Education forum panel talks technology, teacher retention
Jimmy Howard Newsom Signature Award Former DCSD superintendent Jimmy Newsom himself presented the award to Carolina Pines representatives Kimberly Alton and Brad Robinson.
Photos by Samantha Lyles
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
Darlington County School District held its 2016 Education Forum December 2 at the Darlington Country Club, and a panel of local and state education professionals fielded questions from six of the district’s standout teachers.
Panel guests included Darlington County Board of Education chair Connell Delaine, DCSD superintendent Dr. Eddie Ingram, S.C. Department of Education general counsel Scott Winburn, S.C. Board of Education member Tom Ewart, and S.C. Education Oversight Committee communication director Dana Yow.
Questions posed by teachers ranged from teacher pay to cafeteria food nutrition.
Jessie Addison, Honor Roll Teacher, St. John’s Elementary School asked the following question: “DCSD teachers used to be among the highest paid in the region. Over time, we have fallen behind our peers in other districts. What, if any, steps are being taken to address this?”
Dr. Ingram replied that the school board is looking at the teacher pay issue “very closely, because we don’t want to be on the caboose, we want to be on the engine. That’s the aim.” Ingram added that in the near future, special attention will be paid to some of the district’s more historically low-paid positions.
Delaine cited the continuing impact of Act 388 as a restraining factor. That 2006 law prohibits school districts and local governments from raising millage rates by imposing a formula based on inflation plus population growth. Act 388 also caps property value increases at 15 percent every five years.
“It really tied our hands in doing a lot of the things that we would like to do to keep our employees happy, motivated, and here – not leaving,” said Delaine.
He also noted that the district would need about 4,000 more students to retain a greater percentage of their tax revenues, which are paid back through Columbia based on a per-student cost formula.
Aisha Pendergrass, At-Large Teacher, Darlington Middle School, asked: “Across the district, state, and nation, we are in a severe teacher shortage. What plan of action do we have at the state and district levels for teacher recruitment and retention?”
Dana Yow said that currently, most of the attention paid to this issue by the S.C. General Assembly is focused on school districts involved in the Abbeville lawsuit, in which the S.C. Supreme Court found that the state had failed to provide adequate education funding for eight plaintiff school districts in impoverished areas.
Scott Winburn said that some methods of teacher retention have proven more effective than others, noting that up-front “signing bonuses” rarely result in teachers sticking around after they collect their pay and fulfill their contract. He suggested in-need districts instead opt for five-year contracts with incentive pay spaced out over time rather than front-loading all the financial gains.
Ingram said that locally, DCSD has discussed beefing up its human resources department to better handle recruitment and retention efforts, and they are also considering building partnerships with local colleges and universities to recruit and license teachers as they graduate.
“We have to be creative as well, but it is a national issue. It didn’t get this way overnight and it’s not going to get better overnight,” said Ingram.
Kari Wilcox, At-Large Teacher, Hartsville High School, asked: “The state’s standardized testing programs seem to still be in disarray. Can you give us an update on the testing programs? What do each of you hope to see from this process? How can teachers be involved in the process?”
Ingram agreed that the testing programs need improvement and said he planned to attend an Education Oversight Committee (EOC) meeting in Columbia the next week related to this topic.
Yow said that few changes are planned for the coming year, except for an expanded kindergarten readiness program that will test children’s math, language, and social and emotional abilities more throughly. She said the EOC meeting Ingram mentioned would focus on merging the effective parts of the state and federal assessment systems to remedy gaps, like the lack of social studies testing. Also, Yow advised teachers to speak up when they see assessments and standardized tests that miss the mark for student needs.
“From a teaching perspective, I would ask questions. I would ask ‘why are we delivering this assessment when its really not helping kids and not communicating what we need to help students in the long run,’” said Yow.
Ellen Oldland, Honor Roll Teacher, Thornwell School for the Arts, asked: “In recent years, our breakfast and lunch programs have been overhauled to meet new, stricter national nutritional guidelines. While the food is definitely healthier, many children don’t find it as appealing as the high fat, high sugar, high salt food they are used to eating. A great deal of food appears to be wasted everyday. Is there any chance these guidelines will be relaxed or revisited? What options do our schools and children have?”
Ingram said that since participation in the district’s free breakfast and lunch programs is up, more food waste is perhaps an expected result. He noted that federal nutritional guidelines must be adhered to or the district could lose funding, and added that while healthier foods might not be as tasty as fatty or sweet foods, schools have an obligation to guide students toward healthy diets.
“I think we have to educate our citizenry to be healthier,” said Ingram.
Kimberly Edgerton, Honor Roll Teacher, Cain Elementary School, asked: “In regards to the new teacher evaluation system, how will teachers be measured, how will that information be shared, and what is the timeline?”
Winburn said that one of the big changes is a removal of test score-based measures to evaluate “out of field, ineffective” teachers. He said a webinar is planned for January to discuss the S.C. Department of Education’s plans for new evaluation measures.
Ingram said that evaluation system changes should trend away from heavy reliance on student test scores and move toward other metrics of measurement.
“I don’t think there’s a teacher alive worth their salt that would be opposed to measuring growth. Did my kids grow while I taught them?” said Ingram, noting that an even better measure of effectiveness would be evaluating how well students do five years after leaving the school system.
Drew Walters, Outstanding First Year Teacher, Carolina Elementary School, asked: “Some school districts across the state are actually stepping back from the idea of a computer for every child. What are your thoughts on DCSD’s one-to-one technology program? Is it working as we hoped? For those at the state level, what are your thoughts about technology in the classroom and/or one-to-one technology deployment?”
Ingram replied that while the district’s one-to-one program is not without challenges, he believes that stepping back from the worldwide trend toward online learning and communication is not an option.
“One thing I can promise you is that it’s going to change. We can only predict technologies maybe five to ten years out. Promethean Boards are becoming obsolete. Technology is changing,” said Ingram. “We don’t want to rely so heavily on the technology that we fail to teach, but we want to use it to enhance how our kids learn.”
Winburn said that the state legislature mandated online assessment for all students 14 and up starting this spring. He also noted that the EOC’s “Profile of the South Carolina Graduate” (a document describing attributes that make a high school graduate college and career ready) mentions technological proficiency twice under the headings of “World Class Skills” and “World Class Knowledge.”
“There’s no turning back,” Winburn said.
Also at this event, the Jimmy Howard Newsom Signature Award, presented each year to an individual or organization in recognition of their support for Darlington County Schools, went to Carolina Pines Hospital of Hartsville. Former DCSD superintendent Jimmy Newsom himself presented the award to Carolina Pines representatives Kimberly Alton and Brad Robinson.