Initiative

T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® North Carolina Scholarship Program

The Teacher Education And Compensation Helps Early Childhood (T.E.A.C.H.) Early Childhood® North Carolina Scholarship Program offers a variety of scholarships to help the early education workforce  access a debt free college education by providing  a package of financial support, incentives and counseling services. T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Scholarships may be used at each of North Carolina’s 58 community colleges that offer associate degree programs in early childhood education or at selected universities that offer early childhood focused degree granting, certificate or licensure programs at the undergraduate or graduate levels.

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Fast Facts

Relevant Actions
State or Local? State
CountiesAll Counties
Lead Agency Child Care Services Association
Type of Agency

Nonprofit

Racial Equity Lens
  • Since its inception, the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Scholarship Program has demonstrated its commitment to reaching the diversity of the early education workforce by making scholarships universally available, statewide, throughout rural and urban communities across North Carolina. Fiscal year 2021 annual report data indicated that the program delivered scholarships to a diverse group of participants, 50% of whom are people of color.
Community Voice
  • Child Care Services Association, the administrative home for the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Program is also hosts for the Education and Compensation Advisory Committee that engages a diverse group of representatives from the following sectors: early education workforce,  higher education system, Child Care Resource and Referral Network and local Smart Start Partnerships. The advisory committee provides policy guidance that determines scholarship model development and program expansion.
Impact
  • For more than three decades, the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Scholarship Program has consistently been instrumental in improving, the education, compensation and retention of the early education workforce throughout North Carolina. Annually, the program’s associate degree scholarship program recipients who fulfilled a scholarship agreement:
    • Completed an average of 14 course credits
    • Received a 3% wage increase
    • Were retained at an average rate of 94%
Next Steps
  • The T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Scholarship Program will be using intensive outreach strategies through informational sessions and translation of materials to better reach and inform Latinx early educators about scholarship opportunities.
  • The scholarship program will be exploring the development of an Early Childhood Education apprenticeship strategy to help recruit students of color into higher education institutions the early education field.
Primary Partners
  • NC Community College System
  • NC Child Care Resource and Referral Network
  • NC Smart Start local partnerships
  • NC Professional Development Institute of Child Care Professionals
  • Early Care and Education Facilities licensed by the NC Division of Child Development and Early Education
Primary Funders
  • NC Division of Child Development and Early Education
Contact Edith Locke

Active Counties