On a brisk morning in early February, the library in East Forsyth Middle School, located just outside Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has been rearranged. Student work stations have been moved aside to make room for additional rows of seating, a projector has been set up at the front of the room, and the smell of coffee and assorted pastries dominate the space.

School leaders from across the state have gathered in the library to learn more about North Carolina’s Advanced Teaching Roles (ATR) initiative and to see it in action. It’s an event orchestrated by BEST NC (Business for Educational Success and Transformation in NC), a coalition of business leaders focused on improving North Carolina’s education system. The organization has been instrumental in scaling the ATR initiative statewide, successfully advocating for and supporting its implementation and roll out since ATR’s inception in 2016, when it launched as a pilot program in six school districts. Now Advanced Teaching Roles is a permanent fixture in the state, where districts are incentivized to opt in via a competitive grant program that supports district transition costs, funded through an annual $5.5 million allocation from the state legislature. The state also provides $10.9 million for salary supplements for ATR teachers.

As business leaders, BEST NC believes that states like North Carolina struggle with teacher recruitment and retention because we ask educators to operate in an outdated, one-size-fits-all system that was designed nearly a century ago. In the business world, very few leaders are asked to oversee over 50 direct reports. Yet, in schools across the country, principals do just that, creating unsustainable work environments for leaders, restricting opportunities for advancement for effective teachers, and limiting access to critical professional support for developing teachers.

At its core, the ATR initiative grants principals the authority to design teacher leadership roles with differentiated compensation and strategically deploy teaching talent such that every student has access to great teaching and classroom teachers have the embedded professional support they need to improve their practice. In these models, effective educators have the opportunity to take on additional students and lead a team of other educators in their building taking responsibility for the learning of all students on the team. Teachers are therefore able to take on additional leadership responsibilities and earn more money, all without leaving the classroom.

ATR empowers principals with the flexibility to adjust class sizes to expand the reach of highly effective teachers through a waiver from the state’s class size law. This flexibility allows teacher leaders to be fully or partially released from traditional classroom duties to provide professional support and development to teachers on their team, adjust classroom structures and sizes to most effectively meet student needs, and co-teach or provide direct instruction to small groups of students.

One key factor in Advanced Teaching Roles has been the slow and intentional implementation strategy that allows districts to opt in when they are ready to take on this type of systemic culture shift in school structures. This requires a committed and independent champion that can set a vision and see it through to fruition. In the case of North Carolina, BEST NC has championed the policy and helped ensure steady expansion of the initiative.

BEST NC has supported implementation through data collection and analysis, documentation, communications and stakeholder engagement, convenings, and policy advocacy at every step along the way. As an external advocacy organization, BEST NC connects the state legislature, the state board of education, the Department of Public Instruction, and vendors like Public Impact, which created the Opportunity Culture model being leveraged by most ATR schools. BEST NC provides these stakeholders with data and analysis of the ongoing implementation of the ATR initiative, and links these groups to schools and districts interested in engaging in strategic staffing work.

The organization continues to push for additional resources and, in many ways, acts as the “marketing branch” behind ATR, helping to sell the feasibility and potential impact of the initiative through briefs and case studies to state and district leaders, principals, and other key stakeholders. BEST NC also regularly convenes districts, including those actively implementing the initiative, to learn from each other and to “make the case” for future adopters.

BEST NC President & CEO Brenda Berg believes her organization’s biggest value to the ongoing sustainability of the initiative is its unique positioning as an independent intermediary, bridging the gap between legislative sessions and the political winds of change. In 2025, North Carolina will have its third governor and fourth state superintendent of public instruction since the initiative’s inception. But BEST NC’s external positioning provides it the flexibility to continuously advocate with policymakers, bring data to the forefront, and support the ongoing management and implementation of the initiative, regardless of who is in office.

While research on the impact of the initiative is still emerging, early results show:

Improved Student Outcomes

• Statistically significant growth in student math achievement.
• Increases in the percentage of schools that met or exceeded expected student growth.
• Eighty-one percent of teachers receiving support from an ATR educator reporting improvement in academic achievement in their classes.

Greater Job Satisfaction

• Ninety-two percent of ATR educators agree the role allows them to be recognized for their expertise, and 85% agree that their role is valued by other educators.
• Educators working in schools with advanced teachers, but not serving in the roles themselves, also recognized the potential value of the initiative, with 76% agreeing ATR would contribute to their professional growth and 62% agreeing it would contribute to their career satisfaction.