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North Carolina

Verified against current sources (2026-05-10) Cite this page ↓

North Carolina offers Bilingual Education both as a standalone certification and as an add-on endorsement; ELD/ESL is available both as a standalone license and as an add-on endorsement. SEI training is not mandated for all teachers. As of 2024, 11.9% of public-school students are classified English Learners (NCES). Re-verified against current SEA sources on 2026-05-10.

11.9%
classified ELs (2024-11-01)
view trend →
Bil + ELD
credential types offered

Credentials

Bilingual Education License (K-6)

  • Standalone certification
  • Add-on endorsement
Approved program
Unknown
Coursework
Unknown
Practicum
Unknown
Subject test
Unknown
Language proficiency
Unknown

NC has no separate 'bilingual education' teaching license. The Elementary (K-6) Second Language add-on (valid for full-time assignments in grades 6 and below) and the K-12 'Other Second Languages' world-language licenses are the closest analogs. NC operates 300+ Dual Language/Immersion programs in 8 languages, staffed by teachers who hold content-area licenses plus appropriate language qualifications.

ESL Add-On Licensure

  • Standalone certification
  • Add-on endorsement
Approved program
Required
Coursework
Required
Practicum
Unknown
Subject test
Required

ESL is offered both as a K-12 standalone license (Special Subjects) and as a K-6 add-on to Elementary licensure. Approved educator preparation program (traditional or alternative) is the route to licensure; Praxis II ESL has been the state-required licensure exam for this area since 2003 (current administration via Pearson/ETS per SBE policy LICN-003).

Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)

Not mandated for all teachers.

State policy signals

Seal of Biliteracy

Recognition for graduating students proficient in English plus another language.

Adopted in 2015.

Source: sealofbiliteracy.org (opens in a new tab)

ELP assessment

Annual English Language Proficiency test used for EL identification and reclassification.

ACCESS for ELLs · WIDA Consortium member.

Source: wida.wisc.edu (opens in a new tab)

History of licensure

Dated policy and verification events shaping this state's EL teacher credentials.

  1. NC Professional Teaching Standards adopted (still operative)

    The State Board of Education adopted the NC Professional Teaching Standards in 2007 (revised 2008) and they remain the operative standards document. Standard II ("diverse population of students"), Standard IV references to language proficiency, and pervasive cultural-diversity language ground the schema's `professionalStandardsMentions.{diverse, cultural, linguistic}: true`. The standards do not name "English learner" or "EL" explicitly, holding `el: false`.

    dpi.nc.gov (opens in a new tab)

  2. North Carolina adopts Seal of Biliteracy (Global Languages Endorsement)

    NC adopted the Seal of Biliteracy in 2015, implemented as the Global Languages Endorsement on the high school diploma. Recognizes graduates who demonstrate proficiency in English and at least one other world language. Per the schema, this is a student-side credential and is recorded as context — the closest teacher-side analog (K-6 "Second Language" add-on) remains separate.

    sealofbiliteracy.org (opens in a new tab)

  3. EPAA 29(100) document analysis (Leider, Colombo & Nerlino, 2021)

    Leider, Colombo & Nerlino published in Education Policy Analysis Archives 29(100) a comprehensive document analysis of every state and DC's bilingual, ELD/ESL, and SEI teacher-credentialing requirements, professional teaching standards mentions, and EL-percentage figures, based on primary SEA sources collected October–December 2019. The 2019 coding of North Carolina's EL-credentialing landscape is preserved as a temporally-anchored research baseline against which the catalog's later verifications are framed.

    doi.org (opens in a new tab)

Sources

  1. [1] North Carolina Public Schools (legacy domain ncpublicschools.org; superseded by dpi.nc.gov) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2019-11-15 (via Leider et al. 2021)
  2. [2] Leider, Colombo & Nerlino (2021), EPAA 29(100). Tables 2-5 + Appendix A. (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2019-11-15 (via Leider et al. 2021)
  3. [3] NCDPI — Areas of Licensure (lists ESL as both K-12 Special Subjects standalone and K-6 add-on) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  4. [4] NCDPI — Educator's Licensure (SBE policy LICN-003 routes Praxis through Pearson/ETS) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  5. [5] NCDPI — ML/Title III (multilingual learner program team) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  6. [6] NCDPI — ML Program Compliance (LIEP types per 16 NCAC 06D .0106) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  7. [7] NCDPI — Legislation & Policy (federal EL guidance and SBE policy index) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  8. [8] NCDPI — English Language Development (2020 K-12 ELD Standard Course of Study) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  9. [9] NCDPI — Dual Language/Immersion (300+ DL/I programs, 8 languages) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  10. [10] Seal of Biliteracy — North Carolina Global Languages Endorsement (sealofbiliteracy.org national tracker) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  11. [11] NC Professional Teaching Standards (NC SBE, adopted 2007; current standards document) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  12. [12] 16 NCAC 06C — North Carolina Administrative Code, educator licensure rules (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  13. [13] WIDA Consortium — member states (NC listed; ACCESS for ELLs is the ELP assessment) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  14. [14] NCES Digest of Education Statistics, Table 204.20: English learners enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools, by state, fall 2011 through fall 2021 (NC fall 2021: 121,496 ELs = 8.0%) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  15. [15] NCES Condition of Education — English Learners in Public Schools (most recent year: fall 2021) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  16. [16] North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Report to the General Assembly: Headcount of English Learners (2024-25) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-10

Cite this page

Site content is published under CC BY 4.0. When citing a fact from this page, please cite both projectcert and the original Leider et al. (2021) paper the dataset extends.

APA
projectcert. (2026, May 10). North Carolina EL teacher certification. https://projectcert.org/states/nc/
Leider, C. M., Colombo, M. W., & Nerlino, E. (2021). Decentralization, teacher quality, and the education of English learners: Do state education agencies effectively prepare teachers of ELs? Education Policy Analysis Archives, 29(100). https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.29.5279
BibTeX
@misc{projectcert_nc_2026,
  author  = {{projectcert}},
  title   = {{North Carolina EL teacher certification}},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://projectcert.org/states/nc/},
  urldate = {2026-05-10},
  note    = {Last verified 2026-05-10}
}
@article{leider2021decentralization,
  author  = {Leider, Christine M. and Colombo, Michaela W. and Nerlino, Erika},
  title   = {{Decentralization, teacher quality, and the education of English learners: Do state education agencies effectively prepare teachers of ELs?}},
  journal = {Education Policy Analysis Archives},
  volume  = {29},
  number  = {100},
  year    = {2021},
  doi     = {10.14507/epaa.29.5279}
}

See the methodology for how these data were collected, or the glossary for term definitions.