http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/07/31/2493192/praised-teacher-program-gets-the.html

This...this is just turrible. NC solidifies just how much it doesn't care about teachers.

Quote :

"Praised teacher program gets the ax Teaching Fellows offered top students scholarships for four years in the classroom. RALEIGH For the past quarter of a century, North Carolina has offered a great deal to thousands of its brightest high school students: a free ride in college in exchange for teaching four years in Tar Heel classrooms. As a result of the N.C. Teaching Fellows Program, a cadre of teachers and principals who graduated from the model program now work in 99 counties across the state. "It's easy to spot them," said Brian Whitson, 35, a chemistry teacher at Salisbury High School, who was a Teaching Fellow. "You see a lot of innovation. A lot of them are able to motivate students in a way other teachers are not." But that particular teacher pipeline is about to dry up. The Teaching Fellows Program fell victim to the budget ax. As the legislature sought to deal with a $2.5 billion budget shortfall, it decided to phase out the $13.5 million annual funding for the program. This year's entering college freshman class will be the last to receive scholarships - though two Republican lawmakers suggested funding could be reinstated in future sessions. The Teaching Fellows Program is one of a number of teacher programs that the legislature, which adjourned Thursday, decided to eliminate, phase out, or drastically cut. Lawmakers: Eliminated the N.C. Teacher Academy as of July 1, when it cut all $4.7 million in annual funding from the Morrisville-based program that provides seminars and courses for educators across the state. Cut in half the budget for the Cullowhee-based N.C. Center for the Advancement for Teaching, which is designed to reinvigorate career teachers to prevent burnout. The legislature first proposed abolishing the program before cutting funding from $6.1 million to $3 million. Lawmakers said they were faced with the difficult choice of whether to make budget cuts that would directly affect the classroom or to cut other education programs. "Our goal was to have a teacher in every classroom and a teacher assistant," said Rep. Bryan Holloway of King, co-chairman of the House committee that oversees education spending, a former high school history teacher and now an education consultant. "With the economic climate, you have to make tough decisions," he said. "The reason it is not completely wiped off the map is because legislators have a favorable opinion of the teaching fellows. The hope is when we go back in the short session (next May), we could turn things around a bit. I would hope we could do it." The language in the budget, however, says the program is to be phased out. It cuts $210,000 for the year that began July 1 and $3.4 million for the following year. Among those troubled by the cuts is Jim Hunt, a four-term Democratic governor, who said North Carolina has been an innovator in teacher education in part because of such programs. "Over the last 20 years, North Carolina has done more than any other state to increase the effectiveness of teachers in our public schools," Hunt said "These are all programs that have a great impact on North Carolina moving up among the states in learning and getting scores among the top tier in the nation," said Hunt, who is chairman and founder of the Hunt Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy at UNC Chapel Hill. Finding smart teachers Hunt is among those who hope future legislatures will reconsider the decision to phase out the Teaching Fellows Program. The program was created in 1986 at the urging of Lt. Gov. Bob Jordan, a Democrat, but with backing from other key figures including Hunt and the late Jay Robinson, then superintendent of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system. There was a concern at the time that not enough of the smartest high school students were entering college teaching programs. The lack of males and minorities going into teaching was also a worry. The Teaching Fellows Program was a nonprofit that provided full scholarships - then $5,000 per year and now $6,500 - to Tar Heel students who were willing to teach four years in North Carolina schools. Students who don't fulfill their teaching obligation must pay back the scholarship, plus 10 percent interest. The program is year-round and includes weekly seminars, a weeklong bus trip across the state to better learn Tar Heel culture, public service projects and various enrichment programs. Seventeen campuses participate. In 2011, the average SAT for those accepted in the program was 200 points above the average North Carolina student who takes the SAT. Of those fellows who started teaching in 1991, 60 percent are still employed in North Carolina's schools, according to the program. 'It has worked' Graduates of the program call it a major influence. Jason Sinquefield wasn't sure what he wanted to do when he was at D.H. Connelly High School in Greenville, although he knew he enjoyed math. Then he heard about the Teaching Fellows Program and won a scholarship to UNC. He is now a math teacher and assistant football coach at Millbrook High School in Raleigh. "I never thought of education as a career choice until I looked at the Teaching Fellows Program," said Sinquefield, 26. "It kind of defined a way of becoming the best teacher you could be." "

8/1/2011 8:15:57 AM

This current state legislature has shown over and over that they don't give two shits about education in this state. It's a shame because that education is what makes us able to draw in companies like SAS and Cisco

8/1/2011 8:20:06 AM

Even worse, one of arguments as to why to axe it was that even though it works, 'a majority' of the fellows didn't teach at 'at risk' or 'under-privileged' schools and therefor not using the full potential of the fellows program. Weak argument if you ask me. Not to mention both my girlfriend and Brian Whitson mentioned in this article teach at Salisbury High which is considered an 'at risk' school.

8/3/2011 3:19:53 PM

Just the tip of the iceberg, folks. Can't wait til they start cutting back on things I actually need.

[Edited on August 3, 2011 at 3:28 PM. Reason : .]

8/3/2011 3:28:07 PM

who cares

what has a teacher ever done for me?

8/3/2011 3:54:13 PM

^^^I thought the Fellows program specifically told you were to go?

I mean are they saying "We fail at governing our own program so we're going to can it"?

[Edited on August 3, 2011 at 3:54 PM. Reason : why do the fucking idiots get elected]

8/3/2011 3:54:16 PM

Quote :

"why do the fucking idiots get elected"

Because they ensure that the populace is dumb.

8/3/2011 3:56:16 PM

Nope,you can get a job anywhere in any PUBLIC North Carolina school and have 7 years to teach the 4 years required to not pay back the loans.

8/3/2011 3:59:00 PM

Half of all teachers are amongst the bottom half of teachers.

Maybe if we got some instructors who actually cared about teaching instead of giving them an incentive to do a job they never really wanted to do, we will get some teachers who are worth a damn.

8/3/2011 4:09:56 PM

^ I'm guessing you don't know the process students have to go through to become a teaching fellow. They don't just hand them out to any old Joe. It's highly competitive and you need to show a strong interest in teaching to get it.

8/3/2011 4:11:40 PM

Quote :

"Half of all teachers are amongst the bottom half of teachers. Maybe if we got some instructors who actually cared about teaching instead of giving them an incentive to do a job they never really wanted to do, we will get some teachers who are worth a damn."

None of this is relevant to the program getting cut.

8/3/2011 4:14:09 PM

Quote :

"Maybe if we got some instructors who actually cared about teaching instead of giving them an incentive to do a job they never really wanted to do, we will get some teachers who are worth a damn."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFHJkvEwyhk

8/3/2011 4:15:55 PM

Thanks Matt Damon.

Idiot. He obviously knows. He played an abused kid, once

Maybe teachers can't do anything else because they suck.

8/3/2011 4:21:34 PM

Your experience with them is anecdotal.

True, they were unable to make you any smarter after pre-school, I won't argue that.

8/3/2011 4:34:26 PM

this makes me

8/3/2011 5:20:34 PM

No exactly the same but http://www.teachforamerica.org/ is still there.

8/3/2011 6:04:09 PM

Quote :

" in this article teach at Salisbury High which is considered an 'at risk' school"

Lolers, Rowan County. We played Knox Middle in sports. Knox feeds Salisbury. They were pretty good in football thanks to quite a few black guys. We sucked. They were beating us like 35-0 when I ran a kickoff back 100 yards for a score.

Later in the year when we were playing them in basketball we were sitting in the stands waiting while the girls played. Several of their guys came over to us...who dat nigga dat ran one back on us? he fucked up pizza we wuz gettin for a shutout. where dat nigga?.

I thought I was going to get my ass kicked but they turned out to be nice guys...albeit not so well spoken.

8/3/2011 6:26:48 PM

good riddance. my high school was riddled with teaching fellows teachers, and they made it painfully obvious that they didn't give a shit about teaching kids out in bumfuck and were only doing it because they were required to.

8/3/2011 8:04:39 PM

I'm afraid that I have been unimpressed as well.

If it actually has recruited minorities to the teaching profession, then I think that's great. But, of the ones that I know, they are white and middle class (they don't really need a free ride). They tend to emphasize how prestigious it is and how they don't really want to teach. If some of them stick around after four years of teaching though, that's great.

But maybe all that stuff is just an act. Maybe they really do wanna teach and whatnot, but they're embarrassed because they don't think it's ambitious enough or cool enough or something. I know they're trying to add prestige to the profession, but it seems like they've really only been able to add prestige to the people who are teaching fellows.

[Edited on August 3, 2011 at 8:54 PM. Reason : GIS reveals that lots of the non-white NCTFs go to HBCUs, but they do exist!]

8/3/2011 8:30:42 PM

Quote :

"^ I'm guessing you don't know the process students have to go through to become a teaching fellow. They don't just hand them out to any old Joe. It's highly competitive and you need to show a strong interest in teaching to get it."

That's... really not true at all. Maybe it used to be that way, but recently it has not lived up to those kinds of standards, at all. My brother applied last minute with no previous interest in teacher, put on a smile and said the right words and is currently in school as a Teaching Fellow. Maybe it's more competitive in other counties but it certainly wasn't in Carteret.

8/3/2011 9:03:31 PM

^Yeah, I know a dude with a similar story. He was still smart and all that stuff of course.

Anyway, I think it's easier if you're a male. Not necessarily easier, but you know, they need males.

[Edited on August 3, 2011 at 9:33 PM. Reason : ]

8/3/2011 9:27:06 PM

^Not to mention his Teaching Fellow roommate was a guy that openly professed to be a vampire, and apparently had a record for stealing or something strange.

Not saying that Teaching Fellows isn't a good program or that all applicants are jokes, but it's not a stupidly impressive thing to win. In the later years it seems more based on if you want to get the Fellowship and are willing to "serve the time", not necessarily that you fought tooth and nail for it in some highly competitive pool.

EDIT: Ended up being a bad choice for my brother too. I currently get as much need-based and academic grants from NCSU/FAFSA as he gets scholarship money from Teaching Fellows, and FAFSA would basically have panned out the same for him as me.

[Edited on August 4, 2011 at 1:26 AM. Reason : f]

8/4/2011 1:24:43 AM

Quote :

"incentive to do a job they never really wanted to do"

Yeah but I thought that incentive was supposed to make you work harder? That's what all my conservative friends are saying. lol lol lol

incentives don't mean shit. You are either passionate about your job or you aint.

8/4/2011 1:30:58 AM

If the state was desperate for teachers, just wait til they don't have comtracted slaves.

8/4/2011 1:36:33 AM

There are many, many unemployed teachers in this State with bachelors and even masters degrees that aren't being hired.

It's a perfectly prudent thing to stop the program until the employment market shores up. It kills two birds with one stone - stopping the mass influx of recently graduated teachers who just end up working at Kohls, and saving tons of money in the process.

Taking away free college education program =/= not caring about teachers. If someone still wants to be a teacher, they are able to do so.

So I don't understand why this is turrible...

8/4/2011 2:07:17 AM

^^^^Yeah, I read it's only a $6500/year scholarship, and they make you pay for some of the extra enrichment activities out of that.

^Yeah. That was another crazy thing I read. Teaching fellows weren't getting hired (in the counties of their choice) so they gave up and started paying back the loan (plus interest) since they were "on the fence" about it anyway.

One guy was claiming that the interest on these loans used to cover the cost of everybody else's loans. If that's true, then it means the sixty percent that are still teaching is a figure taken out of the ones who actually went on to teach, not the total program. That Ron Clark guy said he never intended to actually teach when he got it. One friend of mine still hasn't started teaching yet--he's already earned one masters and begun working on another one.

[Edited on August 4, 2011 at 5:18 AM. Reason : ]

8/4/2011 5:17:43 AM

Quote :

"you need to show a strong interest in teaching to get it. "

clearly not. half of the teaching fellows i know never even taught 1 year before deciding it wasn't for them. many of them figured out they didn't want to teach a year or so into college. i also know several who almost immediately declined the scholarship. they just wanted to see if they could get it. it's a very flawed program if you ask me.



[Edited on August 4, 2011 at 7:24 AM. Reason : which nobody did, but my opinion is important, dammit!!]

8/4/2011 7:23:44 AM

Well damn, I've certainly learned more from this thread

8/4/2011 8:24:23 AM

too bad it didnt get the ax before the morons i know were awarded it.

8/4/2011 10:45:34 AM

Quote :

"too bad it didnt get the ax before the morons i know were awarded it."

8/4/2011 10:48:19 AM

Quote :

"That's... really not true at all. Maybe it used to be that way, but recently it has not lived up to those kinds of standards, at all."

That's a shame because it definitely wasn't that way in the 90s. Sounds like they may have suffered from shitty administration and are getting axed as a result.

8/4/2011 12:18:45 PM

Be rational. Teachers are required to teach what north carolina makes them. It is not their responsibility to make sure Joe Bob and all 50 Jennifers are keeping it in.

That being said, I think teachers are actually overpaid for what they do. They know day for day what they are REQUIRED to teach and all you hear about is lesson planning and taking home work, etc. I would take home work, gladly, if I only had to work 4.5 hours out of the day. Cry babies.

Teaching fellows only have themselves to blame for the loss of the program.

As for the vampire, he would have made an interesting teacher!

8/4/2011 1:07:54 PM

Man, I wish I had only worked 4.5 hours when I was a teacher. That would have been sweet as hell

8/4/2011 4:39:19 PM

OVERPAID?! fuck you. if you think teachers only work 4.5 hours a day, you've clearly never been to public school. and yes, it is the teacher's responsibility to make sure joe bob and jennifer retain what is taught. lesson planning is completely necessary - not all children learn the same way.

you fucking idiot.

8/4/2011 6:16:21 PM

^ don't feed the troll... he's really just an ass in every thread.

8/4/2011 6:21:31 PM

Yeah don't feed the troll, especially not in lounge. He set his bait way too fast.

8/4/2011 10:01:58 PM

Quote :

"The Teaching Fellows Program was a nonprofit"

Send your donations to:

3739 National Drive
Suite 100
Raleigh, NC 27612

Spread the word! Surely every citizen in the state values this program enough to now send in funding voluntarily.

8/5/2011 9:38:53 PM

Quote :

"There are many, many unemployed teachers in this State with bachelors and even masters degrees that aren't being hired. It's a perfectly prudent thing to stop the program until the employment market shores up. It kills two birds with one stone - stopping the mass influx of recently graduated teachers who just end up working at Kohls, and saving tons of money in the process. Taking away free college education program =/= not caring about teachers. If someone still wants to be a teacher, they are able to do so. So I don't understand why this is turrible..."

8/6/2011 9:20:24 AM