Meredith College has signed an articulation agreement that will allow students in the Teaching as a Profession Program (TAAP) at participating North Carolina high schools to seamlessly transfer and complete their degree in education.

To help encourage teaching as a career, TAAP allows students to enroll in college-level education courses while still in high school. More than 30 high schools in North Carolina currently offer the pathway, with more being added every year.

As this program and the demand for educators grows, faculty and staff of the education department at Meredith are hopeful this articulation agreement will encourage more young people to pursue the teaching profession, as well as help aspiring teachers make a smooth transition from high school to college. The agreement officially went into effect this fall.

Assistant Professor and Department Head of Education Heather Bower was involved in the development of this transfer pathway.

“We are thrilled to be a part of this collaboration to recruit new teachers into the profession and Meredith,” said Bower. “We have already been invited to speak to teachers about this opportunity in the fall, which is a great start.”

Students can take two NCDPI courses through a TAAP high school to qualify for transfer credit from Meredith: Teaching as a Professional I and Teaching as a Professional II. The equivalencies for these courses at Meredith are known as EDU 201: So You Want to Be a Teacher? and EDU 234: Teaching and Learning.

Meredith College is a signatory school on articulation agreements with the North Carolina Community College System, which makes it easier for students to transfer their credits and complete four-year degrees. In addition to the new TAAP pathway, Meredith holds an articulation agreement on teacher education/education preparation for students transferring from community colleges.

The teacher education/education preparation articulation agreement provides a pathway for future teachers in which the credits from the associate of art or associate of science transfer to Meredith’s teacher education program.

Meredith undergraduate students interested in teaching complete a liberal arts major in the field of their choice and, at the same time, pursue a teaching license by completing a teacher education program in the Department of Education.