RALEIGH (April 10, 2024) – Sara Scanlon feels “steadily increasing pressure” to increase graduation rates among her students – whether they’ve mastered the material or not.

In our latest installment of Teachers Talk, Scanlon – a high-school math teacher in Wake County in her 12th year of teaching – talks about the frustrations that creates for students, parents and teachers.

“Compelling schools to keep students on track to graduate at all costs has resulted in decisions that shove students along who have failed to master course content. I know this because of the flood of students who arrive at my class each year with learning gaps and weak foundational skills,” she says.

The pressure to move students along not only damages teachers’ integrity and their passion, Scanlon says.

“More horrifyingly, it also results in students graduating unequipped with the critical life skill of learning from failure,” she says.

Scanlon’s husband is a biology teacher with a similar salary. He supplements their take-home pay by serving as an assistant athletic director and driving a bus for sports teams – often to arrive home only after their child is in bed. Sara Scanlon tutors students outside of school as well for extra income.

“We work endlessly to maintain a baseline standard of living, a good day care for our child, and basic needs like meals and routine home repair.

“Current conditions and policies make it unsustainable to do what I’m built to do – teach others to love learning math,” Scanlon says. “I don’t want to become another data point in a terrifying teacher exodus, but I fear I’m losing my agency in that decision.”

Though she works in the state capital, Scanlon sees little help coming from the folks on Jones Street.

“When, exhausted and overwhelmed, we ask for support, we’re told to do more while our legislature shirks their responsibility for the current educational climate,” she says.