School of Education expands partnership East

(Dec. 20, 2002)   —   The School of Education at East Carolina University has received almost $166,000 from the University of North Carolina system to expand teacher education programs throughout eastern North Carolina. The funds will help the School of Education expand its “Partnership East,” program, which is designed to put more teachers in the classroom by making a four-year education degree available at community colleges throughout the region.

The School of Education plans to create a North Central Consortium to serve Edgecombe, Franklin, Northampton, Vance, Warren, Wilson and Nash counties. People in those areas would be able to take all the courses needed for a bachelor’s degree in elementary education at the Rocky Mount campus of Edgecombe Community College. East Carolina University Faculty would teach the courses.

A similar consortium serving most of the coastal area in eastern North Carolina already operates at Craven Community College. The first group of students to enroll under Partnership East began classes in this month.

Partnership East works to ease the teacher shortage across North Carolina. It creates regional education “hubs” so that students can complete their education without leaving their communities, jobs and family. Eventually ECU hopes to have a total of four sites to better serve the region.

In addition to expanding Partnership East, the School of Education will increase the number of online courses available to current and prospective teachers statewide. The university’s undergraduate and graduate programs combined produce more teachers than any other institution in the state. The State Board of Education recently gave ECU’s School of Education high marks for its program. ECU was one of only two schools statewide to receive 135 out of 140 points on the State Board of Education’s performance report.