Teaching as a Profession?: Heading for the Exits, Fellows, and North Carolina
Teacher attrition is an issue across the United States. Amongst traditionally trained teachers, about 50% leave after 5 years. The infamous Teach For America program has an attrition rate of about 80% after five years (this is why Teach For America wants to focus the public on a 50% in “education” field number). As seen on TV, North Carolina teachers are heading for the exits in droves due to the recent draconian and out-dated policy approachesimplemented by the politicians in that state. Its quite amazing that a few determined politicians can wreck a functioning system in just a few years. One solution to teacher attrition has been early identification of teacher candidates. One such program has been the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program. What is the program?
[The North Carolina Teaching Fellows] was adopted and funded by the 1986 North Carolina General Assembly as part of a ten-point teacher recruitment plan proposed by the Public School Forum of North Carolina. The first recipients were named in 1987.Applicants must be North Carolina residents currently enrolled as high school seniors and qualifying high school juniors. Selection is made on the basis of high school grades, class standing, SAT scores, writing samples, community service, extracurricular activities, and references from teachers and members of the community. Interviews at the local and regional levels are required. Recipients must be accepted for admission to one of the following postsecondary institutions in North Carolina… Subject to continuing legislative appropriations, up to 500 Teaching Fellows are selected annually from area high schools. The maximum award is $6,500 per year and is renewable for a total of four years of college.
Over the past several years, the program has been axed and un-axed by North Carolina legislators. In this post Dr. Francesca Lopez, Associate Professor at the University of Arizona and Sarah Taylor, a former North Carolina Teaching Fellow and current University of Texas at Austin Educational Policy and Planning masters student, consider the merits of North Carolina’s early identification approach.
by Dr. Francesca Lopez
The authors of an Education Policy Initiative at Carolina (EPIC) policy brief entitled The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program: A Comprehensive Evaluation focused on “the human capital of the teacher workforce” and “expanded access to highly qualified teachers for at-risk students” assert that North Carolina Teaching Fellows program, which attracts “individuals with significantly higher academic credentials into North Carolina public schools” (p.5), has “positively affected North Carolina’s schools and students” (p. 6).
The Fellows Program’s approach to address the issue of attrition and access is incentivizing teacher preparation for “academically competitive students” (p. 1). Certainly, treating teaching as a rigorous profession that requires Teaching as a Profession?: Heading for the Exits, Fellows, and North Carolina | Cloaking Inequity: