When she was an elementary student in Wake County Schools, Jordyn Johnson would often come home and reteach the lessons she had learned to her dolls. Johnson always imagined she would one day become a teacher.
Today, Johnson is a first grade teacher at Kingswood Elementary in Cary, but it took her a while to get there. After a detour studying culinary arts for several years, she went back to school to get a degree in child development with the goal of becoming a teacher. No one warned her that her choice in major would make it harder to get a North Carolina teaching license; typically, it requires a degree in education.
Johnson was hesitant that she might be under-qualified when she applied for an open teaching position.
“I definitely felt nervous going into it. I was thinking, ‘there's no way anyone's going to offer me a job because I don't have a license yet. I don't have a degree in education,’” Johnson said.
Since she doesn’t have a bachelor’s degree in education, Johnson’s school hired her on what’s called a residency license. That means she has three years to complete college coursework and testing requirements to get a renewable teaching license — or risk losing her job. After teaching for two years, she doesn’t have much time left.
Then this summer, a new online program at Wake Technical Community College launched to help elementary teachers earn a teaching license. Johnson enthusiastically signed up for it.
The educator preparation program at Wake Tech is part of a statewide effort to make it easier for teachers hired on temporary licenses to earn a North Carolina teaching license.
New program at Wake Tech aspires to be an affordable, accessible path to an NC teaching license
The new Educator Preparation Program at Wake Tech is aimed at helping beginning teachers become fully licensed, and for an affordable price.
To be eligible for the program, prospective students must first be hired by any North Carolina public school as an elementary teacher in the upcoming school year. They also must have a bachelor's degree with a 2.75 GPA. The six-course online program then prepares them to earn a full teaching license.
Ileetha Groom, the director of Wake Tech’s Educator Preparation Program, said the program aims to make it more accessible for students to take the classes they need.
“What's really fortunate about this program is that you can get your teacher certification for less than $2,500 because our classes are very affordable,” Groom said.
Comparable programs at four-year universities cost about twice as much to earn a teaching license, and programs that lead to a license plus a master’s degree in education can cost $15,000 or more.
The classes at Wake Tech begin in September and are held online in the evenings so first year teachers can balance coursework with teaching. Teachers do not have to live in Wake County to register for the program. Similar programs also exist at Fayetteville Technical Community College, Forsyth Tech and Johnston Community College.
Cultivating Carolina Classrooms is the North Carolina Community College System’s answer to a statewide teacher shortage
With a decline in college students majoring in education at four-year universities, schools across North Carolina are hiring more teachers on temporary licenses because not enough applicants for teaching positions have a degree in education or a full teaching license.
Faced with a growing shortage of elementary school teachers in schools across the state, in the last few years the North Carolina Community College System sought a new way to help train more teachers.
In 2022, the State Board of Education approved the NC Community College System’s application to provide education programs that would lead to a North Carolina teaching license. Typically, only four-year colleges and universities and a few alternative online programs have been approved to help train and license K-12 teachers.
The new program, known as Cultivating Carolina Classrooms, created a standard curriculum for community colleges to prepare teachers for licensure. Participating community colleges have also hired faculty and staff with a strong background in K-12 education, like Ileetha Groom, to teach classes.
“Essentially what this program does is allows you to complete the education courses that you would have completed had you majored in education at a four-year college,” Groom said.
