legislature adjourned in August, I have listened as members on both sides of the issues have tried to convince their respective constituencies with their key talking points. Both believe that their positions are the answer to the nagging question of how we build an educational system to prepare all students for the competitive global workforce that awaits them. 

As we have all come to realize, many of the educational bills passed during the last session have far-reaching and long-term effects on the way schools do business.  As some have made clear... that was the intent.  As professional educators and supporters of public education, it is essential that you stay engaged and informed.

Recently, I attended staff meetings at 26 of our 29 schools to discuss new legislative changes and specifically the phase out of career status.  At each of these meetings I asked each of you to stay informed and to do your homework; to become advocates for the profession, your students and the community.  Many of the bills passed will impact you and our community, whether you have a child in the public school system or not. I further shared that those of us in the Nash-Rocky Mount School System must understand that the bulk of our financial resources come from state and federal funding sources, therefore what happens in Raleigh and Washington DC matters to our school system.

As the general assembly prepares for the short session, it is critical that we stay connected to and engaged in the debates affecting education.  I have listed a few areas that you should keep your eyes on and be prepared to share your thoughts with your representatives.  If you support their current positions, I encourage you to thank them for their service. If you have questions relative to their positions, I also encourage you to seek answers to those questions as well.  I can tell you that I will be asking only 2 questions: How will this help students?  How will this help us keep good teachers in our classrooms?

Teacher Salary
NC Teachers have not received a salary increase in the past 5 years.  According to Eric Guckian, NC has slipped to 51st nationally relative to teacher salaries and investment in education.  I am encouraged by recent reports that teacher compensation will be addressed in the short session.  I would strongly encourage teachers to keep a watchful eye on the debate and evaluate the long-term strategy for competitiveness. As with any profession, it is essential that we have the tools and resources to attract, recruit, reward and retain our best teachers.  A competitive salary is a key part of that package.

Teacher Assistants
In the Nash-Rocky Mount School System, we laid off 40 teacher assistants this year. This was very difficult and has truly impacted the flexibility of our elementary schools as they attempt to meet the mandates of Reading 3D, Read to Achieve and other instructional and assessment requirements.  As we look at ways to improve the educational experience of students, it is essential that teachers have the tools necessary to personalize and individualize instruction.  Teacher assistants are a key part of that formula.

Class-size
The General Assembly removed class-size caps on grades 4-12.  This means that when those classes exceed acceptable levels, we cannot go back to the state to request additional resources as we have been able to do in the past.  Additionally, we no longer have the flexibility to cash in positions in other areas to create positions to reduce class-size.

Teacher Tenure (Career Status)
Career status is a social contract.  Those who did everything we asked of you to earn this designation are now faced with making the decision to give it up for a $500 bonus over the next 4 years.  If you choose not to give it up, you accept that you will automatically lose it in 2018.  We have developed a plan and the board has approved it.  We will be executing the plan to offer the bonus to 25% of those eligible at each school.  The NCAE has filed a lawsuit contesting the law.

Pay for Advanced Degrees
Effective July 1, compensation for advanced degrees will cease.  Those who are in graduate programs who will not finish and have your degree posted to your license by May of this year will not be eligible for this additional compensation. Many of you are working on degrees in hard to staff areas (EC, AIG, Media, Math, Science, etc).  We need your expertise and continued training.  I am hopeful that the legislature will address this in the short session.  I am confident that if left as is, this single piece of legislation has the potential to do the most harm at the classroom level.  We need well-trained teachers in every classroom.  Continuing education keeps our teacher connected with new and innovative strategies as well as best practice.

Read to Achieve (Excellent Public Schools Act)
Read to Achieve requires every 3rd grade student to score proficient on the EOG to be promoted to 4th grade.  The plan while noble in its intent, has added a new layer of assessments on 3rd grade students (Assessment of 36 reading passages for their portfolio to demonstrate progress).  These assessments are on top of the Reading 3D, Benchmarks and EOG tests already administered.  If a student fails, they are required to attend a summer camp and retest.  If they miss the mark again, they are placed in a combination class and reassessed mid-year.  We have also learned that Read to Achieve will be funded at a rate of $825 per student. This funding is expected to cover the cost of the teacher, transportation, materials etc.  This is unrealistic.  Based on our analysis, this will not cover the cost of transportation.  Where will the additional funding come from?
I want to thank our teachers for working extremely hard to meet these expectations.  You are doing the right thing for students.  Please know however we will need to continue advocating for a common sense approach to ensuring that students leave 3rd grade as proficient independent readers.

A-F Grading for Schools
The A-F Grading system will be fully implemented after the next round of state assessments this summer. Based upon the baseline data we saw this fall, we can anticipate the first round of grades as we work to improve our students performance on these assessments.  I believe that the growth of our students is more important than the aggregate proficiency percentage.  With that said, we must work diligently to ensure that our students are prepared to perform on assessments this spring.  We have developed and provided many resources to you, and we are providing the necessary benchmarks to help you evaluate where students are throughout the year.  I want to encourage you to take advantage of these tools.  Again, I am hopeful that common sense will prevail during the short session and those charged with making these decisions will realize the impact that placing an arbitrary grade on schools will have, not only on the community, but on economic development across the state.
For a counterpoint on my perceptions, please click on the links to the NCSBA Legislative summary and a summary of the educational legislation posted on the blog of Representative Jeff Collins.

Representative Jeff Collin's Blog

NCSBA Legislative Summary

I want to thank each of you for what you do for students every day.  You are making a difference.  Stay focused, stay informed and most of all, stay dedicated.

Dr. Anthony Jackson

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AN EXCELLENT ARTICLE: THE SOUL OF A TEACHER

NRMPS Educators:
I ran across this article and thought I would share.  Enjoy.

The Soul of a Teacher

By CYNTHIA HUGHES
From Community Works Journal


In a recent chat, a teacher told me he was concerned that the soul of teaching was disappearing. He felt it sinking under the weight of standards, testing, standardized curriculum, and what he called the McDonald’s phenomenon that is sweeping the country unifying and smoothing out regional differences and making sure we’re all on the same page (literally).

Well, souls have always interested me. I don’t mean this in a Bible-thumping redemptive sort of hallelujah kind of way. What I am talking about is the elusive, amorphous, ever-changing part of our shared existence. I think of it as the core, the feelings, the intelligence of a person, group, place, or situation. It can be revealed in one simple moment—if we are paying attention.

Sometimes I think that I am a teacher because I am interested in souls. This interest appeared at an early age. I may have discovered my own "soul" one day, as I sat in the large dusty entranceway of our old house. We often played there as kids, and it was there one sunny morning that I saw millions of specks bouncing around in a shaft of light that was coming in through the window. I didn’t know what this was. My sister told me it was dust particles, “you know pieces of dust, dirt.” I was in awe of their number, their movement, and I waved my hand through them, stirring them up. I sat watching for a long time. I then began noticing them everywhere I went. Sometimes their numbers were few, like upstairs in Mrs. Blood’s clean apartment. Sometimes their numbers seemed downright dangerous, like in the cellar coal bin. But it was in that quiet moment in the hallway and later, during quiet moments under the lilacs or watching rain run down the window panes, that I came to know a little bit of what was inside of me by connecting to what was outside of me. This got me wondering all kinds of things. What was the air made of? Did I breathe in all that dust and where did it go? What was the wind? And who was I, anyway? People had told me I was made of dust, too. I had discovered my own curiosity for learning, my own personal reality.

It’s our job to help kids learn to read and to write, to learn math and spelling conventions, to give them ways to discover their thinking and to find the best home for their unique talents and abilities. Somewhere in all of that lies the soul—the part of each of us that can’t be measured with a rubric, scale or test score. The unique experience of each person’s interactions with each other, each learning opportunity, each conversation, each perception. We simply cannot know that by testing it. We need to take the time to listen for it, and to allow and encourage it to be expressed. I’m not just talking about the kids. When we as a staff of educators gather each Wednesday, there are times when a bit of soul gets revealed, when someone dares to speak what she or he really feels. Or, when in exhaustion—as the latest person tells us of the latest curriculum program we ought to try—we can all sense the hard work we are sharing. And we certainly feel it when someone feels safe enough to express his or her passion or enthusiasm for something.

One day in the woods, walking up toward the stream, Alex (one of my students) suddenly said, I love the sound of water”. He said it with conviction, and I knew it was his own experience, his own soul talking, not something someone told him he should appreciate or learn about. To me, it is the small moment like this that measures a person’s intelligence for living. A moment will matter a lot more twenty years down the road than one's ability to achieve a high test score. This is what I appreciate about school at its best.

In school, I have witnessed countless examples of kids feeling happy and feeling safe enough to express their souls in different ways. Once in a group conversation about anger, one boy told us he gets so mad when his shirt won’t come off over his head that he bites the shirt. The group erupted in laughter, and what moments earlier could have been a stern reminder about appropriate school behavior became a delightful sharing between kids of the silly things they’d done in frustration. Isaac admitted that when he tripped over a chair once he kicked the chair and hurt his foot –lots of laughter. The student who had lashed out earlier in the classroom no longer felt like he was alone in his inappropriate outburst—he got the message, everyone did, but no one left the meeting feeling ashamed.

In another classroom Sean became the bard and recited poems to us. Everyone in the meeting area waited patiently as he sat with his back to us for two minutes, remembering the words. There was a respectful pause when he finished his recitation, then applause, and in his own quiet way Sean beamed. On another day, making mini Mexican marketplaces, Rebecca, Brandi and Haley discussed what should be sold at each booth. It was clear that they understood what can be found at the marketplace and I enjoyed watching them as they helped each other make tiny colorful replicas from clay. Many times at the Primary Program morning meeting the songs carried us into our day with kids and teachers singing our hearts out, I mean really singing our hearts out and smiling at each other, so happy, so free. How does one measure the successes and learning that come out of these interactions?

I have been deeply moved by the strength and commitment of each of the programs in which I’ve worked over the years, the dedicated work of teachers and staff, the ways in which children are valued and listened to, the collaboration and collegial support, the expectations of good work from both adults and children.

I think the "McDonald’s" folks should come for a visit to see the range of structures that actually support children’s thinking, development and happiness before they waste any more money on making every classroom the same.

Cynthia Hughes is a veteran educator with more than 30 years of experience in the field.

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