They are everywhere: from a program that started as a way to offer teachers advancement beyond administration, to a feature of a new licensure system in development from the state. Advanced teaching roles have seen support from lawmakers and could continue to be an avenue for teacher advancement in North Carolina.
In April, BEST NC released a new policy brief about the roles. The organization said that teachers aren’t recognized as professionals in the same way as employees in other professions — but advanced teaching roles could help improve that situation.
“The current system works perfectly for the way it was originally designed in the industrial era and has changed very little since. Today, most schools continue to operate under a ‘one teacher, one classroom’ structure that fails to treat educators as skilled professionals. This has left them mired in an outdated organizational structure that suppresses teachers’ career development, limits student access to effective instruction, and creates difficult working conditions throughout the school building,” the organization said in this perspective introducing the brief.
In a new video, BEST NC focuses on Edgecombe County Public Schools, where advanced teaching roles have been operating since 2016.
Advanced teaching roles have essentially been incorporated as the two highest levels in a potential licensure system currently being worked on in the state’s Professional Educator Preparation & Standards Commission (PEPSC).
In the model, an “expert teacher” could make more money and get more responsibility by fulfilling certain requirements, including demonstrating effectiveness for three out of five years.
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