How Winthrop Plans to Address Teacher Shortage in SC Through New $6M Residency Program

Winthrop Universitysupported by a $6 million federal education grant, will lead a new program to create a statewide model for year-long teacher residencies.

It is aimed at recruiting and retaining teachers during an ongoing teacher shortage in South Carolina.

SC RISE is a five-year project funded by the federal Education Innovation and Research Program. Winthrop is the lead institution and will partner with the University of South Carolina, Clemson University and Columbia College.

It also involves the state Center for Teacher Recruitment, Retention and Promotion that is based in Winthrop.

Paid accommodation will be the focus of the new programme.

Winthrop students working toward teaching degrees must complete a year-long internship. Paying students during these internships would put them on par with architects, engineers and pharmacists who have also required, but paid, internships to obtain a license in these fields.

The federal grant announcement does not indicate how much teaching candidates would earn during paid residencies.

The grant-funded program starts with middle schools that partner with the universities in their areas. Later phases would add grade levels and other areas in South Carolina.

Which SC schools need teachers?

Last fall, 71 of 75 public school districts in South Carolina reported teacher hiring, vacancies and other data to the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement. These districts combined for 55,000 certified teaching positions.

An additional 1,043 certified positions were available when the school year started.

Primary schools had the most vacancies with 340. Special education (108 vacancies), third to fifth grades (82) and kindergarten through second grade (62) had the most vacancies in primary schools.

Special education (62), mathematics (40), science (30), social studies (28) and language arts (23) had the most vacancies among middle schools. Secondary schools needed the most teachers for special education (70), mathematics (49), language skills and science (25 each).

The South Carolina Department of Education lists subjects and geographic areas each year that face critical needs for more teachers. This information is used for a loan forgiveness program it applies to students who become certified and teach in these areas.

Geographic areas include poverty and other data, but subject lists are dependent on teacher hires and vacancies.

Out of 1,402 public schools listed by the Department of Education, 895 schools qualify for critical need teacher loans.

Parts of York County are doing better than most areas of the state.

Only one of 10 Clover schools (Kinard Elementary School) qualifies for the loan program. Six of 20 Fort Mill schools qualify (Banks Trail Middle School plus Doby’s Bridge, Fort Mill, Orchard Park, Springfield and Tega Cay elementary schools).

In Rock Hill, 21 of 26 schools qualify for the loan program. Four out of nine schools in York qualify for the state program. They are York Middle School and Harold C. Johnson, Hickory Grove Sharon and Jefferson elementary schools.

In Lancaster County, 16 of 23 schools qualify. Those that do not are Andrew Jackson middle and high schools, Buford elementary and high schools, Indian Land middle and high schools and the district’s career center.

Nine out of 14 schools in Chester County qualify. They include all schools in the Chester and Great Falls communities.

A story about helping

The new federal grant is not the first effort to help attract new teachers at Winthrop. Founded as a teacher training school Nearly 140 years ago, Winthrop has a long history of producing educators.

One of the largest grants the school received since President Edward Serna took that role three years ago was a $1.4 million program for scholarships to attract STEM students to teaching careers.

A prior grant created NetSERVE program that created teacher stays. The new federal grant could expand that and lead to a statewide model.

The new grant can lay a foundation for sustainable and equitable practices across the country, Serna said in the grant announcement. Serna sees it as a transformative strategy to improve education.

“It speaks volumes for Winthrop’s commitment to teacher preparation, recruitment and retention,” Serna said.

Progress on SC teacher shortage

Despite the statewide teacher vacancies, districts reported 7,381 new hires last year, compared with 6,532 teachers who did not return to districts from the previous year, according to the Recruitment and Retention Center at Winthrop.

Of the teachers who left the districts, 1,786 of them were rehired in another district in South Carolina.

The 1,043 statewide vacancies this school year is the lowest number since 2020-21, and is a decrease of 570 vacancies from last school year.

Jennifer Garrett is the coordinator of research and evaluation for the Winthrop Center. This year marks the first time since 2019-20 that districts across the state reported a decline in teacher vacancies, Garrett said in the center’s annual report released in December.

“The significant decrease in these numbers indicates some degree of improvement related to recruitment and retention efforts in our state,” Garrett said in the report.