Support and Resources
Financial support
Students admitted to the UNC Charlotte Teacher Quality Partnership program receive a living wage stipend in the amount of $39,000 to cover the full cost of tuition, supplies, and additional expenses. Participants also receive a textbook allowance. The program is open to aspiring teachers in mathematics, science, English language arts, Career and Technical Education, and foreign language. Eligible candidates who receive the stipend must commit to teaching at a high-need school in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) for a minimum of three years.
Sustained and deliberate clinical experiences
Meaningful clinical partnerships are the foundation of UNC Charlotte teacher preparation programs. Faculty collaborated to develop a logical progression of meaningful clinical experiences that are connected to coursework. These clinical experiences are differentiated for traditional teacher candidates and residency teachers, require sustained involvement in K-12 classrooms, and provide opportunities for candidates to practice the skills learned in coursework and receive feedback from their mentor teacher.
Testing support
The UNC Charlotte Teacher Quality Partnership program offers support to candidates and their mentors to ensure successful completion of licensure assessments. For example, PRAXIS II workshops will be offered in high-need content areas. With respect to edTPA, we have infused practice tasks into Semester 2 coursework to familiarize candidates with the assessment and hone skills. Further, during Semester 3 when candidates complete edTPA, they participate in seminars that provide edTPA support led by UNC Charlotte faculty who are trained Pearson edTPA scorers in the candidates’ respective content area. Mentor teachers will also receive edTPA PD to familiarize them with the assessment and ways they can support their candidates.
Professional Development
To promote educational equity, the UNC Charlotte Teacher Quality Partnership program offers customized coursework and professional development opportunities that will prepare candidates to effectively teach not only a hard-to-staff content area, but also to meet the needs of underserved English learners, and ultimately lead to dual certification in both the content area (e.g., high school math) and K-12 ESL.
Mentoring and coaching
The UNC Charlotte Teacher Quality Partnership program offers continued support to teacher candidates through an established and highly effective induction program. Upon completion of Phase I of the residency program (the Graduate Certificate program), all graduates will receive two years of induction support in their classroom from a trained coach through the NC New Teacher Support Program (NTSP), a statewide program designed to reduce attrition.
Each participating school in CMS will receive funds to hire substitute teachers to further compensate the mentoring teachers and allow them time to develop their leadership skills. Each CMS school-based mentoring teacher will receive two substitute teacher days per semester of the residency (four substitute teacher days per K-12 mentor). This instructional release time will allow the CMS mentor to co-plan or co-teach with their mentee, provide coaching opportunities, participate in team meetings with other colleagues, and attend additional professional development opportunities to support the mentoring partnership.