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Part I. Introductions. Why you want to join EdPrepLab – what you hope to learn, and what you hope to contribute. How the COE is organized?  Different educator preparation programs and pathways we institution offer. Why we are focusing on CarolinaCAP? Our core team. District partners. Goals and priorities. How EdPrepLab will help us

Part II. Programs for Deeper Learning. Focus on CCAP and assessment of “status” of our innovated approach in terms of teacher education deeper learning principles. Artifacts of practice, including videos of course sessions, course assignments, examples of student work, and/or interviews with district partners, faculty, staff, and students. Also “where are we” in developing school and district leaders in the principles and creating the conditions for educators to teach and lead for deeper, more equitable learning.

Part III. Faculty Development and Institutional Learning. Our approach to faculty development and institutional learning — including areas for growth, current faculty professional development, communities of practice, and other ways we seek to create institutional and program coherence around the deeper learning and equity principles.

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Men of CHS Teach is an initiative designed to provide male teachers of color a pathway into teaching. A partnership between Charleston County School District and UofSC’s College of Education, this project aims to increase the number of male teachers of color in CCSD’s early childhood and elementary programs.

Why It Matters:

Research demonstrates that Black students who have a Black teacher—man or woman—for at least one year in elementary school are less likely to drop out of high school and more likely to consider college (Institute of Labor Economics, 2017). Despite this important impact, only seven percent of teachers nationwide are Black and only 2 percent of those are Black men.

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CarolinaCAP is a non-degree alternative pathway leading to full licensure for candidates in partner districts via a high-quality experience in teaching that marries the expertise of local teachers, schools, and districts with an institution of higher education and a national nonprofit. CarolinaCAP focuses on innovative and cost-effective teacher recruitment strategies, customized training for new teachers, and dedicated, ongoing coaching support.

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CarolinaCAP is a non-degree alternative pathway leading to full licensure for candidates in partner districts via a high-quality experience in teaching that marries the expertise of local teachers, schools, and districts with an institution of higher education and a national nonprofit. CarolinaCAP focuses on innovative and cost-effective teacher recruitment strategies, customized training for new teachers, and dedicated, ongoing coaching support.

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The Challenge of Passing PRAXIS for Alternative Route Recruits

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The Challenge of Passing PRAXIS for Alternative Route Recruits

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·       Praxis represents a barrier to entry into teaching in both traditional and alternative certification pathways. CarolinaCAP recruits were unable to take the Praxis subject assessment prior to the beginning the 2020-2021 school year to due challenges associated with COVID-19. Therefore, all recruits were coded as teachers-of-record in their schools regardless of their Praxis II status. This designation removed one barrier temporarily. In addition, this year afforded recruits the opportunity to acquire the pedagogical knowledge needed to take the Praxis II subject assessments while teaching.  The Praxis II was the most frequently mentioned stressor by recruits. A team of district educators and UofSC faculty collaborated to create a suite of resources to support recruits in passing the Praxis II Subject Assessments.

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The Virtual Learning Community and Platform

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The Virtual Learning Community and Platform

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·       The purpose of CarolinaCAP Virtual Learning Communities (VLCs) is to extend learning opportunities for recruits and coaches beyond their initial coursework, workshops, and trainings. Recruits are invited to participate in two monthly Zoom sessions – one with a focus on micro- credential support and the other with a focus on informal support topics generated by recruits and coaches

·       CarolinaCAP applicants complete and upload required information to an online platform and can document their progress for each portion of the application process. They can select districts in which they are interested to teach and search for available positions in partner districts.

●       The platform is an integral part of all partners staying informed in real time regarding how well recruits are performing. The system tracks on-time progress, and the information can be easily accessed throughout the three years of the program and beyond, as recruits continue their careers. Data from CarolinaCAP is made available to SC-TEACHER.

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·       Principals appreciated the recruits’ willingness to do whatever students needed.

o   CAP has provided incredible support. They provide it in place [job-embedded] which has been veryhelpful. I am concerned, but CAP is giving better support than any other program.

·       School administrators frustrated by teacher turnover also appreciated that they “could get recruits from the community because they will stay.”

o   One administrator expressed frustration with the turnover when she said, “We are training teachers for three years and then they move on to other districts.”

o   Their classroom management is good for beginning teachers. The help with the Praxis is a huge help.Teachers are able to manage the curriculum, and their classroom management was a surprise to me.When we had the face-to-face students come back, I was worried. But they hit the ground running andwere successful. If they can be successful in these conditions, they are keepers

·       However, as one teacher educator noted, “principal support is varied” across the district partners

·       Some districts require a scripted curriculum in reading that is “decontextualize and not what we teach them at the university”

·       “We prepare principals with a focus on equity and social justice, but they often do not get a job right away….and their districts may have a very different view of deeper learning than we do”

·       Everything we teach in education leadership – from finance to scheduling – is through the lens of equity

·       “District administrators believe in equity and deeper learning but they lead a system that is not built for it”

·       “districts make minute changes” and deeper learning require system change”

·       “Superintendents recognize inequities but they are tied by policy and legislation…. Barriers everywhere they turn

·       “We do not have agreement of what the next generation of deeper learning schools look like in South Carolina…we have the Profile of the SC Graduate but…..”

·       The administrators association is most influential with principals and superintendents in South Carolina

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·       Now 22 coaches and their workload varies. Coaches paid by districts and work 3 to 5 hours per week. Some have other full time district jobs.  Districts compensate the coaches in different ways — and not known by CCAP director, who is former district teacher and coach and employed as staff (not faculty) by UofSC.

o    “One coach hired by one rural district was a retired educator, but had to serve as an interim principal for a short period of time.”

o    Some coaches also serve as substitute teachers for their districts

o    As a retired principal who now serves as a CCAP coach said, “This is something I always wanted to do — work directly with new teachers — but I never had the time to do.”

·       One CCAP coach serves as a coach of the coaches

·       Several coaches highlighted the growth they were seeing in themselves professionally through this experience describing it as “coaching without limitations.”

·       Coaches have many demands on them

o   “One coach is really good but she has too many recruits for both year 1 and year 2 (new recruits)…the needs of year 1 and 2 are so very different”

o   “Most of the coaches are balancing significant workloads…..During the one-hour virtual focus group, almost half of the coaches had to jump off Zoom immediately to attend to other demands….”

o   When asked what they needed for support, one coach responded, We need time to slow down.” The number of teachers they were supporting ranged from one to 150 as many served in district mentoring roles. (emphasis added)

o   In the focus group, coaches rated CarolinaCAP as an “8” or “9” on a scale of 0-10. Depending on their districts, they received from 1-10 hours of release time each week to work with recruits and some have flexibility to move beyond these hours as needed.

●       Recruits, administrators, and coaches are positive about the program. The evaluator “probed recruits’ professional readiness to teach relationally and equitably.” Recruits were extremely positive overall about their preparation to teach to UofSC’s teacher preparation values of integrity, intellectual spirit, justice, and stewardship.

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Red: outline
White: Narratives
Orange: Artifacts

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Schools seek male minority teachersChas. County district to hire 20 through new effort with USC

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Schools seek male minority teachersChas. County district to hire 20 through new effort with USC

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·       A coach said, “Our recruits don't know what they don't know. We must probe and ask questions that tell us what they know. That's on me to ask the right questions.”

·       Each week is an assignment focuses on equity and justice for their students and create a community of learners….each week there is a reflection on how applied in classroom setting (use of template anchored in work of Lucy Calkins in creating more democratic classrooms)

·       They learn how to document and find assets in their communities where they teach

o   “We bring in guest speakers to help address needs they see in the communities”

o   “We help them to learn about resources from the community to work with students with ethnic and racial and linguistic differences

o   UofSC coursework adapts to needs of community not just the districts

o   “They are learning to build networks of supports for students…what are the agencies and resources they need to reach the whole child.”

o   They are starting pulling in assets based language

o   Some had been using deficit language and we have helped them transcend the stereotypes”

·       “In only two courses we are hoping they are learning how to learn”

·       “They are learning about cognitive, social, emotional, and linguistic aspects of teaching but more time is needed”

·       “We are planting philosophical foundations – and with time and practice they can get there…we need more ways to scaffold what they are learning.”

·       One recruit told me, “I did not get feedback when I was a student in school; I only received praise and what I am learning to do (academic feedback) is so different”

·       “They also need assistance in finding support from other mentors other than the ones they are assigned to them.”

·       “The micro-credentials are not learning they are an assessment”

·       Teacher education professors  have become part of their community

·       “They are not getting all of the methods courses they need them – I do not how to fill in the gap as they do not have time and neither do we”

·       “We try to prepare them to ask supervisors – why are we doing it this way? We need to do more to help them find their voice as professionals”

o   As a teacher educator I have learned so much about the districts….many of them have scripted curriculum that does not align with best practices.  They have a decontextualized approaches to teach reading….we prepare them one way and the district expects them to teach another.

o   [not sure of the extent of this challenge

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Based on our experience and knowledge – everything that needs to be done to transform educator preparation is being done somewhere in the United States. No state or university and its school district partners have put all of the pieces together. We have faculty who have been involved in transformative work — from the early days of PDS and Goodlad’s National Network and Holmes Group and the National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future to the EdPrepLab today. We need school-university partnerships dedicated to deeper learning in this complex political context to inform our efforts in South Carolina . We need to have our thinking challenged. We do not need to reinvent wheel. Ultimately common metrics and ways to collaborate in research-practice partnerships will be essential to long-term success.

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CarolinaCAP, in partnership with the Center for Teaching Quality, is a non-degree high-quality, competency-based, alternative route pathway in teaching leading to full licensure for recruits in partnering rural districts. Supported through Proviso 1A.71 of the FY21 legislative session (with $750,000 in funding), CarolinaCAP offers “an innovative, personalized experience for prospective teachers to positively impact education in their districts. CCAP in its first two years has had 441 diverse applicants. It has accepted and served 63, of which 80 percent are Black. Survey data revealed that over 90 percent of all recruits “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that they were capable and prepared as educators. Additionally, 100 percent of respondents believed that they were “moderately prepared” or “very prepared” to teach classes equitably, develop relationships, and be culturally responsive.

Key components of CCAP include:

●       Certification pathways are offered in Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle Level Science and Math, Secondary Science and Math, and Multi-categorical special education.

●       Recruits engage in two master’s level courses (EDTE 600 – Systematic Effective Teaching, and EDUC 632 – Inquiry into Teaching: A Study of Effective Practice) taught by four UofSC faculty — and CarolinaCAP coaches participated in portions of courses. These courses were developed specifically for CAP recruits to address their unique needs. Courses are offered in flexible formats, with implications for the future of the “un-university” at UofSC CoE.

●       Recruits are assigned a CAP coach to assist them during the first three years of teaching. While an effective component, coaches need more support in developing their skills in cognitive coaching and co-teaching and providing this support is a high priority in 2021-22.

●       As required in Proviso 1A.71, CarolinaCAP is charged with offering special education certification — and is focused on professional dispositions, characteristics of students with multi-categorical disabilities (i.e., students with intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, and emotional and behavioral disorders); and assessment for student academic and behavioral progress, designing and implementing individualized Educational Programs (IEP).

●       The launch of personalized assessment and learning of specific competencies  via the use of micro-credentials provides each recruit an individualized means to demonstrate competency in a variety of skills and content areas.  The CarolinaCAP CRM and micro-credential platforms are designed to provide one central location in which applicants, recruits, coaches, districts, and internal CarolinaCAP leadership team members can interact. Users have varying levels of access within the system depending on their roles and responsibilities in CarolinaCAP.

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[note: The recruits serve as independent teachers of record on “day 1.”]
The vast majority of recruits – now over 60 — are from the community in which they are now teaching. Many were teaching assistants (or paraprofessionals before); some had other district staff roles and “had previously struggled in other alternative pathway programs.”

·       Many struggle with passing the PRAXIS (see other section)

·       Most have little access to experienced mentors in their schools; little co-teaching is going on

·       Some principals have hired “subs from time to time to let the (new recruits) see other teachers teach”

·       Many of them need help with basic teaching routines

·       Many wonderful stories of their success – “some have earned district rookie teacher of the year” and “are knocking it out of the park”

·       Some are “finding articles to help them work more effectively with parents and sharing it with their colleagues”

·       “Their struggle is real, however many bring their assets and other work experience into their teaching”

·       “They have vested interest in community – they know this is their place…their teaching assignment is not random (like many student teaching experiences for traditional recruits)

·       “Some have done really well meeting the expectations of the South Carolina teaching evaluation requirements (often called the 4.0 rubric)

·       Many need help in “developing professional language”

·       “While most are from the community and know parents and students they feel the pressure of being effective on day 1…the community has high expectations of them….and knowing the parents like they do makes it difficult for them to have the difficult conversations they need to have”

·       “While some know students in many ways they have to get to know them as students” (and how to teach them)

·       “The recruits with experiences in schools are doing better than those without”

·       “They need to learn more about guidance counselors, school nurses healthy learners….They try to take on everything themselves and not draw on the resources in their schools…they are not aware of much of how schools operate (and could operate)”

·       “They are vulnerable and humble”

·       “They really want to learn to teach”

·       “As teacher education professors  we have become part of their community.”

·       The new recruits described the feedback as “instant” from professors, coaches, and CarolinaCAP program coordinators and staff. One recruit said, “I had some doubts about myself – the self-confidence wasn’t there. The way they responded to and encouraged me, the resources they provided, the immediate feedback was what I needed.”

·       Much like many other alternative certification program CCAP recruits struggle with finding time to learn to teach while also teaching young people.

o   One recruit noted:  “The pandemic has been a challenge. The courses were great, but now with the overload of work at work, the micro-credentials — that is kind of like a lot. With work and the pandemic, that is a lot. I thought that we were just going to focus on Praxis. I did pass mine, but doing the micro-credentials was a lot.”

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1.     CCAP begins with looking at the “strengths of alternative route recruits as well as the experiences they bring to classrooms and schools.”

a.     We wonder about the how formal the inventory actually is – and the implications for how professional capital systems of teaching and learning are developed in the partnership?

b.     Could CCAP begin to develop a more fully personalized approach to preparing the new recruits – with a novice teacher individualized professional growth plan?

2.      CCAP has focused on “best practices of diversity, equity and inclusion; social/emotional learning.”

a.      However, what is the relationship to helping teachers learn how support the development of proficiency on current assessments as well as other measures of student success, including deeper learning?

b.      To what extent do new recruits have exposure to the science of learning and whole child education — and an opportunity to practice it?

3.      To what extent is there any co-teaching going between teachers and coaches – and if so how can districts reinvent the master schedule?

a.      How can the partnership work on the redesign of the teaching job?

b.      Early reports revealed that CCAP recruits had little time or capacity to engage with micro-credentials.How can learning communities develop so the recruits can use micro-credentials more seamlessly?

c.      To what extent are administrators prepared to support the co-teaching model and how do they schedule classes for it? [See ASU Next Educator Workforce in moving beyond the one teacher- classroom model of teaching, learning, and schooling.]

4.      CarolinaCAP is now charged with offering special education certification. How do all CCAP recruits become better prepared in assessment?

5.      The evaluation report – and other sources of evaluation suggests that Praxis represents a barrier to entry into teaching.

a.      We need to know more about the root causes of the struggles, and we need to draw on both academic research as well as recent (and popular accounts via Ed Week and Forbes as these more journalistic reports shape public and policymakers’ perceptions of PRAXIS as a needed gatekeeper for quality teachers entering the profession).

b.      We need to address the cost of assessments – and who pays? Praxis tests are paid by recruits and districts. Most recruits pay for Praxis, but some districts will pay for one or more administration of the exam. This is an issue of access and equity. Praxis exams range from $60 to $170.  Alternative? Hundreds of teacher education programs  use EdTPA – but will require even more support and preparation.

6.      We do not know how much coaches are paid for their or why there is such variation in access to them and vice versa.

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Course Assignment: Reflective Inquiry Process

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Course Assignment: Reflective Inquiry Process

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Course Assignment: Community and Culture Base Project

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Course Assignment: Community and Culture Base Project

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UofSC and EdPrepLabCurrent Goals and Priorities: Why CCAP

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UofSC and EdPrepLabCurrent Goals and Priorities: Why CCAP

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The pandemic has laid bare deep inequities in teaching and learning — and has further exacerbated challenges facing teachers and their profession in South Carolina: uneven access to high quality preparation and mentoring of new recruits, working conditions that undermine collective teacher efficacy, and professional learning and compensation systems that aggravate inequities in the distribution of teaching expertise.

Growing interest from legislative leaders in South Carolina has positioned SC-TEACHER (a center of the University of South Carolina College of Education) to lead an effort to re-imagine education professions to address teacher shortages and the needs of public schools, today and tomorrow. A number of innovations at the UofSC are underway, including  the Carolina Collaborative for Alternative Preparation (CarolinaCAP) that can leverage the kind of teacher preparation and school redesign models that can drive deeper, more equitable learning. CarolinaCAP is a collaboration among South Carolina school districts, the UofSC, and the Center for Teaching Quality with the goal to create a high-quality alternative pathway into teaching that marries the expertise of local teachers, schools, and districts with non-profits, data collection partners, and institutions of higher education. CarolinaCAP offers an accessible and flexible, competency-based, customized educator preparation program (EPP) to meet immediate needs of districts by:

1. Offering customized coursework designed by expert University of South Carolina faculty;

2. Providing individualized support from a coach selected by the district and trained in the CarolinaCAP Coach model;

3. Utilizing micro-credentials as way to offer alternatives for CarolinaCAP recruits to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions aligned with evidence-based practices

4. Drawing on an array of coaches as well as multiple opportunities for educators to learn and grow in virtual learning communities; and

5. Working with school districts to redesign teaching and learning so CarolinaCAP recruits co-teach with expert colleagues.

Prior to CarolinaCAP universities in South Carolina could not offer alternative pathways into teaching. The program was launched just prior to the onset of the pandemic — and not all program elements have been fully developed and realized. Like many other alternative pathways into teaching, CarolinaCAP offers ways for non-traditional recruits, with at least a bachelor’s degree, expedited entry into the profession. CarolinaCAP has not been able to work with school districts in such a way so the new recruits do not have to be the independent teacher of record prior to developing the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of a fully prepared teacher (e.g., based on INTASC standards).

Our goal is to build off CarolinaCAP — and other innovations  to develop policies and practices to scale up school-community-university partnership to recruit and retain teachers for deeper, more equitable learning for South Carolina.

Note: CarolinaCAP is currently working with 24 school districts (out of the state’s total of 81). We are working most closely with Charleston as our partnership includes CarolinaCAP as well as four other major initiatives: (a) early childhood (B to 8) educator development strategy; (b) elementary MAT programs to focus on equity and diversity, (c) a grow your own (GYO) approach to develop and support black male teachers in a homegrown residency model, and (4) our reimagination of the education professions prototype

In addition, SC-TEACHER, with new funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, is in the middle of a research and development process to inform the reimagination of the education profession that addresses educatorshortages and fuel school innovations in South Carolina schools. Our effort will: (1) Document current UofSC teacherand school leader development innovations and how they can be aligned to support deeper, more equitableopportunities outcomes for students; (2) Assess the human capital assets and needs of three school communitypartners and their readiness for the redesign of the education professions for school innovation; and (3) Develop anevidence-based framework for South Carolina and inform legislative action for upcoming sessions of the GeneralAssembly.]

Our work with the EdPrepLab network will accelerate our progress in developing CarolinaCAP as well as develop new policies to drive educator preparation that leads deeper, more equitable outcomes for students.

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Tommy Hodges, Interim Dean and Professor, College of Education

Angela Baum, Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and ITE, College of Education

Barnett Berry, Research Professor &  Senior Director for Policy & Innovation, College of Education

Peter Moyi, Associate Professor and Chair, EDLP, College of Education

Bill Briggman and Susan Watson-Bell, Charleston County School District

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The pandemic has laid bare deep inequities in teaching and learning — and has further exacerbated challenges facing teachers and their profession in South Carolina: uneven access to high quality preparation and mentoring of new recruits, working conditions that undermine collective teacher efficacy, and professional learning and compensation systems that aggravate inequities in the distribution of teaching expertise.

Growing interest from legislative leaders in South Carolina has positioned SC-TEACHER (a center of the University of South Carolina College of Education) to lead an effort to re-imagine education professions to address teacher shortages and the needs of public schools, today and tomorrow. A number of innovations at the UofSC are underway, including  the Carolina Collaborative for Alternative Preparation (CarolinaCAP) that can leverage the kind of teacher preparation and school redesign models that can drive deeper, more equitable learning. CarolinaCAP is a collaboration among South Carolina school districts, the UofSC, and the Center for Teaching Quality with the goal to create a high-quality alternative pathway into teaching that marries the expertise of local teachers, schools, and districts with non-profits, data collection partners, and institutions of higher education. CarolinaCAP offers an accessible and flexible, competency-based, customized educator preparation program (EPP) to meet immediate needs of districts by:

1. Offering customized coursework designed by expert University of South Carolina faculty;

2. Providing individualized support from a coach selected by the district and trained in the CarolinaCAP Coach model;

3. Utilizing micro-credentials as way to offer alternatives for CarolinaCAP recruits to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions aligned with evidence-based practices

4. Drawing on an array of coaches as well as multiple opportunities for educators to learn and grow in virtual learning communities; and

5. Working with school districts to redesign teaching and learning so CarolinaCAP recruits co-teach with expert colleagues.

Prior to CarolinaCAP universities in South Carolina could not offer alternative pathways into teaching. The program was launched just prior to the onset of the pandemic — and not all program elements have been fully developed and realized. Like many other alternative pathways into teaching, CarolinaCAP offers ways for non-traditional recruits, with at least a bachelor’s degree, expedited entry into the profession. CarolinaCAP has not been able to work with school districts in such a way so the new recruits do not have to be the independent teacher of record prior to developing the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of a fully prepared teacher (e.g., based on INTASC standards).

Our goal is to build off CarolinaCAP — and other innovations  to develop policies and practices to scale up school-community-university partnership to recruit and retain teachers for deeper, more equitable learning for South Carolina.

Note: CarolinaCAP is currently working with 24 school districts (out of the state’s total of 81). We are working most closely with Charleston as our partnership includes CarolinaCAP as well as four other major initiatives: (a) early childhood (B to 8) educator development strategy; (b) elementary MAT programs to focus on equity and diversity, (c) a grow your own (GYO) approach to develop and support black male teachers in a homegrown residency model, and (4) our reimagination of the education professions prototype

SC-TEACHER, with new funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, is in the middle of a research anddevelopment process to inform the reimagination of the education profession that addresses educator shortages andfuel school innovations in South Carolina schools. Our effort will: (1) Document current UofSC teacher and schoolleader development innovations and how they can be aligned to support deeper, more equitable opportunitiesoutcomes for students; (2) Assess the human capital assets and needs of three school community partners and theirreadiness for the redesign of the education professions for school innovation; and (3) Develop an evidence-basedframework for South Carolina and inform legislative action for upcoming sessions of the General Assembly.]