Cherelle Sanders is a multi-classroom leader at Martin Millennium Academy in Tarboro. In her first year in that role, she worked with four teachers. One was in her third year teaching, but the other three were all brand new.

“There are more than 100,000 teachers in North Carolina. We know there are effective teachers in all our communities across the state,” says Johanna Anderson, the executive director of The Belk Foundation.

“Raise our expectations!” That’s always been Julie Hill’s mantra as a teacher coach in CMS elementary schools. “We have to stop letting excuses get in our way, like language barriers or turbulent home lives. Put all that to the side and focus on what we can control in the classroom,” says Ms. Hill, part of the CMS Teacher Leader Pathway program that promotes highly effective teachers into coaching roles, often supporting beginning teachers.

What makes a great teacher? It’s a question that parents, superintendents, principals, and even teachers themselves grapple with.

As we have traveled the state, we’ve noticed that there are a lot of ways people think about teachers. And, of course, everyone has a favorite.

On this episode of EdTalk, host Alex Granados talks with Johanna Anderson, executive director of the Belk Foundation, about the foundation’s new funding priority aiming to make sure there is an equitable distribution of effective teachers in districts across North Carolina.

Today, the Belk Foundation announced a new, five-year strategic focus on equitable access to effective teachers. In the announcement, the foundation cites research that students in high-poverty schools are half as likely to have access to a highly effective teacher as students in low poverty schools.

In 2019, inspired by what we launched in Read Charlotte’s community-wide movement, we announce a new strategic issue for the next five years: equitable access to effective teachers.

The Belk Foundation Announces New Strategic Issue of Equitable Access to Effective Teachers

The data are clear: early career teachers are more effective when hired by the school where they student taught. Familiarity with the school culture, principal, students and other teachers makes a difference for novice teachers and for their students’ achievement.

Fiscal year 2018 was a milestone year for The Belk Foundation – we marked our 90th year of grantmaking. We also engaged in reflection on the Foundation’s future and how best to focus our time and energy for impact within our two focus areas, K-3 achievement and excellent teachers and leaders.