Terry McCann: 1989 NC Teaching Fellow

Posted 10:00 a.m. Jan 25, 2019 — Updated 11:48 a.m. Jan 25, 2019

Kelly Hinchcliffe

, WRAL education reporter

This interview was conducted by email as part of a series on teacher diversity in North Carolina.

Read the full series: NC's teacher diversity gap
Read more interviews with other North Carolina Teaching Fellows

What years were you a Teaching Fellow, and what college did you attend?

1989-1993 at UNC-Chapel Hill

What have you done since college, and what are you doing now?

Teaching math since 1993. I took a few years off but returned to the classroom. I teach currently at JD Clement Early College in Durham.

Why have you stayed in (or left) teaching?

I believe in education and that it needs strong, non-compromising teachers. I also want to affect education policy and am working on my master’s degree in curriculum and instruction.

What advice do you have for colleges hoping to recruit more people of color and men to study teaching?

Colleges need to recruit teachers in the same way that colleges recruit athletes to play sports. They need to go after the best and the brightest and offer scholarships and stipends and summer enrichment.

What advice do you have for schools hoping to retain people of color and men as teachers?

Schools should offer a major/minor option so that they can go into education and a minor in something else that is a dual degree. They would need to teach a certain amount of years after receiving their degree to pay it back.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

We need to find another way to compensate teachers that frees them from the state salary schedule and rewards teachers that are effective, that grow their students and that are willing to work in distressed areas of the state.

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