N.C. A&T Selected as NC Teaching Fellows Program Partner Institution

EAST GREENSBORO, NC (June 16, 2021) – North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University has been selected for the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program. N.C. A&T will serve as a partner institution along with Fayetteville State University and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

“We are extremely excited to be selected as a NC Teaching Fellows partner institution. This program allows us to attract some of the state’s top talent and help them develop into being the equity focused and culturally responsive educators all students in North Carolina deserve,” said Paula Price, Ph.D., dean of the College of Education. “Our selection is a great recognition that North Carolina A&T State University is one of the premier institutions in the state for preparing educators.”

“NC Teaching fellows will now have more choices with regards to the type of institution they may select for educator preparation,” she added. “If we truly want to diversify the teacher workforce, it is imperative that Minority Serving Institutions, especially HBCUs, are part of this program.”

With significant teacher shortages statewide and nationally – as well as an even greater disparity between students of certain ethnicities and cultural backgrounds and the teachers who teach them – A&T provides a steady pipeline of highly qualified instructors to address the need. The NC Teaching Fellows Program will increase opportunities and resources for prospective teacher education preparation students.

The university was selected based on the criteria outlined in state law, including educator effectiveness, impact on student learning, passage rates for required licensure exams and early, frequent internship experiences for educator prep students, among other factors.

Program highlights:

• The amount of the forgivable loan is up to $4,125 per semester.
• Teachers have up to 10 years to pay back the loan, either through cash repayment or loan forgiveness.
• To meet the loan forgiveness requirement, a teacher must serve one year in a low-performing school or two years in another public school for every year a loan was awarded.

The mission of the NC Teaching Fellows Program is to recruit, prepare and support students attending North Carolina’s top education programs for preparation as highly effective STEM or special education teachers in the state’s public schools. Fellows will receive up to $4,125 per semester in forgivable loans if they commit to teach in science, technology, engineering and math or a special education area. The program is specifically designed to attract high-quality teachers to underperforming schools by offering an accelerated loan forgiveness schedule for teaching fellows who agree to teach in a low-performing school in North Carolina.

The NC Teaching Fellows Program also includes the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, North Carolina State University, Elon University and Meredith College. 

Since 2018, approximately 300 fellows have participated in the program.

The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Commission is comprised of four deans from educator preparation programs, teachers, principals, a member from business and industry and a local school board member. The NC Teacher of the Year, NC Principal of the Year, NC Superintendent of the Year, chair of the State Education Assistance Authority Board of Directors and director of the NC Teaching Fellows Program all serve as ex-officio members of the commission.