After being asked by lawmakers to clarify plans for a pilot program that would provide teachers with merit pay, the North Carolina Board of Education has submitted its proposal for the program to the legislature substantially unchanged.
The legislature’s Public Education Policy Council sent the plan back to the board in November, according to Tom I. Davis, special assistant to the state superintendent of public instruction. One of the main points of disagreement in the plan, Mr. Davis said, was whether teachers’ performance should be evaluated by educators from outside their own school system. The board did not modify that provision of the plan, according to Harlan E. Boyles, state treasurer and an ex officio member of the board..
Teachers who volunteer to participate in the career-development program will receive higher pay than teachers at a similar level based on seniority and “superior” performance. A group of trained educators, including another teacher, will conduct the evaluations.
Teachers who choose not to enter the program will remain on the regular pay scale, which provides automatic raises based on seniority.
If approved by the legislature, the program will be tested in 16 school systems during the 1985-86 school year at an estimated cost of $10 million to $12 million, Mr. Davis said. Mr. Boyles said that board members thought that many of the council’s concerns about the plan would be addressed during the pilot program.--lo
