At the Aug. 14 meeting of the Governor’s Education Cabinet, education leaders and stakeholders gathered to celebrate the launch of TeachNC, a partnership between the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, BEST NC, TEACH.org. TeachNC is a statewide teacher recruitment initiative that employs both a broad media campaign and a robust web platform to support teacher candidates in their quest to become a teacher in North Carolina.
State Superintendent Mark Johnson, who announced the plans for the formation of TeachNC this past February, said he is pleased to see the progress made toward this important initiative.
“Being a teacher allows you to have a fruitful and fulfilling career anywhere in North Carolina - your hometown, a big city, the mountains, or the coast,” Johnson said. “We have over 2,500 public schools in North Carolina’s 100 counties, and now we have an easy-to- use platform to learn about becoming a teacher.”
The largest statewide initiative of its kind, TeachNC will focus on increasing the number of high-quality, diverse, and dedicated North Carolinians entering the teaching profession - particularly in hard to staff areas such as science, math, and special education.
“As business leaders, we know that the talent in our organizations is key to our success. The same is true for education in North Carolina; our teachers and other educators need to be recruited and valued like other high-skills professionals,” said BEST NC Board Chairman Walter McDowell. “TeachNC will empower teacher candidates with the information they need to enter the teaching profession and thrive as a teacher.”
TeachNC will work with North Carolina television and radio stations to air public service announcements that will promote the initiative. Titled “Teachers Have Better Work Stories,” the campaign highlights the creativity, leadership, and excitement that teachers experience daily in classrooms across North Carolina.
In conjunction with television and radio ads, TeachNC will include a localized social media campaign that will highlight the Better Work Stories of current and former North Carolina teachers. The Better Work Stories campaign materials will be made available to local schools and communities for their recruiting efforts.
All media placements will reference www.TeachNC.org , the initiative’s all-inclusive, online resource for teaching in North Carolina. Through this website, TeachNC will offer – at no cost – a wide range of tools and resources for anyone who is considering a career in teaching, or just wants to know more about being a teacher.
Visitors to TeachNC.org can discover what a career in teaching offers, read about what they need to do to become a teacher and receive one-on-one coaching, and research school district profiles and salary information. They can also review content about licensure and financial aid (including $1,000 TeachNC scholarships), educator preparation programs, application checklists and more. The tools, services, and resources included in the system will be expanded and updated regularly based on evolving best practices, ongoing user research, and feedback from partners and other education stakeholders.
All of North Carolina’s educator preparation programs were invited to join the TeachNC initiative. Profiles of participating programs will be featured on the TeachNC website. More than 30 of the 54 public and private educator preparation programs have joined the initiative so far, and more will continue to be added.
Within the next year, TeachNC will expand to provide robust information on the more than 100 school districts and charter schools in North Carolina. The website will feature tools and resources to help teacher candidates identify the schools and communities best suited to their skills and interests.
"North Carolina is a wonderful place to build a life and a career and we’d love to welcome you to join our public schools as a respected teacher. Come help us continue our strong tradition of public education while you challenge, empower, and inspire North Carolina’s next generation," Gov. Roy Cooper said.
TEACH.org is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, launched by Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Education, to partner with public school systems on teacher recruitment. Support for TeachNC is provided by grants from the NC Department of Public Instruction, The Belk Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Coastal Credit Union, IBM, the John M Belk Endowment, and Microsoft.
Visit TeachNC at www.TeachNC.org
For more information:
NCDPI Communication and Information Division, 919.807.3450.