Project Description: This project is designed to “support the development of a highly qualified teaching force in South Carolina that is more diverse considering ethnicity, race, and socio-economic status.” It has four main objectives:

• to review, enhance, and expand course offerings for freshman and sophomores in teacher education at 2 and 4 year institutions (work plan 1),
• to increase the diversity of students in teacher education programs by expanding recruitment efforts to middle school, high school, and 2 year college sites (work plan 4),
• to establish a Professional Learning Community (PLC) that insures the success of those pursing teacher certification at critical phases in their development (work plan 6), and
• to review the 2 and 4 year partnership model, replicate it at other institutional settings in South Carolina and disseminate information about the effort locally, regionally and nationally (work plan 9).

Participants include the University of South Carolina, Richland School District One, Midlands Tech, Orangeburg-Calhoun Tech, College of Charleston, Charleston County School District, CERRA, and Bell South. The OPE’s role is to evaluate the effectiveness of the projects activities in achieving the project goals.

Faculty: Tammiee Dickenson, Ph. D

Project Leaders: Heather Bennett

Research Team: Joanna Gilmore, Brett Ermer, Mugdha Galande & Jessalyn Smith