Pathway to Practice NC, an online teacher licensure joint program offered by the NC State College of Education and UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education, is now accepting applications from teachers interested in becoming fully licensed to teach in elementary education or special education.
NC State and UNC launched Pathway to Practice NC in 2017 to help residency licensed teachers who teach mathematics, science, English Language Arts and social studies in North Carolina become fully licensed through a 100% online, state-approved Educator Preparation Program (EPP). The State Employees’ Credit Union (SECU) Foundation awarded Pathway to Practice a $200,000 grant earlier this year to add two new training modules in elementary education and special education. Courses for those content areas will begin in November.
The SECU grant will also fund scholarships for 10 teachers who want to become fully licensed in special education or elementary education. Priority will be given to those who teach in one of the state’s Tier 1 communities, which are the 40 most economically distressed counties in North Carolina, according to the N.C. Department of Commerce.
Pathway to Practice NC is a self-paced, competency-based online program designed for working teachers to complete the required coursework they need to meet their licensure requirements from anywhere. The program currently enrolls 70 residency licensed teachers from across the state; another 12 teachers have already completed the program and earned their full teacher licensure. Enrollment in the program costs $5,000 and can be completed in a year.