2024: A Year of Impact

From our alumni, faculty, staff and students receiving dozens of awards, to our college ranking among the best in the world and breaking another record for research, the College of Education at NC State leaned in to its strategic focus areas around innovation, interdisciplinarity and inclusiveness to make a transformative impact on the field of education in 2024 for North Carolina and beyond.

Preparing Extraordinary Educators

• We opened the 2024-2025 academic year with 674 undergraduate students — our largest number of undergraduates in at least 10 years and the seventh straight year that the college’s total undergraduate enrollment increased from the previous year.he most in North Carolina.

• We welcomed 121 new Teaching Fellows — the largest cohort in North Carolina. There are now 232 total Teaching Fellows at NC State, who comprise almost half of the 462 Teaching Fellows at institutions across North Carolina.

• We welcomed 12 first-year students in our third cohort of the Transformational Scholarships Program, an innovative teacher preparation program for Eastern North Carolina supported by the Anonymous Trust. 

• We graduated over 435 new alumni who will go on to help others achieve their dreams. They join a network of over 18,000 living alumni that include:
  • Layla Allen ’23 Named Orange County Schools 2024-25 Beginning Teacher of the Year
  • Longtime Museum of the Cherokee People President Bob Blankenship ’60 Named NC State College of Education Alumnus of the Year
  • Marvin Connelly Jr. ’97MED, ’00MED Named A. Craig Phillips 2024 North Carolina Superintendent of the Year
  • Karrie Dixon ’03EDD Named Chancellor of North Carolina Central University
  • Catherine Edmonds ’04MSA,’17EDD Named Interim Chancellor at Elizabeth City State University
  • Carrie Jones ’09PHD Recognized as 2024 American Association of Chemistry Teachers’ Teacher of the Year
  • Anna Turner ’21 Named Richmond Public Schools 2024 New Teacher of the Year

Applying Research and Generating Knowledge to Solve Problems

• We set a college record for research expenditures, exceeding $20 million for the first time. 

• We welcomed 12 new faculty, including inaugural Goodnight Distinguished Professor in Early Literacy Devin Kearns.

• We launched two projects part of our new Innovation Fellows Program to improve teachers’ well-being and harness technology to address literacy outcomes.

• We launched four Interdisciplinary Research Hubs:
  • Fostering Learning, Identity, and Participation within Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (FLIP-STEM)
  • North Carolina Advancing Civic Engagement
  • Systems for Un-correlating Poverty and Reading (SUPR) in North Carolina Schools
  • Well-Being and Equity in Rural Communities (WERC)

• We had three faculty members receive NSF CAREER grants, our most in a single year:
  • Assistant Professor of Technology, Engineering, and Design Education Daniel Kelly to Blend Robotics, Social-emotional Learning to Improve Education for Students in the Juvenile Justice System
  • Assistant Professor of STEM Education Tamecia Jones Aims to Create Equitable Assessments, Improve Assessment of Engineering Skills
  • Assistant Professor of Mathematics Samantha Marshall to Partner with Teachers to Improve Translanguaging Pedagogy

Expanding Our Reach and Impact to Serve All Learners

• We launched Elevate, NC State’s new inclusive post-secondary education program (IPSE).

• We hosted another successful Leadership Institute for Future Teachers, a six-day, invitational program for rising high school seniors in North Carolina who are interested in teaching that was first offered 38 years ago. 

• We established five new scholarships with gifts received on NC State’s 2024 Day of Giving alone.

• We received 992 gifts on NC State’s 2024 Day of Giving—the most gifts the college has ever received on the day.

• We leveraged donor support to deepen high-impact experiences for students, including through our mini-grants, summer internships and study abroad programs.

• We brought together educators and leaders from across the state and nation to convene on pressing educational issues through events such as the Dallas Herring Lecture, the AI in K-12 Convening, the North Carolina Literacy Leaders retreat, the Math Summit and the Linguistic Diversity Speaker Series organized by Goodnight Distinguished Professor of Educational Equity Maria Coady.

Celebrating Milestones and Recognitions

• We celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research.

• We celebrated the 20th anniversary of the groundbreaking of the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation.

• We ranked #1 in N.C., #21 in the U.S. and #60 in the world in education and educational research in U.S. News’ Best Global Universities Subject Rankings.

• We tied at #30 in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2025 Best Graduate Schools rankings, placing us in the top 7% in the nation among both public and private universities. Among just public colleges of education, we tied at No. 12 in the nation. 

• Our faculty and staff received over two dozen awards in recognition of their teaching, scholarship, outreach and contributions to the college, university, state and nation.