Have a bachelor’s and want to teach? New Winthrop University master’s program can help.
Winthrop University has received $3.8 million to help with teacher recruitment efforts in Chester, Chesterfield and Fairfield Counties.
The funds from the U.S. Department of Education will help Winthrop establish a teacher residency program over five years for individuals with bachelor’s degrees seeking their Master of Arts in Teaching, according to a release from the university.
The residencies will allow people with a bachelor’s to become teachers through the graduate program, the release states.
The program is limited to math, science and special education teachers as well as elementary and middle school teachers, said Lisa Johnson, associate dean of the college of education at Winthrop.
The federal funds will be used to establish Winthrop’s Network for Sustained Educational Residencies that Value Equity (NetSERVE) grant, according to the university.
“NetSERVE’s residency programs represent a key way in which Winthrop is working closely with community partners to meet the growing demand for highly effective teachers in South Carolina,” Winthrop President Dan Mahony said in a prepared statement. “Winthrop is continuing the tradition as a teacher education leader in our state and successfully leveraging grant funding to support South Carolina students.”
Teacher residency programs, in which students work full time beside teachers, have increased teacher retention and preparedness and student achievement, according to Clemson University. In November 2017, Clemson’s board of trustees approved the College of Education’s plans for South Carolina’s first university-led teacher residency program, The Herald previously reported.
Winthrop has been working for more than two years with local school districts to establish a teacher residency program, Johnson said.
Winthrop will partner with Chester, Chesterfield and Fairfield County school districts to pair teacher candidates with a paid residency program, Johnson said. In exchange, the candidates will teach three years in their district after graduation.
Students in teacher residency programs aren’t always paid and may have to give up part-time jobs to complete their internship requirements, Johnson said.
“We’ve got to figure out how to combat challenges they’re seeing to make it easier to become a teacher,” she said.
School districts across South Carolina are fighting teacher shortages and working to encourage people to enter the field.
“An astounding 5,300 teachers left their jobs in 2018 with only 1,642 new educators prepared to enter the profession,” Winthrop College of Education Dean Jennie Rakestraw said in a prepared statement. “This results in an obvious, and hard-hitting, discrepancy in supply and demand.”
Rural and high-poverty districts are seeing much of the need, Rakestraw said.
In the Chester County School District, 78.8% of students are living in poverty, according to the 2019 S.C. report card. In Chesterfield County, 74.9% of students live in poverty and in Fairfield County, that number is 86.9%.
“We believe it is important to prepare teachers to work in rural and high-poverty settings; and we also believe it is important to work closely in partnership with school districts as we prepare teachers and consider each school’s needs,” Rakestraw said in the statement.
The federal grant provides $3.8 million for the residency program, according to Winthrop. Non-governmental sources, including partner school districts, will cover the other $4.2 million needed, Johnson said. Winthrop and partner schools will work to continue the program after the five-year grant ends.
Wnthrop’s residency program will see its first students in Fall 2020, Johnson said.
For more information, call Winthrop University at 803-323-2211 or visit winthrop.edu.
This story was originally published October 7, 2019 at 1:43 PM.
