North Carolina Teacher Turnover

      Students in North Carolina’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools were more likely than students in nearby counties and statewide to lose their teachers or be taught by rookies, according to recent school report cards.
The Charlotte Observer reports that taxpayers paid significantly more per student to educate kids – $2,517 per child, compared with a state average of $1,949 and a range from $1,542 to $1,842 in six surrounding counties.
The comparison included some good news for CMS: Black and low-income high school students have logged slow but steady progress on passing state exams. For the first time, CMS's 2007 pass rates for those groups matched or surpassed those for peers state statewide and in Wake County Schools.
Minority and low-income students statewide and in both large districts continue to trail white and middle-class peers.  The report cards show CMS teacher turnover topped state averages last year, as well as rates for surrounding Cabarrus, Catawba, Gaston, Lincoln, Iredell and Union counties. CMS turnover – 26 percent in elementary schools, 31 percent in middle schools and 27 percent in high schools – also significantly topped that in Wake County, which last year was slightly smaller than CMS.
Most students in CMS and around the state were taught by fully licensed teachers working in the field they were trained for, the report shows. But CMS students were more likely than students statewide and in the comparison districts to have teachers with zero to three years’ experience and “lateral entry” teachers – those who switched from other careers or college majors and did not get a degree in education. CMS traditionally spends more on education than most N.C. counties. Last year it spent $8,118 per student, including state and federal money (money for construction and renovation of schools is not factored in). The state average was $8,023, and the range in surrounding counties was $6,923 to $7,416.

— Teachers of Color