Education

School principals need more support, NC education leaders tell lawmakers

And one school group urged lawmakers to reverse a decision that could mean big salary cuts for hundreds of principals this year.

Posted Updated
School generic with blurred students
By
Emily Walkenhorst
, WRAL education reporter
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina’s principals are given too many responsibilities and need to be able to delegate more of them, education leaders told a legislative committee Monday.

Lawmakers should also reverse a change that allows principals' salaries this year to change based on last year's standardized test scores, North Carolina Association of School Administrators Executive Director Katherine Joyce told lawmakers. That change could mean $8,000 to $18,000 less in salary for about one in six of the state's principals -- about 400 principals.

The typical North Carolina principal has just about four years of experience and about 50 employees directly reporting to them, Leah Sutton, BEST NC’s vice president of policy and engagement told the House Select Committee on An Education System for North Carolina's Future.

When BEST NC’s leadership — comprised of area business leaders — hears that principals have 50 direct reports, “their eyes poof out,” Sutton said. “That just doesn’t compute to them.”

North Carolina needs to increase the number of school leadership positions and rigorous training for educators to become principals, Sutton and Joyce told lawmakers. That can, in part, be done by expanding existing efforts, they said: Increasing the number North Carolina Principal Fellows, bolstering Advanced Teaching Roles for teachers or funding more assistant principals.

North Carolina’s 2,700 public school principals oversee more than 1.5 million children and nearly 190,000 employees, though most have only a few years of experience. They’re responsible for both the management of the school and for the school’s approach to instruction — totaling 21 skills and eight leadership standards outlined by the state. Research suggests principals have significant impacts on their schools’ outcomes, leaders said Monday.

The state’s executive branch is pushing for more educational programming and funding, in part to address COVID-19 learning disruptions and in part to meet goals established as a result of the 28-year Leandro school adequacy lawsuit. General Assembly leadership have resisted much of the work around the Leandro lawsuit but have been receptive to some proposals on educator pay and expanding some special educator recruitment and training programs.

Inexperienced workforce

On Monday, lawmakers asked several questions of Sutton, Joyce and Principal Fellows Program Director Eddie Price.

Committee Chairman Rep. John Torbett, R-Gaston, said lawmakers would need to think more about how to increase principal longevity at a single school and reduce the kind of turnover that can undermine a school.

North Carolina does not collect principal turnover data the way it collects teacher turnover data, so it’s not clear how principals move around.

But the typical North Carolina principal has spent less than five years at their school, data analyzed by BEST NC show.

Other data from the Department of Public Instruction, accessed by WRAL News, show most of the state’s principals were considered “inexperienced” during the 2019-20 school year, the most recent year for which data are available. Just two years before that, state data showed the plurality of principals — 42.2% — had less than four years of experience. About 41% of principals had four to 10 years of experience. Just 16.9% had more than 10 years of experience leading a school.

'Too many responsibilities'

Joyce said effective principals delegate many of their responsibilities to make up for overseeing too many employees.

One way to do that, Joyce and Sutton said, is to use Advanced Teaching Roles to give more instructional leadership responsibilities to the school’s most effective teachers.

Only 20 school systems participate in this program, which the state has operated for just a few years.

Currently, principals must observe every classroom multiple times and conduct an evaluation of every teacher each year, on top of other responsibilities.

Joyce suggested the state increase funding for assistant principals, and other positions.

North Carolina funds one principal for every school with 100 students and one assistant principal, on a 10-month contract, for every 985 students a school system has.

Counties, many of which have pushed for an increase in assistant principal funding, pay for about a quarter of the state’s more than 3,300 assistant principals — a higher share than for most other academic positions — and for about 40% of other non-principal administrative positions. In contrast, counties only pay for about 6% of teachers and 12% of guidance counselors.

Rep. Jeff Zenger, R-Forsyth, wondered if the state could have its most effective principals train assistant principals to take over schools, rather than relying on a single effective principal to stay at a single school.

Often, however, principals don’t really train assistant principals to take over a schools, Sutton said. Many of those assistant principals just end up taking on logistical responsibilities in relief of principals.

“Everybody’s just so busy getting the work done they don’t get the training they need,” Sutton said. “Again that’s a problem of too many direct reports and just too many responsibilities.”

A drop in pay

This year's budget also adds a temporary element of frustration for many principals, Joyce said.

The state’s principal pay scale pays principals more for either overseeing larger schools or for their schools achieving academic growth — or both. The adjustment for growth typically accounts for three years of it. But this year's will only account for last year, because the COVID-19 pandemic halted school performance grades and growth measurements for two years in a row.

The growth scores won't be published until the fall.

But with a pandemic-complicated school year, Joyce said she expects about one in six principals to earn less money this year than in prior years, by about $8,000 to $18,000 each.

Joyce asked lawmakers to reverse their decision later the fall, before principal pay is affected in January. She is asking for lawmakers to hold principal pay harmless for this year.

Some lawmakers sympathized with the Joyce's request, including Rep. Phil Shepherd, R-Onslow, who noted concerns he's heard in his own district.

"Hopefully we can address this," said Rep. Hugh Blackwell, R-Burke.

The full General Assembly is not currently in session.

Presenters disagreed over the impact of the state’s principal pay scale being based on growth and student population. The change in pay scale has resulted in higher average salaries, but it’s unclear how the change has impacted where principals want to work.

Principals tend to have more experience, the lower the school’s poverty level is, according to BEST NC’s data analysis.

Joyce argued principals are taking a risk by moving from a school posting positive growth scores to one that isn’t and that is lower-performing.

While principal salary is dictated by school size and test score growth measures, about a quarter of schools did not meet growth expectations during the 2018-19 school year, the latest year for which data are available. Schools were not assigned growth scores after the 2020-21 spring tests, and they won’t be assigned scores until this fall for the 2021-22 spring tests.

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