The latest annual “State of the Teaching Profession in North Carolina” report shows that 9.7 percent of (139 out of a total of 1,439) Alamance-Burlington teachers who had been employed with ABSS in March 2023 were no longer working in any N.C. public school system by March 2024.
The latest report that the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI) released two weeks ago no longer makes any reference to teacher turnover.
Instead, DPI outlines the “state attrition rate,” which is the number of teachers who were employed in a public school in March 2023 and were still working in one by March 2024. Teachers who were promoted or took other positions (such as instructional support) are not captured in the state attrition rate.
ABSS had a state attrition rate of 9.7 percent, which was in line with the 9.9 percent state attrition rate for all 115 N.C. public school systems in 2023-24, according to DPI’s latest report (see accompanying chart). The state attrition rate for ABSS was unchanged from that for the previous 2022-23 school year.
Statewide, 8,886 teachers (out of a total of 89,972) were no longer employed in any N.C. public school by March 2024.
DPI’s report also includes a “local attrition rate,” which reflects the total number and percentage of teachers who went to work for another N.C. public school system or left public education altogether between March 2023 and March 2024.
ABSS had a local attrition rate of 17.1 percent in 2023-24, reflecting 246 teachers (out of 1,439) who had left to work for another N.C. public school system and/or had left the profession by March 2024, DPI’s report shows.
[Story continues below charts on turnover.]
DPI’s report also looks at mobility, a measure of the number and percentage of teachers who left one school system to work for another between March 2023 and March 2024.
The mobility rate for ABSS was 7.4 percent, meaning that 107 teachers left ABSS to work for another N.C. public school system between March 2023 and March 2024, DPI’s latest annual report shows.
The state attrition, local attrition, and mobility rates for ABSS were in line with those for most Piedmont-Triad public school systems in 2023-24 – except for the smallest school systems in the region, such as Caswell County and Thomasville city, whose rates likely skewed higher because they employed far fewer teachers overall (see accompanying chart).
The latest report on the teaching profession also details the number of teaching vacancies by subject areas. Vacancies are defined as teaching positions that weren’t filled by teachers who had completed an approved state educator program and had obtained a state teaching license. This figure excludes teachers employed on provisional licenses (such as a temporary permit or emergency teaching license), as well as retirees who had returned to teaching part-time.
ABSS had 95 teaching vacancies in 2023-24, for an overall teaching vacancy rate of 19.5 percent, according to DPI.
However, that section of the report lists ABSS as having 973 teaching positions. No reason is given for the discrepancy between the 973 ABSS teachers listed there and the 1,439 ABSS teachers listed elsewhere in DPI’s report.
ABSS had the highest number of teaching vacancies (43) in the Exceptional Children’s program in 2023-24, the most year covered by the DPI report. Of those, 16 EC teaching positions were vacant in kindergarten through fifth grade; 17 EC teaching positions were vacant in grades six through eight; and 10 EC teaching positions were vacant in grades nine through 12.
ABSS also had a total of 42 vacant positions in core subject areas such as English language arts, math, and science at the middle school level in 2023-24; various other instructional areas made up the remaining 10 vacancies, according to DPI.
Reasons for leaving
DPI’s report is separate from the biennial teacher working conditions survey, which was last released in June 2024 and drills down on dozens of specific issues in an effort to gauge how satisfied teachers are in their profession – and how likely they are to continue working in N.C. public education.
Instead, DPI outlines four general categories given for leaving the teaching profession in 2023-24, though state education officials point out that not all teachers sat for exit interviews that would’ve enabled school administrators to collect that information. The categories for leaving include:
- Personal reasons (retirement, disability, relocation, or career change);
- Other reasons;
- Initiated by a school system (failure to maintain licensure; dismissal; resignation in lieu of dismissal; and non-renewal of a probationary contract);
- Beyond the school system’s control (Death; reduction in force; expiration of Visiting International Faculty term; military deployment; and retirement with full benefits).
Most teachers who had left ABSS as of March 2024 and were no longer teaching in any N.C. public school cited personal reasons for doing so. ABSS had 61 teachers (43.9 percent) who left for personal reasons; 30 (21.6 percent) for “other” reasons; 19 (13.7 percent) left for reasons initiated by the school system; and 29 teachers (20.9 percent) left ABSS for reasons beyond the school system’s control.
ABSS officials weigh in
“Like many districts across the country, we are navigating a challenging time in public education,” ABSS superintendent Dr. Aaron Fleming told The Alamance News last week. “Nationally, fewer individuals are entering the teaching profession, and school systems are feeling the impact. ABSS is committed to supporting our educators, strengthening recruitment and retention, and creating a positive environment where teachers feel valued and supported. A big step forward for supporting and retaining our teachers is restoring the teacher supplement in the 25-26 [county budget request for ABSS.]”
School board chairman Sandy Ellington-Graves told the newspaper that the attrition rate in 2023-24 suggests a promising trend for ABSS.
Ellington-Graves observed that, statewide, beginning teachers and those nearing retirement (with 28 or more years of teaching experience) were the most likely to leave the profession in 2023-24. “I think many veterans are opting for early retirement or transitioning to other state employment due to challenging working conditions, student discipline concerns, and inadequate teacher pay,” the board’s chairman said last week.
“Last year alone, we lost 68 teachers to six neighboring districts and another 27 to charter schools,” Ellington-Graves said. “Our highest vacancy rates across the district last year were in three crucial areas, where experienced educators are needed to increase academic proficiency.”
Robert Alvis, who teaches social studies at Williams High School and currently serves as president of the Alamance-Burlington Association of Educators, said that DPI’s report doesn’t fully capture the current state of the teaching profession.
“To me, it’s one piece of the puzzle,” Alvis said of the report last week in an interview with The Alamance News. “It’s important to recognize the value of data and numbers. It’s also important to recognize what it doesn’t reflect: every single one of those numbers is a person with a story.”
“What I’m hearing is folks struggle with a lack of support,” Alvis told the newspaper. “We started this year [at Williams High School] with four administrators [a principal and three assistant principals]. We got down to two [assistant principals].
“We lost teaching positions in English, math, and science, so that increases the class sizes,” Alvis said. “Lots of cuts were made over time and just make it harder to choose to stay. [Some] principals have to spend part of their day doing instructional support – providing small group instruction to students with special needs, because that’s something we’re legally required to do. That’s time they’re not handling discipline issues.”
“Another piece,” Alvis added, “is the school facilities. We’re lucky to have a new [high] school, but another thing…is making sure we have quality buildings to teach in [and] a pleasant place to work.”
Teacher pay in ABSS averages $84,000 this fiscal year
Two data points that ABSS officials often cite as influencing teacher attrition are state-funded teacher salaries and county-funded teacher supplements offered by other, nearby school systems.
In an earlier interview with The Alamance News, ABSS chief finance officer Tony Messer estimated that the average salary for ABSS teachers is “right at $84,000” for the current fiscal year.
However, Messer emphasized that about 24 percent of the $84,000 average salary for an ABSS teacher goes toward their state benefits package. Approximately $20,160 goes toward their future retirement benefits; and another $8,000 goes toward their State Health Plan benefits, Messer told the newspaper.
The county-funded supplement for ABSS teachers – which they receive on top of their state-funded base salary – averaged $6,568 in 2023-24, according to the N.C. Association of County Commissioners (NCACC), which tracks multiple types of financial data for the state’s 100 counties and 115 public school systems.
By comparison, the average teacher supplement among all 115 N.C. public school systems was $6,508.
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro city school system (which receives additional revenue from a school district tax, plus revenue from county and municipal property taxes) offered highest average teacher supplement among all N.C. public school systems, averaging $10,650 in 2023-24, according to the NCACC.
Orange County schools (one of that county’s two public school systems) had an average teacher supplement of $7,941 in 2023-24, according to the latest figures available from the NCACC.
The average county-funded teacher supplements offered by other nearby, public school systems in 2023-24 were: Guilford County, $7,529; Chatham, $7,504; Randolph, $5,003; and Rockingham, $4,292. Caswell County schools offered no teacher supplement in 2023-24, according to the NCACC.
Ellington-Graves said she’s optimistic that state and local officials see the need to prioritize teacher pay as this year’s budget season gets underway.
“Being competitive with neighboring districts in teacher supplements should help with recruitment and retention,” the school board’s chairman told the newspaper. “I am also eager to see what happens at the state level where [the governor’s] budget is proposing significantly higher teacher salaries to the top position in the Southeast.”
DPI notes in an 18-summary included with its latest report on teacher turnover that changes in the type of data collected and how it’s reported make the figures for 2023-24 impossible to compare with those from previous years.
