New NC State, Wake schools program tries to boost teacher pipeline

A new program hopes to turn more instructional assistants into teachers, as schools say qualified teaching candidates are harder and harder to come by.

North Carolina State University and the Wake County Public School System announced Thursday the WolfTRAC program, an apprenticeship program designed to turn an instructional assistant into a fully licensed teacher in just 18 months.

The name stands for Wolfpack Teacher Registered Apprenticeship Career program.

The first iteration of the program, beginning this summer, enrolls 11 Wake instructional assistants.

While the number of teaching positions in North Carolina has dropped, data continues to show historically high numbers of classrooms without a qualified teacher leading them.

The NC State College of Education is venturing into apprenticeships more broadly, looking to expand opportunities for people to become teachers, thereby addressing the state's broken teacher pipeline.

"We are grateful for our partnership with Wake County and look forward to collaborating with more school systems across North Carolina to scale this innovative model of teacher education," College of Education Dean Paola Sztajn said in the news release announcing the WolfTRAC program.

WolfTRAC will make it easier for more people to become teachers, Crystal Gregory, Wake's director of talent acquisition, said the news release.

"The WolfTRAC partnership represents an innovative approach to addressing one of the most critical challenges facing public education today: building a sustainable pipeline of highly qualified teachers."

The instructional assistant must already have a Bachelor's degree to participate in WolfTRAC. Such degrees aren't required of instructional assistants, so not all have them.

By the end of the online program, the instructional assistant will earn a Master of Arts in Teaching and a teaching license.

They will still work full-time while in the program, as an instructional assistant.

To offset costs, they will earn higher pay as the program goes on, and they will be eligible to be part of North Carolina Teaching Fellows --- an application-based program that provides up to $10,000 per year in forgivable college loans.

Seven of the 11 instructional assistants currently enrolled are a part of the Teaching Fellows program.

Education leaders have long discussed ways to get more instructional assistants into teaching roles, but North Carolina lacks a statewide method of doing so.

Instructional assistants, sometimes called teaching assistants, are full-time hourly classroom aides who often do instructional work and support. They can earn more money as salaried teachers. Many have gone on to become teachers or express an interest in becoming a teacher.

For several years, the state had a pilot program known as "TAs to Teachers," which provided tuition reimbursement for teaching assistants pursuing a college degree that would make them eligible for a teaching license. They could go to school part-time or full-time.

The program ran for six years, from 2017 through 2022, with some districts only participating for a portion of those years.

State records show it spent about $1 million in tuition reimbursement, with 77 teaching assistant earning a teaching license from the program, though many more were enrolled in it.

State lawmakers never made the program permanent.