ECU looks to new initiative to encourage teachers
Published March 1, 2016
Editorial by Greenville Daily Reflector, February 28, 2016.
The people of eastern North Carolina should not take public education for granted, but speak loudly in support of East Carolina University’s role as the state’s leading producer of teachers, a mission seriously challenged in recent years.
Funding for faculty, facilities and curriculum programs at the state’s public universities has undergone deep cuts, forcing administrators at ECU’s College of Education to find operational ”efficiencies” to meet the growing challenge. Efficiency is a good thing, but after the fat burns away from the budget, the university should not be forced to burn the muscle, too.
The pressure is increasing on ECU to keep up with the statewide teacher demand, ECU Chancellor Steve Ballard and Provost Ron Mitchelson revealed during a visit last week with The Daily Reflector’s editorial board.
The demand is the result a combination of state budget cuts and diminished tax revenues that have kept public school teachers’ pay well below the national average, even after last year’s hard-won increase to $35,000 per year for beginning teachers. On top of that, diminishing appropriations for public school resources make the profession less attractive than ever to young people planning careers.
Ironically, ECU’s market share of North Carolina’s graduated teachers is increasing. It currently produces about 22 percent of the state’s new teachers. But that simply is an indicator of the overall decline in new teacher production at the state’s other universities, Mitchelson said.
“The single biggest challenge is that fewer people believe that teaching is a profession they can make good on in North Carolina,” Ballard said. “ We know that cutbacks on teaching assistants and salaries for master’s recipients have had an impact on people’s interest in teaching.
To counter the trend, Grant Hayes, the new dean of the College of Education, has put together a recruitment plan to create new pathways expected to expand the university’s faculty, including a cluster of faculty hired for science education.
ECU also has been innovative with partners in the private sector to develop models for making teacher education more attractive and affordable for those interested in the profession. The State Employees Credit Union Partnership East, an ECU College of Education degree completion partnership with North Carolina community colleges allows some students to graduate with a four-year degree from East Carolina University by completing the first two years of the program at any of its partnering community colleges, followed by online courses at ECU.
If public education is to progress in North Carolina, it will be counting on ECU to maintain its outpost on the frontier of teacher education. In turn, ECU relies on the people of this state to actively support its mission. It cannot last without that support.
March 1, 2016 at 11:09 am
Richard L Bunce says:
ast thing we need is the primary tools of the government education industrial complex grinding out more drones for the traditional government school systems. Reading this article, on most other articles on this topic you would never know that there are alternative school systems populated with teachers who are not spewing this sort of nonsense...
March 1, 2016 at 11:10 am
Richard L Bunce says:
Still need that edit function...
