In an effort to mitigate our state’s current teacher shortages, the General Assembly has established a Teacher Recruitment and Retention Task Force. The task force will investigate teacher recruitment, teacher preparation, educator compensation, working conditions within the education system, improving teacher evaluation and best practices in order to advise the Governor, Speaker of the House and President of the Senate over the coming year.

As director of SC-TEACHER, South Carolina Teacher Education Advancement Consortium through Higher Education Research, Hodges and his team conducts statewide research on issues within the teacher workforce. This year in conjunction with the taskforce, SC-TEACHER will launch the South Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey, continuing their mission to use a data driven approach to education policy and practice.

“I am honored and excited to represent SC-TEACHER in this essential work for our state,” says Hodges. “Over the past several years, SC-TEACHER has advanced our state’s understanding of critical issues in educator recruitment, preparation and retention, leading to numerous programmatic innovations in support of high need schools and communities. As the state’s flagship, research-focused college of education, and largest preparer of educators, UofSC and SC-TEACHER are uniquely positioned to advance the educator workforce needs of our state. I look forward to working alongside the task force members, elevating the voices of educators, and reorienting projects and programs to meet our state’s current and future needs.”