Teaching Fellows program returns to ECU

A prestigious scholarship program for aspiring teachers has returned to East Carolina University after nearly a decade-long absence.

The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Commission this week announced that ECU and Appalachian State University have been selected as new partner institutions for the program beginning with the 2024-25 academic year. The expansion brings the number of N.C. Teaching Fellows partners from eight to 10.

Thursday’s announcement came as welcome news to ECU’s College of Education, which has the largest educator preparation program in the state.

“We are excited and honored to be selected as a partner institution for the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program,” ECU College of Education Dean André Green said. “The college has long been a premier producer of high-quality teachers for eastern North Carolina and the entire state.”

The Teaching Fellows program is a competitive, merit-based program offering teacher licensure in elementary education, special education and STEM education. The forgivable loan program offers up to $10,000 per year of tuition assistance for students who commit to teaching in a North Carolina public school.

“This program enables us to increase the number of teachers we prepare, thanks to the financial incentives it offers students who have a desire to be educators,” Green said. “It will further our mission of regional transformation by addressing the teacher shortages that many districts in this region and beyond are facing.”

ECU previously served as one of the host institutions for the Teaching Fellows program from 1986 until 2015. (The last students were admitted in 2011, when the General Assembly voted to discontinue the program.)

Holly Fales, ECU’s assistant dean for undergraduate affairs and educator preparation, is a former teaching fellow at the university.

“I can personally attest to the outstanding caliber of the ECU educator preparation program and its significant role in shaping my success both as a classroom educator and in my current role in teacher preparation,” she said. “I’ve witnessed the program’s profound effect on those pursuing careers in education, with many of my ECU Teaching Fellows peers significantly impacting North Carolina students, schools and communities throughout their careers in education.”

When the state reintroduced Teaching Fellows in 2018, it was on a much smaller scale. Scholars had to be students pursuing degrees in high-needs areas, including math and special education. In addition, the number of partnering universities shrunk from 17 teaching colleges to five. ECU and several other universities that traditionally had large enrollment in education programs were not included.

ECU began utilizing other means to attract future educators, including modeling the Maynard Scholars Program after the N.C. Teaching Fellows Scholarship. Established in 2006, the four-year, $26,000 Maynard award requires recipients to teach in a public, charter or government school for four years following graduation in one of 50 designated counties in the state, including Pitt.

In 2022, Pitt County Schools established PCS Educator Fellows Scholarship to provide incentives for local students to consider becoming educators in their home communities. It requires recipients to teach in Pitt County Schools for one year for every $5,000 in PCS scholarship funding they receive.

As talent acquisition coordinator for Pitt County Schools, Clinton Todd has seen the need for qualified educators. As a former ECU Teaching Fellow, he knows how the program opened doors for him to pursue a career in education.

“I am excited that this program is returning so that it may continue to do the same for others,” Todd said. “The program will provide access for future educators within our community to be able to realize their dreams while guiding our students toward theirs.”

Since the General Assembly approved the expansion of the N.C. Teaching Fellows program last year, the Teaching Fellows Commission has received proposals from 15 colleges and universities asking to be included as partner institutions. As part of a competitive process, proposals were judged on criteria include number of applicants, institutional support and practical experiences for participants, as well as an institution’s potential impact on geographic diversity.

Joy Smith, who chairs the commission, said the addition of ECU and Appalachian addresses “deserts in Teaching Fellows institutions that existed in the eastern and western parts of the state.”

UNC System President Peter Hans said that with the inclusion of two of the UNC System’s largest educator preparation programs, “we hope to see the teacher pipeline expand to help match the substantial need in North Carolina’s school districts.”