NC superintendent shares top education priorities, including raising teacher pay at least 5%

NC superintendent's private, invitation-only education event draws criticism

Johnson unveiled two new initiatives, including the North Carolina Leadership Dashboard, an online tool that will launch next school year and is being built with support from The Wallace Foundation. The dashboard will allow school leaders to search for teachers and principals they want to hire based on certain characteristics, such as what subjects they teach, how experienced they are, what licenses they hold, etc.

His second initiative is a collaboration among the Department of Public Instruction, BEST NC and Teach.org, with support from the Belk Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Coastal Credit Union. “Teach NC,” launching this spring, is a "public-private teacher appreciation campaign to better align the image of the teaching profession with the fruitful, fulfilling career it is and develop a statewide teacher-recruitment system to attract the next generation of North Carolina teachers."

Calling it his "NC2030 plan," Johnson said the list of priorities came from his two years of traveling the state visiting schools since he was elected in 2016. He promised to release a more detailed plan soon.

"We are going to have a more detailed legislative summary with the actual dollar figures that we will be presenting to the General Assembly," he said.

"We need to recruit, retain and reward educators," Johnson told the crowd, saying he wants North Carolina to be first in the Southeast for teacher pay.

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Rep. Craig Horn, R-Union, who heads several education committees and attended Tuesday's event, said he thinks the superintendent's teacher pay goal is "achievable" and called his North Carolina Leadership Dashboard a "very useful" idea. Overall, the superintendent's plans were not surprising, though, Horn said.

"He covered a lot of ground, but you know, at the end of the day, did we hear anything dramatically new? No. We knew this stuff. What we haven't done is package it (this way)," Horn said, praising the superintendent for putting together the plan.

Horn was not as impressed with the superintendent's decision to host the event privately and said his office fielded some calls from people who were upset about the invite-only event.

"I'm a public guy. That's my style," Horn said. "I probably would have done it differently."

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Some parents and educators took part in a "tweet storm" Tuesday night to share their displeasure with the private event using the hashtag #notinvited.

Sen. Natasha Marcus, D-Mecklenburg, who was invited, tweeted that she was "underwhelmed" by the superintendent's announcements.

Others praised parts of the superintendent's plan. The North Carolina School Boards Association's government relations team tweeted that it supports his effort to push for "a class-size waiver for school systems that sufficiently demonstrate they are unable to find qualified teachers."

NC Association of Educators President Mark Jewell, who attended the event, said he would like the superintendent to support raising teacher pay to the national average – $60,483. He also wanted to hear more support for restoring master's pay for teachers, funding additional school counselors, nurses and textbooks.

"We heard a lot of topics but not a lot of details," Jewell said.

"Raises are always good, but I'd rather have fewer kids in my classroom," Mackey said, explaining that smaller class sizes would help her build stronger relationships with students and be able to better respond to their personal academic needs.

Although teacher recruitment was a major focus of the superintendent's presentation, his plan did not mention teacher diversity. When asked about it later, he told reporters that his goal is to increase diversity.

"Not just increase diversity among race and socioeconomic background, but diversity among the sexes," Johnson said. "Let's get more men teaching in elementary schools."

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Overall, Johnson identified four broad metrics and said North Carolina needs to see an increase every year in:

“We need leadership to come together to make this happen,” Johnson said. “Public education is too important to continue the status quo in North Carolina.”

The specifics of the plan are outlined in the superintendent’s legislative agenda summary below:

Expand high-quality preschool opportunities for 4-year-olds, streamline funding and access, and require NC DPI to approve a program’s academic alignment with kindergarten expectations. Offer additional kindergarten-readiness tools for children on the waitlist for NC Pre-K and pilot kindergarten-readiness camps.

Improve Read to Achieve implementation through state-led efforts focused on professional development, high-quality curriculum, on-the-ground support for evidence-based reading instruction through coaching and data-driven feedback, and enhanced summer literacy instruction.

Review assessments and determine appropriate levels to ensure that students are prepared for fourth grade

Implement personalized-learning opportunities to improve student proficiency, reduce burdens on teachers, and eliminate high-stress over-testing.

Allow a working group of districts to opt out of the N.C. Mathematics Standard Course of Study through a pilot study using clear, rigorous, and results-driven math standards and personalized-learning tools.

Expose and prepare students for careers in skilled trades, military, and other high-demand career fields through the SkillsUSA Career Essentials program, improved distance-learning experiences, and access to more community college career coaches. Ensure all students graduate financially literate.

Prepare middle and high school students for high-tech careers by expanding computer science courses and continuing coding and robotics grants.

Continue and expand school-safety and mental-health professionals and equipment grants and encourage innovative approaches, partnerships, and training. Provide state-level regional support to districts. Fund the ongoing costs of an anonymous tip application.

Provide additional resources and support to meet the unique needs of military families and districts with high demands for special-education services. Allow districts the flexibility to align their calendars to meet community needs and partnerships.

Continue to provide innovative school choices to families to best meet their needs while holding innovative options accountable for results.

Continue lottery funding to assist lower-wealth counties with their critical public school building capital needs. Adopt a plan to address the capital needs of public schools across the state, including agency resources to review and oversee the projects.

Provide all teachers with a salary increase of at least 5 percent, which would keep the NC average teacher salary competitive with, and greater than, the median household income in North Carolina. A 7 percent increase for all teachers would further promote the competitiveness of teacher salary in N.C.

Create professional teaching cohorts for the entire state by adding time and compensation at the beginning of the school year for all first-through fourth-year teachers for professional and cohort development. Opt-in program for experienced, qualified teachers to serve as Teacher Leaders during that time (with additional compensation) and throughout the year. Scale the Advanced Teaching Roles pilot to meet demand.

Recruit and retain teachers through a multi-faceted teacher recruitment and appreciation campaign and expand the NC Teaching Fellows Program.

Raise principal pay to compete with surrounding states; reward principals for taking on complex schools.

Increase funding for textbooks and digital media, empower teachers with direct control over the use of state funding for classroom supplies, and provide all schools with consistent, cost-effective access to high-quality digital and personalized-learning tools.

Continue the current 15-point grading scale to support consistent evaluation of performance and growth (as opposed to switching to a 10-point scale). Allow a waiver for class size by the state superintendent in case a local district has sufficiently demonstrated they are unable to find qualified teachers to meet requirements.

Support and enable policymakers, local districts, and educators to make data-driven decisions to improve student outcomes through modern systems and state-level data analytics personnel and resources.