Trump administration cancels federal teacher training, retention grants in NC :: WRAL.com

The Trump administration has canceled tens of millions of dollars in federal grants for North Carolina teacher training and retention, including a $12 million program in Wake County.

Several programs that were canceled were run by local school systems across the state to pay some teachers more money and provide them with additional training. Several other programs were run by colleges of education across the state to train more people to become teachers, amid a shortage of qualified teachers in the profession.

Some targeted lower-performing and lower-income schools to provide extra help.

In canceling the grants, the U.S. Department of Education cited a need to stop diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

“America’s students are falling dangerously behind in math and reading,” Savannah Newhouse, a department spokesperson, wrote in an email. “Teacher prep programs should be prioritizing training that prepares youth with the fundamentals they need to succeed for the future, not wasting valuable training resources on divisive ideologies. The U.S. Department of Education will continue working to ensure taxpayer dollars are used wisely to strengthen America’s education system.”

Lauren Fox, a researcher with the nonprofit Public School Forum of North Carolina, said she hasn’t seen anything divisive in her work with some of the programs.

“We know that teachers are the number one school related factor that impacts student outcomes, and these programs are aimed at ensuring that all children in North Carolina have access to excellent educators,” Fox said. “And I don’t think that’s a divisive thing.”

Letters obtained from the Wake County Public School System and East Carolina University don’t cite specific examples of spending that the department objected to. The department didn’t immediately respond to a WRAL request for more information, including whether it had specific concerns about the programs in North Carolina.

The grants were intended to last three to five years. The schools can appeal the grants’ termination. The grants included:

• $11.8 million to the Wake County Public School System for recruitment, retention and performance bonuses.

• $21.5 million to Montgomery County Schools for recruitment, retention and performance improvements.

• $21.5 million to The Innovation Project for recruiting and training teachers in several rural school systems, including teachers of color.

• $7.7 million to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools for performance-based compensation.

• $2.4 million to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill for mentoring diverse elementary and special education teachers for Durham Public Schools.

• $5.2 million to Winston-Salem State University for spearheading the Winston-Salem Teach program, which trains people looking for a career change to work in lower-income schools and pays them a stipend.

• $4.9 million to East Carolina University for mentoring and teacher recruitment via the edPIRATE program.

• $17.8 million to High Point University for recruiting diverse educators.

• $4.4 million to the University of North Carolina-Charlotte for recruiting diverse candidates in hard-to-staff subject areas and who can work with English-language learners.

Much of the funding has already been distributed. Grant cancellation notices were effectively immediately this month, but it’s unclear how much money remains for each program.

Boosting recruitment in Wake County

The Wake County program, along with some others, had a goal of increasing teacher diversity. The vast majority of teachers are white and non-Hispanic, while most students aren’t.

The Wake County program provided $1,500 to $2,500 recruitment and retention bonuses to teachers and principals at 24 schools that were lower-performing and had higher percentages of minority students. Teachers and principals could also get $2,000 bonuses based on student performance. The grant also gave teachers funding for additional professional development.

As a part of the grant, the district transformed its hiring software, paid more for sponsored job posts and hired additional recruiters.

Hiring employees can be a time-consuming task, said Leslie Blake, principal at Green Magnet Elementary School. The new recruiter made sure her school was fully staffed this academic year 

—  the first time in Blake’s three years that the school has been fully staffed.

“That has played a huge role in me being able to spend more time in the classrooms working on instructional needs, and thus have seen our students thrive academically,” she said.

Training on national models and reimbursement for National Board of Professional Teacher Standards certification has been significant for the school’s teachers, too, Blake said.

“That has been a huge impact, because it has built our teachers with tools and the confidence to be effective in seeing great outcomes for our students,” Blake said.

It’s not clear yet how Blake’s school will be affected, and the Wake school system hasn’t determined what will happen to the incentives teachers were receiving.

Wake County, like other districts across the state and nation, has seen a rise in teacher vacancies and classrooms being filled by people who aren’t certified to teach in that particular subject area.

Wake County’s three-year grant was for $11.8 million, with $5 million promised for next year, before it was cut Feb. 18. 

“Our attorneys are reviewing the termination decision and our options for response,” system spokeswoman Lisa Luten said in an email. “This grant was designed to strengthen teacher recruitment and retention, reduce vacancies, and improve hiring processes. There was no evidence of fraud, waste, or abuse, and the program was operating as intended, delivering measurable results for our schools and students.”

Training teachers at NC colleges

Winston-Salem Teach was in the midst of interviewing 34 finalists for next year’s teacher cohort when the grant was canceled, Executive Director Kate Allman said. It already has 13 teacher candidates who get paid every month.

“My first thought was, ‘How are we going to support our students?'” Allman said.

The program trains people who already have bachelor’s degrees in something else but who have decided to become teachers.

The program signs them up for classes at different colleges in the area and pays them a stipend while they do classroom internships and study.

Then the students agree to spend at least three years in a Title I school in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools. A Title I school is essentially on with a higher-proportion of lower-income children. Turnover in such schools can be much higher than in schools that aren’t Title I.

After that, the program can pay for National Board of Professional Teaching Standards certification if they continue to stay.

“There is a very large teacher shortage that has impacted the Winston-Salem area, and that became even more significant after Covid, particularly in our Title I schools,” Allman said.

The Winston-Salem Teach program is designed to ease new teachers into the experience and neutralize the factors that often prompt turnover in Title I schools.

“It was designed to address the root causes of teacher turnover in Title I schools which are often inadequate preparation, lack of sustained support and financial insecurity,” Allman said. “And so this program directly meets those three causes.”

The federal grant covered about 80% of the program’s operation, she said, so Winston-Salem Teach is soliciting donations to complete the school year.