BEST NC is a nonpartisan nonprofit representing a coalition of North Carolina business leaders supporting a bold vision of research, programs, policies, and initiatives designed not to just treat the symptoms of the state’s stagnant education system, but to borrow best practices from other high skill, human-centered professions; to reimagine a public education system that better prepares and supports our educators and the students they serve.
BEST NC has engaged alongside key education stakeholders to address the system barriers keeping NC’s education system from being the best in the nation. Our strategic and actionable effort to support systemic education transformation in North Carolina is called the Educator Innovation Plan.
BEST NC has become North Carolina’s most trusted resource for education data thanks to the accurate, timely, and easily accessible collection found in our Facts & Figures: Education in North Carolina data guide.
BEST NC’s Resource Library includes our entire catalogue of reports, videos, blogs, interactive data tools, and policy briefs on the research, programs, policies, and initiatives we support or explore.

North Carolina Counts on Math (NCCOM): Designing a Shared K-5 Vision for Math (2026)

Teacher Apprenticeship in North Carolina: Exploring In-Classroom Preparation for the Next Generation of Teachers (2025)

Principal Pay in North Carolina

TeachReadyNC: Teacher Apprenticeship in North Carolina
Learn how our work helps policymakers draft language, build consensus, and make the best possible public education decisions for all students, families, and educators across the state.
Educators are the most important in-school factor for student growth and success. Explore the resources that inspire our Access & Accountability and Educator Innovation strategies.
Schools are not businesses, but research shows that they can successfully borrow best practices from the world’s most successful human-centered organizations — organizations like yours.
North Carolina’s students and educators rely on private citizens and community leaders that actively participate in improving the state’s education system. Business leaders that join BEST NC are investing in the lives of North Carolinians for generations to come.
This organization focuses on what’s best for the student. The teachers; what’s imperative as far as attracting great teachers. That’s their focus. There’s no politics at all, and that’s attractive to folks on both sides of the aisle. They are very effective at being heard in Raleigh.
7-Year Member of BEST NC
Board Advisor
I am a proud product of North Carolina’s public schools – from K-12 through college – as are my husband and children. There is no better mechanism for educating our state’s children and building a strong economy for our state than our public schools. This is why I got engaged with BEST NC in its early days…because it prioritizes students, teachers, and school leadership in advocating for evidence-based solutions that will drive our education system forward.
9-Year Member of BEST NC
4th-Year Board Member
I became a member of BEST NC right at the beginning, just from the idea. It was just too well thought out, it was needed, and it’s turned out to be one of the best financial investments that myself or my business could be a part of.
15-Year Member of BEST NC
4th-Year Board Member