October 31, 2012
News program "Heart of Carolina Perspectives" explores Teach For America's history in the Eastern North Carolina region.
Get to Know East Durham Children's Iniative
Founded in 2008, the East Durham Children’s Initiative (EDCI) is a promising new initiative based out of the Center for Child & Family Health (CCFH) in Durham, North Carolina. Modeled after the highly successful Harlem Children’s Zone, EDCI aims to change outcomes and expectations for children and families living in a 120-block area of East Durham by providing high quality services to families, starting at a child’s birth and continuing on through high school.
Working together with community members and partner organizations, EDCI develops and coordinates new and existing services to best meet the needs of approximately 3,000 children living in the zone. Teach For America’s partnership with EDCI includes placing corps members in schools within the zone. Also included in EDCI’s pipeline of services are early childhood interventions, support for parents and families, afterschool and summer programs, literacy programs, health and nutrition services, arts programs, and community outreach. In its first years of providing these services, EDCI has already impacted the lives of hundreds of children and families in the community.
Region Timeline
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The first public schools open in North Carolina.
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More than 40,000 North Carolinians are killed during the U.S. Civil War.
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The Eastern Carolina Teacher Training School, which would later become Eastern Carolina University, is established. Only white women are allowed to attend the school until 1928.
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Pembroke State College for Indians (now UNC-Pembroke) becomes the nation's first public four-year college for Native Americans.
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Governor Terry Sanford starts his "Go Forward" program to improve education in North Carolina. During the same year, four students from Agriculture and Technical College of North Carolina stage a sit-in at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, to protest segregation. Within days, sit-ins are occurring across the state.
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Governor Terry Sanford launches the the North Carolina Fund, a five year initiative aimed at fighting poverty statewide through the creation of 11 community action agencies and other community initiatives. The initiative also focuses on reaching across racial lines.
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The state’s General Assembly creates the North Carolina Education Cabinet to ensure cooperation among all entities of the state's education system. The Cabinet includes the governor, the superintendent of public instruction, the chair of the state board of education, the president of the University of North Carolina, and the president of the North Carolina Community College system.
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The Smart Start program, which focuses on improving school readiness and health during early childhood, launches in North Carolina. Soon, the program becomes a model for other programs across the nation.
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North Carolina is awarded more than $400 million in the federal government's Race to the Top competition, based on the state’s comprehensive, four-year school-reform plan.
Overheard
While there are many things Teach For America directly taught that helped me, there were some things that I definitely had to just learn through experience. At institute, my behavior management was definitely an area where I could have improved. Then, through my experiences, coaching from my corps member advisor, and observing other techniques from other corps members, my behavior management became one of my strengths.
Eastern North Carolina Corps 2010
Press
February 24, 2012
"U.S. Rep G.K. Butterfield, D-Wilson, had a chance to witness what Teach for America is doing in the Roanoke Valley Thursday at Northampton West STEM High School..."
August 24, 2011
"Durham Public Schools and Teach For America have announced a partnership to bring Teach For America teachers to Neal Middle School..."
