Pathway to Practice NC — an online educator preparation program offered by UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State specifically designed to help North Carolina’s residency license teachers earn a full teaching license — was one of 31 educator preparation programs from across the U.S. to receive the 2026 Frank Murray Leadership Recognition for Continuous Improvement from the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).
The recognition was presented during the fall 2026 CAEPCon in Arlington, Va., on Thursday, Sept. 17, to programs that provided evidence and data trends to achieve accreditation with no stipulations or areas for improvement.
Pathway to Practice NC earned accreditation in November 2025 after an extensive self-study by the program and an online accreditation team site visit in spring 2025. Pathway to Practice NC is now accredited for the next seven years.
Since 2017, the unique collaboration between the UNC School of Education and the NC State College of Education has supported nearly 700 residency license teachers from 90+ of the state’s 115 school districts with a 100% online, self-paced, and competency-based program in their pursuit of full teaching licensure.
The accreditation continues recognition of both the UNC School of Education and the NC State College of Education’s excellence in their preparation of educators and commitment to data-driven continuous improvement. The UNC School of Education has received the Murray award twice, in 2019 — the first time it was awarded — and in 2025. The NC State College of Education received the award in 2023.
“This is an incredible recognition and a fitting one that reflects the high-quality work of the UNC School of Education’s programs, including this unique collaboration with NC State,” said Jill Hamm, Ph.D., dean of the School of Education and William C. Friday Distinguished Professor of Education. “Pathway to Practice NC is an exemplar for programs that serve residency-licensed teachers, and this award affirms that.”
“Receiving the 2026 Frank Murray Award underscores the strength of our programs, our commitment to service, and the impact that the extraordinary educators we prepare have in classrooms across North Carolina,” said Paola Sztajn, Ph.D., dean of the NC State College of Education. “Our collaboration with UNC-Chapel Hill demonstrates how innovative partnerships in teacher preparation can directly address a major need in our schools, and it is an honor to see this dedicated work recognized nationally.”
Pathway to Practice NC was developed by UNC School of Education and NC State College of Education faculty members — renowned researchers and subject matter experts — to deliver high-quality, asynchronous modules for residency license teachers, full-time educators who represent a range of grade levels and subject matter. Those modules — including ones focused on building supportive classroom environments, lesson planning, assessment, how to modify lessons based on student need, subject-specific content including scientifically informed reading, and more — can be completed at a residency license teacher’s own pace and are aligned with local, state, and national standards.
Being a competency-based program means that residency license teachers master each competency — like developing evidence-based instruction to support fluent reading or identifying student needs and applying that knowledge to enhance instruction — at their own speed and then move on to the next. Some modules may be completed quickly, and some may require more time to complete.
Pathway to Practice NC also provides one-on-one support for the teachers it serves. During their studies, if students need help mastering modules, they receive support from an assigned facilitator. All Pathway to Practice NC facilitators are doctoral candidates at either UNC-Chapel Hill or NC State and are former classroom teachers.
In 2026, Pathway to Practice NC continues to innovate. As North Carolina expands teacher apprenticeship opportunities, Pathway to Practice NC is leveraging its exemplary program model to create a new pathway for teacher apprentices. This fall, three teacher apprentices affiliated with The Innovation Project’s Registered Teacher Apprentice Network will begin their Pathway to Practice NC modules.
“This award recognizes the strength of our preparation of residency license teachers, but we see it as a foundation for what comes next,” said Alison Winzeler, Ph.D., Pathway to Practice NC program director and director of alternative licensure at the NC State College of Education. “We are building on that strong foundation by expanding partnerships and taking intentional steps toward apprenticeship pathways that create new opportunities for North Carolina’s future teachers. Our work with The Innovation Project and other partners is helping us explore how we can broaden access to the profession while maintaining the quality that this award recognizes.”
The Frank Murray Leadership Recognition for Continuous Improvement is named after the founding President of the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC). CAEP was created by the consolidation of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and TEAC. Murray was the founding President of TEAC, served as Chairman of the Board for TEAC, and was also an initial member of the CAEP Board of Directors. He was a key advocate for a single set of educator preparation standards to unify the profession and was instrumental in the merger that created CAEP.
About the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation
CAEP advances excellence in educator preparation through evidence-based accreditation that assures quality and supports continuous improvement to strengthen P-12 student learning. Learn more at CAEPnet.org.