Cynthia Keech knows how challenging it can be to find great teachers, especially to teach science and math. Last year, the principal of Carroll Middle School in Raleigh interviewed more than 200 candidates to fill 25 positions as her school transitioned to a magnet school for leadership and technology with a focus on STEM, shorthand for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. More than half the teaching vacancies in North Carolina secondary schools are in math and science classrooms, according to data from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.

Then Mary Samuels and Matt St. Clair showed up, and Keech thought she’d struck gold.

“They walked in like they’ve been teaching their whole lives,” Keech said. “I couldn’t ask for better than Matt and Mary. They have the content knowledge combined with an ability to work with kids. Usually we spend an inordinate amount of time working on basic classroom management [for new teachers]. With Matt and Mary, we just haven’t had to do that.”

Yet before the summer of 2012, Samuels and St. Clair had never worked in a classroom. They spent the next year as members of the inaugural class of an innovative, on-the-job program that makes teachers of mid-career professionals and recent college graduates with STEM-related majors. Now in its second year, the NC STEM Teacher Education Program (NC STEP), is a cost-free certification initiative that blends hands-on training in the classroom with online learning.

After watching St. Clair and Samuels in the classroom this year, Keech says she’s sold on the program.

“I’ll have positions next year in math and science and I’ll be looking to NC STEP for graduates to hire. The NC STEP teachers are so much better prepared, they’re just a whole different caliber,” Keech says.

Samuels (pictured above) and St. Clair are two of the first seven candidates who completed the program last summer. Now all are employed in schools across North Carolina and three have achieved complete licensure in their first year - a process that typically takes three years for teachers who come to the profession from other fields.

The NC STEP program focuses on training teachers in innovative and effective instruction approaches practiced and promoted in schools that are partners with NC New Schools. Samuels and St. Clair are bringing those approaches, which emphasize genuine student engagement, to schools with a more traditional approach and not currently partnering with the organization.

“We learned certain strategies and protocols from NC New Schools and now we can share them with our faculty here,” Samuels says. “We’re spreading that NC New Schools way with schools outside the network. Even though we are first years, Matt and I have things to share with people here.”

Samuels came to NC STEP after graduating from NC State University with a degree in plant biology.

“The first year of teaching is hard no matter how you get there,” Samuels says. “But I feel like I came in with lots of tools and ways of engaging students that a typical lateral-entry teacher wouldn’t have. I was worried about classroom management because I’m a soft-spoken person, but I really haven’t had many classroom discipline problems because those protocols really worked.”

After leaving his job with a stream and wetland restoration company, St. Clair turned to NC STEP to start on a new career path that has him excited about changing students’ lives.

“I love teaching. There’s nothing like sparking a kids’ interest and watching them make connections,” St. Clair says. “I’m teaching middle school science to prepare my students to be excited about science when they get to high school. Science is connected to everything we do and everything we are - that’s the biggest thing I can do is connect everyday life to what we’re learning in class.”

Lucky for Keech and other principals looking for STEM teachers, NC STEP is set to graduate a second cohort of 16 students this summer.Applications for a third class of 48 candidates are now being accepted for the 2014-15 school year. Applicants must have a four-year college degree in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) related field and have an interest in becoming a teacher of STEM courses in a North Carolina secondary school. Applicants who currently hold a teaching license are not eligible for the program.

The non-traditional teacher education program is administered by NC New Schools and funded by the federal Transitions to Teaching grant program, which supports efforts to recruit and retain highly qualified mid-career professionals and recent college graduates interested in earning a teaching license through an alternative route. NC New Schools is one of 30 organizations nationwide awarded five-year grants from the U.S. Department of Education to train non-education graduates to teach in high-needs schools.

“There’s no better way to be a lateral entry teacher than to have the support of NC New Schools,” St. Clair says. “They have a great support system. The staff with NC STEP and NC New Schools were always available to talk, to share ideas, to take me to other schools and see what they were doing that I could try in my classroom. That good support system goes a long way, even now that I’ve graduated from the program.”

Candidates in the 15-month program are paired with experienced teachers as mentors during the year-long apprenticeships. They spend about 18 hours a week in their school, participating in all dimensions of school life, from classroom instruction to lesson planning. In addition to the 10-month internship, candidates also complete four online courses through WIDE World at Harvard Graduate School of Education and participate in seminars led by North Carolina New Schools.

“My intern year was really positive,” Samuels says of her experience at Wayne School of Engineering in Goldsboro. “I got hands-on experience teaching high school biology with my mentor, but I also got to do some work with the 6th graders that were joining the school for the first time. You develop relationships with the students, you get feedback from teachers who are actually in the classroom and have the perspective of what’s really going to work.”

Interested applicants can find additional information and materials online. The formal application deadline has passed, but applications will be accepted until June 13, space permitting. Informational webinars describing the NC STEP program, including live question and answer sessions, will be hosted on the following dates from noon to 1 p.m. on May 14. Potential applicants can click here to register for a STEP webinar.