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- A draft licensure reform plan is being heard by the State Board of Education this week, but no decision is imminent. Find out who to contact with comments about the plan.
- Contact Patrick Miller, chair of the state’s Professional Educator Preparation and Standards Commission, with comments about a new teacher licensure plan. Get his email and read about the proposed plan here.
Potential changes to the way teachers are licensed and paid will be heard by the State Board of Education this week. But the model they are seeing is just a draft, and State Board members will be taking no action right now.
The real work on the draft model is taking place in subcommittees of the Professional Educator Preparation & Standards Commission (PEPSC). EducationNC wrote about the draft presented to the full PEPSC commission earlier in March. The commission was hearing about the model so as to have a chance to ask questions and make suggestions, which were then taken back to subcommittees for further work.
Tom Tomberlin, director of educator recruitment and support at the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI), has reiterated multiple times that the model is a draft created to give PEPSC something to work with so that members didn’t have to start from scratch. They have the power to shape the model.
After the PEPSC subcommittees refine the model, it will go to the full commission for consideration. Only after PEPSC has signed off will it go to the State Board of Education for a hearing. Patrick Miller, superintendent of Greene County Schools and chair of PEPSC, has said the revised model that will be considered by the State Board of Education won’t be ready until later in the summer.
The draft model that has been making the rounds contains multiple levels at which educators can teach, beginning at apprentice and progressing on to expert and advanced teaching roles that come with additional responsibility and compensation well in excess of what the state pays today. Higher levels can be reached by fulfilling certain requirements, including the demonstration of effectiveness. The draft model includes dramatic increases in pay for many teachers.
The earliest legislators would weigh in on the plan, including compensation, is the long session beginning in January 2023.
The current model of teacher pay rewards educators’ compensation based on years of experience.
Here is our most recent article on the model.
Miller, the PEPSC chair, said questions and comments about the model can be directed to him at pathways.feedback@dpi.nc.gov.
