Wake will test new ways to pay teachers more money. Will it help the teacher shortage?

More than two dozen Wake County schools will test different ways of paying teachers more money as part of an effort to help the district recruit and retain educators.

Wake County recently won a federal grant for $13.5 million over the next three years to pilot the use of performance pay in 24 high-needs schools. Wake also recently won a $3 million state grant over the next three years to pilot a program in which six schools will pay their top teachers thousands of dollars more per year to coach other educators.

North Carolina’s largest school district is hoping this approach will make the profession more attractive to both aspiring and experienced teachers. Wake hasn’t publicly announced which schools will be in the pilots.

“It positively impacts student learning,” Lisa Luten, a district spokesperson, said of the grants in an interview. “It provides a career path for teachers that doesn’t take teachers out of the classroom.”

Schools deal with teaching shortages

The grants come as North Carolina school districts opened the school year with 3,584 teacher vacancies. Fewer students in North Carolina colleges and universities are studying to become teachers.

“We are going to have to reinvent the educator workforce and rethink schools and rethink the workday, work week and how we support our educators and how we support student learning,” Sharon Contreras, chief executive officer of The Innovation Project, said in an interview.

The Innovation Project is a collaborative of North Carolina public school superintendents. Wake is partnering with the Innovation Project on the state grant because Contreras says the state Department of Public Instruction wasn’t able to give the money to a nonprofit group.

But Kim Mackey, a social studies teacher at Green Hope High School in Cary, worries that these efforts are allowing state lawmakers to get off the hook from having to do more to raise teacher pay.

“There’s just no way to measure what we do,” Mackey said in an interview. “The lack of trust fostered by these half-baked ideas doesn’t bolster the pipeline.”

Performance pay in Wake schools

Performance pay isn’t a new idea in Wake County.

For three years, Wake used the Obama administration’s Race to the Top grant to offer signing bonuses and performance pay to teachers at five high-poverty schools. Wake ended the Renaissance Schools program in 2014 when the grant money ran out.

This time, Wake will use the federal Teacher and School Leader Incentive grant to “implement performance-based compensation systems” at 24 schools. Teachers and school leaders in those high-needs schools will receive bonuses for meeting growth goals, according to Sara Clark, a district spokesperson.

Clark said details about the extra pay are being worked out with the U.S. Department of Education. Historically, growth goals have been based on student performance on state exams.

But Clark said the bonuses are only a small piece of how the grant will be used. Other things the grant will fund include efforts to:

▪ Add more human resources staff to help recruit teachers.

▪ Create models of coaching and support for high-needs schools.

▪ Provide teachers and school leaders at high-needs schools tuition reimbursement for continuing education or earning certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Teachers receive 12% extra pay annually from the state if they have national board certification.

▪ Provide professional development, future career opportunities and advanced leadership roles for teachers.

Advanced teaching roles

Providing advanced leadership roles for teachers is also the key part of the state grant that Wake won.

Since 2016, some North Carolina school districts have used state grants to start advanced teaching roles programs where top teachers get additional pay if they take on additional leadership roles. It’s a way for teachers to earn more money without having to leave to the classroom to become school administrators.

Some districts have used the Opportunity Culture model for their advanced teaching roles programs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has heavily used the Opportunity Culture program, allowing top teachers to earn an additional $18,250 a year leading teaching teams.

The Opportunity Culture model works, according to Contreras of the Innovation Project. She points to two research studies, including one that looked at North Carolina, which found academic gains at Opportunity Culture model schools.

Opportunity Culture coming to Wake schools

Wake hasn’t used the Opportunity Culture model until now.

Under the grant, the Opportunity Culture model will be used in 62 schools in five districts: Wake, Rowan-Salisbury Schools, Rockingham County, Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Schools and Edgecombe County. Wake will use it in six schools and administer the money for the Innovation Project.

The program will allow excellent teachers to become “multi-classroom leaders” who work with beginning teachers and struggling teachers, according to Contreras.

“The grants are first and foremost about supporting the teachers,” Contreras said. “The compensation is just one component of the grant.”

Contreras said the five-district collaboration means a Wake science teacher could remotely lead teachers in another district. She said it could allow teachers to lead remote lessons for students in other districts.

If it’s successful, Contreras said it could inspire other districts to partner together to offer the Opportunity Culture model. Contreras used the program when she was superintendent of Guilford County Schools.

Programs a ‘triage system’ for schools?

The state currently pays teachers on a scale based on years of experience. But the State Board of Education and State Superintendent Catherine Truitt have urged switching to a system that pays teachers based on their performance and on taking leadership roles.

State lawmakers included $10.9 million a year in the new state budget for salary supplements for districts participating in the Advanced Teaching Roles program. Eligible teachers can get supplements of up to $10,000.

“The state is perfectly willing to pay a teacher a few thousand more to burn them out but not take the low hanging fruit to invest to put a fully qualified teacher in every classroom,” said Mackey, the Wake teacher.

Mackey said Opportunity Culture “really institutionalizes the triage system we have with a highly experienced teacher trying to mentor other teachers while staying afloat.”

Contreras said she agrees the state’s first priority should be providing fair compensation for teachers before discussing other compensation models. But Contreras says schools need to use creative methods such as Opportunity Culture to help students and teachers.

“Change is difficult,” Contreras said. “But we can’t keep doing things the same way given the extreme losses we’ve seen in learning and in populations in public schools.

“Parents are telling us they want to see something different. Students are telling us they want to see something different.”