RALEIGH, N.C. – The North Carolina Teaching Fellows (NCTF) Program Commission has selected Sampson County Schools along with 19 other North Carolina public school districts to receive a $55,000 recruitment grant in 2024-2025 to promote Teaching Fellows and the teaching profession.
The launch of this grant initiative is a strategic attempt to create a pipeline of applicants and potential teachers to seek opportunities to engage in teacher preparation courses, pursue teacher licensure in an approved educator preparation program, and return to work in districts which continue to face recruitment and retention challenges. Districts were selected after expressing interest in expanding or building a grow-your-own teacher program, an initial meeting, and having identified specific teacher recruitment and retention challenges.
As a part of the pilot initiative, students will receive professional development support in conjunction with the NCTF Program as well as benefit from local teacher recruitment strategies. The initiative will support efforts to build a pipeline component to identify and train emerging teachers from secondary schools, current employees, or non-traditional sectors towards gainful employment in the district. The NCTF Program will provide funding to support the recruitment efforts while districts will actively promote NCTF and the teaching profession.
NCTF Director Dr. Bennett Jones stated, “We are proud to offer these supportive grants to districts who will benefit from these direct recruitment activities and participate in the pilot’s collective efforts to enhance the NCTF Program while supporting grow-your-own platforms across the state.” Dr. Jones continued, “One area of focus in the Teaching Fellows statute is to be proactive, aggressive, and strategic in the recruitment of potential recipients. This includes targeting regions of the state with the highest teacher attrition rates and teacher recruitment challenges through active engagement with educators, business leaders, experts in human resources, elected officials, and other community leaders.”
“We have continued to see a limited number of applicants to the NCTF Program since its return in 2018. The commission is appreciative of the changes and expansion of the program that were included in the last state budget which helped to increase program participation, and the commission is happy to use our existing funding to launch new recruitment efforts to bolster enrollments,” Dr. Jones stated. Finally, Dr. Jones concluded, “Our intent is that by marketing the NCTF program in more rural and remote areas we will expand our outreach to recruit the best teacher candidates from all over the state. We know that by working with local districts, who educate and support these students daily, we can engage these students earlier in their academic careers and promote the teaching profession and the NCTF Program.”
The grants will support various recruitment activities that district’s will outline in their approved plan with the NCTF Program. The grant is renewable for three (3) subsequent years with approved plans and continued available funding. Districts in the pilot will collaborate to share best practices and effective strategies to enhance teacher recruitment. All pilot participants will collect and share data for initiative evaluation and to help formulate recommendations for consideration at the local and state level regarding teacher pipeline recruitment. Districts may utilize the funding in one or more of the following areas: •
Personnel to teach a pre-educator course in high school setting
Professional development for emerging, beginning, and mentor teachers
Recruitment activities for people interested in becoming licensed teachers
The districts selected represent all eight (8) Department of Public Instruction regions and vary from small to large districts. Specifically, consideration was given to border districts and districts with specific recruitment challenges such as being close to districts that offer higher local teacher supplements.
The Teaching Fellows program is a competitive, merit-based forgivable loan program providing tuition assistance of up to $10,000 per year for qualified students committed to teaching elementary education, special education, science, technology, engineering, or math in a North Carolina public school. The purpose of the program is to recruit, prepare and support future teachers who attend institutions of higher education in North Carolina.
The following districts have received pilot recruitment grants for 2024-2025:
Brunswick County Schools
Caldwell County Schools
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
Chatham County Schools
Clinton City Schools
Edgecombe County Schools
Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public Schools
Gaston County Schools
Granville County Public Schools
Harnett County Schools
Haywood County Schools
Henderson County Public Schools
Orange County Schools
Perquimans County School System
Person County Schools
Rockingham County Schools
Rowan-Salisbury School System
Sampson County Schools
Wayne County Public Schools
Yadkin County Schools
*Pictured left to right are SCS Superintendent Dr. Jamie King, SCS Director of Teacher Support Brenda Nordin, SCS Executive Director of HR Dr. Wendy Cabral, and NCTF Director Dr. Bennett Jones