Education leaders from Oklahoma and Georgia visited Weddington High School on Tuesday, Sept. 15, to study its teacher pipeline program.
The visitors came to observe the Teaching as a Profession Pathway, a career and technical education track that trains students to become teachers in Union County. Superintendent Andrew Houlihan announced the visit on X, calling the pathway "our internal pipeline focused on developing future educators" for Union County Public Schools.
The guests represented the Oklahoma Association for Career and Technical Education (OklahomaACTE), which has operated since 1929, and the Georgia Association for Career and Technical Education (GACTE), a state affiliate of the national ACTE.
Their names were not included in Houlihan's post.
The pathway is part of Next Stop: TeachUCPS, a partnership among UCPS, South Piedmont Community College (SPCC) and Wingate University. It launched during the 2022-2023 school year with eight seniors at Weddington High, which enrolls 1,899 students. Kristina Combs, who has 20 years of teaching experience, led that inaugural class, Spectrum News 1 reported in March 2023.
How the program works
Students in the pathway spend three hours, three days a week working alongside teachers and students at Weddington Elementary School and Weddington Middle School, according to the UCPS career and technical education website. They participate in lesson planning, attend teacher workday meetings and lead small-group or whole-class lessons.
Graduates who earn a B or higher in the course sequence can receive articulated college credit at SPCC and Wingate. Under the pre-apprentice track, UCPS may hire completers as teacher assistants upon graduation. Those students can then earn an associate's degree at SPCC at zero tuition cost and attend Wingate for no more than $2,500 per year through the Gateway to Wingate Scholarship, according to the district's TeachUCPS page.
Growth since launch
The program has expanded beyond Weddington High to Porter Ridge High School, which added the pathway in the 2023-2024 school year. As of February 2025, more than 140 high school students were enrolled across the program's pathways and 19 were registered as pre-apprentices, UCPS director of career readiness Brian Davis told EdNC. The broader TeachUCPS initiative had grown from three student pathways and one employee pathway at launch to seven total.
The newest addition is a residency pathway with UNC Charlotte targeting middle and high school math, science, exceptional children and CTE licensure, with zero-cost tuition for required coursework.
