Superintendents surveyed on the ‘state of education’ in North Carolina

Many of North Carolina’s school superintendents are skeptical of the General Assembly’s education policies, according to a new UNC Charlotte survey.

The survey of 67 N.C. superintendents, published in the Journal of Applied Educational and Policy Research, examined attitudes on state and national educational concerns. The study indicated “the most significant priorities that need to be addressed were teacher morale, inadequate funding and teacher pay.”

Co-author Jim Watson, an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership in the College of Education, said the responses reflected widespread dissatisfaction with a sustained lack of funding.

“The overriding theme among superintendents was the lack of financial support, there has been a continuous reduction in resources over the past six years, it has had a demoralizing effect upon teachers,” he said.

Watson suggested shortsighted policymaking in Raleigh is partly to blame. “The current General Assembly has not provided adequate pay for teachers, nor is it making the connection between economic development, job creation and the need for a highly effective public education system. You can’t have one without the other.”

The study found almost all superintendents agreed that it was important to consider teachers’ master’s degrees as part of an overall pay plan. There also was strong agreement that arming teachers is not a good way to ensure schools are safe.

Superintendents in the study overwhelmingly expressed the opinion that increasing the number of charter schools would hurt their school system. The authors concluded, “given that most Americans believe charter schools offer a better education than traditional public schools, future enrollment increases would have a negative effect on public schools.”

A majority of superintendents surveyed agreed that the Common Core state standards will improve education in North Carolina, which falls in line with superintendent opinions at the national level.

Watson and his co-authors think it is beneficial for superintendents to understand how they collectively perceive current educational issues. They added “knowledge about how key educational leaders view the ‘state of education’ will be useful to legislators and state education policy makers in making, revising and evaluating education statutes and policies.”

The researchers plan to conduct the survey again next year.