Low-performing schools hire more low-performing teachers

by Kelly Hinchcliffe, WRAL, January 7, 2016.

Last month, State Board of Education member Olivia Holmes Oxendine asked staff at the Department of Public Instruction about the quality of teachers at low-performing schools. This week, she got her answer.

"There is a difference in who they hire," said Thomas Tomberlin, DPI's director of district human resources. "Teachers they hire are more low performing (compared with higher performing schools) ... If this trend continues, these schools have very little chance of getting out of low-performing status."

Tomberlin presented a report showing that, last school year, 28 percent of newly hired, experienced teachers in North Carolina's low-performing schools did not meet expected growth, compared with 19 percent in higher-performing schools. The growth was based on student test scores.

"A greater percentage of experienced teachers in schools with a low-performing designation are on full evaluation plans, suggesting that these experienced teachers have instructional deficiencies," according to Tomberlin's report. "There are no meaningful differences between low-performing designated schools and non low-performing designated schools in early-career teachers or teacher attrition."

The school board discussed the possibility of teacher "stagnation," the difficulties teachers face in low-performing schools and whether they are getting the resources they need.

"It's a system problem, not a teacher problem," said State Superintendent June Atkinson. "It's also a question of teacher load at schools."

Read more at http://www.wral.com/report-nc-s-low-performing-schools-hire-more-low-performing-teachers/15220514/#ZIFwL2FGz44Lrwtm.99