Commission on Higher Education awards $600,000 grant to UofSC College of Education
August 2018 -The College of Education recently received a $600,000 grant from the
South Carolina Commission on Higher Education to study the issues surrounding teacher
turnover, assess the effectiveness of teacher recruitment and preparation programs
across the state, and develop a longitudinal data system so this information can be
shared statewide. The grant will fund the creation of a new center at USC called the
South Carolina Teacher Education Advancement Consortium through Higher Education Research
(SC-TEACHER).
"This is the first opportunity for South Carolina to have access to statewide data
on educator preparation and performance directly related to our state’s policy, process
and needs," says Falicia Hart Harvey, academic program manager for the
SC Commission on Higher Education. "In the past, we turned to national research to
understand teacher recruitment, training and retention. This center will address our
state’s issues and provide data-informed answers for South Carolina."
In addition to studying the various causes of the state’s teacher shortage, researchers within SC-TEACHER will explore teacher preparation programs and practices — including extended student-teaching, residency programs and ongoing professional development — to see what is the most effect way to prepare new teachers, support current teachers and improve the profession.
In the past, we turned to national research to understand teacher recruitment, training and retention. This center will address our state’s issues and provide data-informed answers for South Carolina.
Falicia Hart Harvey, SC Commission on Higher Education
“South Carolina lacks a detailed account of the efforts to recruit, prepare and retain our teaching workforce,” says Thomas Hodges, associate dean for academic affairs. “SC-TEACHER will bring together these efforts in a way that will highlight promising approaches and in turn, provide policy-makers rich data from which decisions can be made.”
“The College of Education's new teacher retention program, CarolinaTIP, is just the first step toward supporting new teachers and keeping devoted teachers in the profession. We are committed to improving our process for recruiting and retaining teachers, and we will continue to advocate on behalf of the profession. This grant will allow us to share critical suggestions for improvement with policy makers so that we can all work together to improve education in our state,” says Hodges.