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North Carolina leads nation in Board Certified Teacher numbers

The state Department of Public Instruction reports the state leads the nation in the number of National Board Certified Teachers. George Olsen has more.

A press release from the Department of Public Instruction says the state has 20,611 National Board Certified Teachers, tops in the nation. Twenty-one percent of state educators have their national certification. Almost nineteen percent of the nation’s nationally certified teachers work in North Carolina. In 2014 North Carolina added 527 certified teachers, second in the nation behind Washington. The Department of Public Instruction describes National Board Certification as the “highest credential in the teaching profession.” Teachers who get their certification receive a salary supplement on top of their regular pay for the 10-year life of the certification. I’m George Olsen.

George Olsen is a 1977 Havelock High School graduate. He received his B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from the University of South Carolina in 1982 where he got his first taste of non-commercial radio working for their student station WUSC. After graduation he worked about five years in commercial radio before coming to work at Public Radio East where he has remained since outside of a nearly 3-year stint as jazz and operations coordinator at WUAL in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the early 1990s. On his return to eastern North Carolina he hosted classical music for Public Radio East before moving into the Morning Edition host position and now can be heard on All Things Considered. He also hosts and produces The Sound, five hours of Americana, Roots Rock and Contemporary Folk weekday evenings on PRE Public Radio East News & Ideas, and is a news and feature producer for Public Radio East.