NC lawmakers weigh expanding teacher mentorship, pay programs

Nearly half of the 4,000 new teachers hired in North Carolina last year entered classrooms without full preparation, double the rate from eight years ago. And those teachers leave the profession at a 47% rate, according to a presentation to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee on March 31.

Brenda Berg, president and CEO of BEST NC, a business-focused education advocacy group, told lawmakers that two linked programs could break what she called a “vicious cycle” of vacancies, unqualified hires, and more vacancies.

The first, Advanced Teaching Roles (ATR), allows high-performing teachers to earn up to $21,000 more annually to lead instructional teams within their schools. The second, TeachReadyNC, is a proposed apprenticeship that would place underprepared new hires alongside a mentor teacher for a year before they become teacher of record.

“Instead of sending me into a classroom where I’m destined to fail, I will go into a classroom where I don’t have to be the teacher of record,” Berg said. “I will always work with a qualified mentor teacher.”

According to the data presented by BEST NC, ATR has operated in North Carolina since 2016 and now reaches 37 districts and more than 600 schools. A 2025 Friday Institute report found ATR schools produced roughly 1.7 months of additional math learning gains from 3rd to 4th grade. In Title I schools — where 86% of current ATR schools are located — those implementing the model for four or more years see 63% of students exceed growth expectations, versus 21% at traditionally-staffed Title I schools, according to the Friday Institute report.

Robert Luebke, director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, praised ATR as a good-faith attempt to expand teacher earning opportunities. But he said the program sidesteps the deeper structural problem.

“ATR gets some things right, but my enthusiasm is tempered,” Luebke said. “ATR offers teachers different pathways to higher salaries that still allow them to stay in the profession. And that is good. The problem is ATR still uses a teacher salary schedule. The salary schedule is a big reason why we have a teacher salary problem. Instead of paying people based on their value and contributions, the salary schedule pays people based on years of experience and credentials, two variables that have little connection to improving student outcomes.”

“ATR helps some of the current problems, but to completely remedy the problem of teacher pay, we’ll have to replace the teacher salary schedule,” Luebke added.

Sixteen qualified districts remain on a waiting list for lack of state funding, according to Berg. Of 22 districts that applied this year, only three could be funded. Berg asked lawmakers for $2 million per year over five years to clear the backlog, with a longer-term path to all 115 North Carolina districts, at an estimated $200 million over eight to 10 years.

Reaction from committee members was broadly supportive.

“[ATR] is great for everything from teacher morale to pay, and this addresses many of those,” said state Sen. Kevin Corbin, R-Macon. “I think it would be a win-win-win for all of us, and especially our students.”

State Rep. Heather Rhyne, R-Lincoln, drew on firsthand experience.

“Having just come off the board of education, I can attest to you how important ATR has been in our district, and how great it has been,” she said. “This ATR program is a fundamental switch in the system and in the process, and I think it’s something we need to highly support.”

“NC lawmakers weigh expanding teacher mentorship, pay programs” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.