Most new Alamance-Burlington school system teachers either began their careers in another field or completed degrees in programs other than education before they decided to give teaching a try, according to two veteran teachers who help the 250 ABSS beginning teachers navigate their first three years in the profession (see related story, this edition).
“Seventy percent [of new ABSS teachers] are coming in as alternatively-licensed,” ABSS beginning teacher coordinator Bambie Evans said in a recent interview with The Alamance News.
Stated another way, that means just 30 percent of new ABSS teachers actually went to college with the intention of becoming K-12 teachers, according to Sarah Jones, another veteran teacher who serves alongside Evans as a BT coordinator for the school system.
The 70 percent of alternatively-licensed teachers employed in ABSS schools are also enrolled part-time in an educator preparation program at the same time they’re beginning their careers, according to Evans and Jones.
Completing the seemingly labyrinthine requirements to earn a state educator’s license – while simultaneously attending college and/or working full-time – is one of the most significant challenges that BTs face in remaining in the profession, said Evans.
But waning enrollment in schools of education isn’t the only reason that ABSS and other North Carolina public school systems struggle to fill vacant teaching positions.
The latest annual “State of the Teaching Profession” report, released this spring by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, showed that 9.7 percent (139 out of a total of 1,439) of ABSS teachers who had been employed with ABSS in March 2023 were no longer working in any N.C. public school system by March 2024.
The statewide rate of teachers leaving the profession was 9.87 percent, reflecting 8,886 teachers (out of a total of 89,972) who had been employed in N.C. public schools in March 2023 but were no longer employed by March 2024, according to DPI’s latest annual report on the profession.
Most of the 139 teachers who had left ABSS as of March 2024 cited personal reasons such as retirement, relocation, or a desire to pursue different careers, according to DPI’s report.
Meanwhile, one notable effort to supply the school system with new teachers is underway at Elon University’s school of education and its graduate-level Teach for Alamance program that provides full tuition in exchange for committing to teach for ABSS for two years, ABSS public information officer Emily-Lynn Adkins said in the interview.
“We have seen an increase [in the number of new teachers coming to ABSS from Elon University],” Evans told the newspaper last week.
In 2023-24, three beginning teachers (“BTs”) came from Elon University; in 2024-25, five Elon graduates were hired to teach for ABSS; and for the upcoming 2025-26 school year, 11 Elon University graduates have been hired by ABSS, based on figures that Evans cited.
