Want to teach in a high school? NC may only require 1 semester of teacher prep classes.
Updated June 9 with state House approving bill.
North Carolina could allow people who complete just one college semester of teacher preparation classes to become part-time high school teachers.
The state House unanimously passed legislation on Wednesday that allows people to become a high school “adjunct instructor” if they teach classes related to their bachelor’s degree or graduate degree. These adjunct instructors would have to complete at least one semester of courses concentrating in teacher preparation at a community college.
Senate Bill 582 was praised as a way to allow people such as doctors, accountants and other non-educators to help schools fill teaching vacancies. The bill was already unanimously passed by the Senate and now goes to Gov. Roy Cooper.
“I think this is going to give a real opportunity for a lot of people that are not ready to retire and go home and sit to go into the schools and help these young people get excited about education again,” Sen. Jim Burgin, a Harnett County Republican, said at Tuesday’s state House Education Committee meeting.
State Superintendent Catherine Truitt supports the bill, according to Sen. Kevin Corbin, a Macon County Republican and another of the bill’s primary sponsors.
The bill also calls for the State Board of Education to develop criteria to allow faculty members at colleges to serve as adjunct instructors in K-12 fine and performing arts classes and foreign language classes. Currently, they can only be adjunct instructors in K-12 “core academic” subjects, like reading and math.
Making it easier for non-educators to teach
But the bill’s biggest change comes from how it more easily allow non-educators to teach high school classes.
The state already has a program, previously called lateral entry, to allow people into the classroom who didn’t get a college degree in teaching. They can teach while they take teacher prep classes to work on getting their license.
But adjunct instructors would only be working part-time and wouldn’t need a teaching license. Instead of taking a full load of classes, they’d only need to complete one semester, or about three teacher preparation classes.
Since they’re not licensed, schools would have to train adjunct instructors in areas such as educating students with disabilities and how to positively manage student behavior.
Adjunct instructors could teach high school core academic subjects, arts classes and foreign language classes “in their area of specialized knowledge or work experience.”
“People with practical experience are going to be excellent teachers,” Corbin said.
That sentiment was echoed by Burgin, one of the bill’s primary sponsors. Burgin said the best high school teachers he had “came out of the industry with real-life experience.”
Adjunct instructors would only be allowed to work up to 20 hours a week or for less than six months at a time. Burgin said he’s hoping some adjunct instructors might take the additional steps needed to become full-time teachers.
Teacher shortage feared
Several lawmakers on Tuesday cited a potential teacher shortage as a reason for getting the bill passed.
“I think we’re going to have a bigger teacher shortage because a lot of folks that I’ve talked to after going through virtual learning and everything have decided they’re probably not going to come back into the teaching business,” Burgin said.
The North Carolina Association of Educators has taken a neutral position on the bill.
“The fact that this bill exists speaks to a larger problem of the teacher recruitment pipeline and lack of investments in educator preparation programs at the collegiate level, the need to strengthen the alternative licensure program, and the necessity of boosting educator pay for recruitment and retention, which all could have made this bill unnecessary in the first place,” Tamika Walker Kelly, president of NCAE, said in a statement.
This story was originally published June 8, 2021 at 3:43 PM.
