Education and Outreach: Providing the Tools for Innovation and Success in a Changing Society

Advancing The University of North Carolina goals to improve K-12 education, the Education Department prepares top teachers by requiring that students major in the discipline they will teach, giving them superior subject-area expertise. The department also offers advanced courses online for lateral entry teachers who seek alternative teacher licensure, and it houses the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Scholarship Program. One of 14 such programs in the state, it awards to selected students a $26,000 scholarship over four years in exchange for a commitment to teach in the N.C. public schools for four years after graduation. The award winning Asheville-Buncombe Education Coalition, which aims to reduce the dropout rate in public schools, involves our faculty and students as tutors and mentors, and it is producing dramatic results as more students succeed on standardized tests and stay in school. Super Saturdays provide enrichment classes for highly motivated elementary- and middle-school students. The Asheville Graduate Center on campus enrolls more than 800 Western North Carolina residents each year in the master’s and doctoral programs of other institutions.