N.C. teaching program may be national model

The push for education reform in Congress intensified with the proposal for a national Teaching Fellows program, based on North Carolina’s model, in an effort to relieve the nation’s teaching shortage.

U.S. Rep. David Price, D-N.C., proposed expanding the Teaching Fellows Act to the national level April 21 to curb the teacher shortage. The legislation is part of the Higher Education Act, which is up for reauthorization this year.

“The concept and idea has potential for helping with the teaching shortage,” said Laura Pottmyer Soto, director of N.C. State University’s Teaching Fellows program.

Recruitment and retention have been problem spots, and Price said he hopes the national program would help alleviate both.

“The national program will help as long as people acknowledge there is a real problem,” said Howard Machtinger, director of the UNC-Chapel Hill Teaching Fellows program.

“Retention currently does not get enough attention,” he said.

Within the first five years of teaching, 30 percent of teachers quit the profession — a number that jumps to 50 percent in urban areas.

Machtinger said there is not enough accompanying support for new teachers, which contributes to the low retention rate.

Price’s bill would provide scholarships and mentoring programs to help recruit high school seniors and undergraduate freshmen, as well as students in community colleges.

“The extracurricular program would help socialize them into the teaching program,” he said.

Price said the fellowship needs to be more than money for the students, and mentoring programs would help provide the extra stimulus to retain teachers.

“North Carolina made the move to that approach,” he said. “I hope the federal program would have that same feature.

“I hope to have it operative by fiscal year 2006. It will probably take that long.”

The bill proposes $6,500 scholarships for each fellow, though Price said funding will be determined by the number of states that pick up the program.

He said the bill authorizes $200 million to the program for high school seniors and undergraduate freshmen and $100 million for the community college program.

But actual appropriations would be determined by Congress every year, Price said. He added that he would work with the U.S. Department of Education to determine the funding for the program, if it passes.

“I’m hopeful it will pass,” he said. “The challenge will be to get the (education department) to act on the bill and get funding for it.”

But Melinda Anderson, spokeswoman for the National Education Association, said education is mostly funded by the state, rather than the federal government. Teacher retention should be addressed at the local level, she said, as the money to fund mentoring programs will come from the local level.

While this bill won’t solve the teaching shortage, Machtinger said it’s a step in the right direction.

“The fact that North Carolina has had a successful program makes the case strong,” Price said.

 

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.