Lowcountry

The Clemson University College of Education will use a $6 million U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) grant–the largest grant received from the USDOE in the College’s history–to expand an already successful collaboration with Charleston County School District. The research team will use funds to pair recruited novice teachers with highly effective, experienced mentor teachers in a one-year paid co-teaching apprenticeship and for various supports throughout the project.

Grant awards from the U.S. Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research (EIR) program are highly competitive and provide funding to create or develop evidence-based innovations to improve student achievement and educational attainment for students in under-resourced communities and rigorously evaluate such innovations. The U.S. Department of Education funded only 7% of submitted projects in 2024.

College faculty and staff previously collaborated with the school district to introduce the co-teaching model on a smaller scale at Pinehurst Elementary; the new grant funds will be used to expand the availability of the program for new teachers at Pinehurst and Dunston Elementary. Additionally, the College will partner with Claflin University, Clinton College and SC State University to recruit 60 novice educators to participate in the program. The first cohort of apprentice teachers will begin the program in the 2025-26 school year.

Laura Eicher, director of Clemson’s teacher residency and strategic initiatives and principal investigator on the grant, said the project is designed to recruit underrepresented novice teachers to the field to positively affect student achievement in economically disadvantaged communities. She looks forward to continuing fruitful collaboration with the district and evolving the co-teaching model further. The co-teaching model has already been expanded to the Pee Dee region of the state as a result of a separate USDOE grant.

“The project is built on a proven co-teaching model that the district and Clemson University know works,” Eicher said, “but more importantly, the College and district designed the project to attract and retain educators who are passionate community members invested in these schools and in student success.”

The Charleston County School District currently serves more than 8,300 students who are considered multilingual learners. Out of that student population, Spanish-speaking students represent over 83%. Attracting more novice teachers from the area and supporting them through an apprenticeship as they gain experience will help to better serve this population of students.

The South Carolina state report card tracks students’ progress in learning English with the goal of proficiency within five years of their enrollment in public schools. Eicher and the district have measured the pilot program’s success and seen it work for teachers and students, particularly multilingual students. After nearly two years of the pilot program, the Pinehurst rating has risen to average and very close to good, according to Paul Pallagi, principal at Pinehurst Elementary.

“In a very short amount of time, we have made major strides with all learners, especially our multilingual learners,” Pallagi said. “A major part of that success comes from having two teachers in the classroom for our students and having a mentor teacher available for our less experienced teachers to lean on day in and day out for an entire year.”

Eicher said the immediate and substantial gains align with what she has seen since Clemson introduced its teacher residency program in 2017. That program serves as the general blueprint for the co-teaching efforts in Charleston, albeit broadened to a larger group of novice teachers who may not be graduates of Clemson University.

An apprenticeship year offers novice teachers the chance to participate in a year-round residency with a skilled mentor teacher, an opportunity typically reserved for student teachers in traditional residency programs. During the apprenticeship, the novice and mentor teachers work as co-teachers, sharing responsibilities for planning, instructing and assessing with a shared goal of enhancing student learning. The mentor teacher offers real-time feedback and instructional coaching, enabling the novice teacher to grow professionally through daily collaborative experiences.

The Charleston project will allow novice teachers to receive mentoring, instructional coaching and ongoing professional development through graduate coursework, courses that lead to micro-credentials and monthly seminars with peers. Novice teachers will receive a pay bonus to continue solo teaching in a high-need school in their second year, and they continue receiving comprehensive induction support in their second and third years while solo teaching.

Mentor teachers will also benefit from a stipend to complete graduate coursework in instructional coaching, leading to a teacher leader endorsement on their SC teaching certification. 

According to Anita Huggins, superintendent of Charleston County Schools, a year alongside a mentor teacher would be influential in and of itself, but the support that the district and Clemson have built in goes much further in ensuring teacher and student success.

“This approach supports our experienced and novice teachers for the long haul, and teachers who are retained better serve their students and communities,” Huggins said. “We are concentrating our efforts on the schools that need it most while also setting our entire district up for success. By retaining expert teachers and training and retaining the next generation of effective teachers, we are building the capacity to serve our students for decades to come.”

While the project will immediately benefit the district, Clemson faculty and staff have also built in research components that will gauge its success and allow it to be replicated elsewhere. Eicher and other researchers will measure the program’s impact on student achievement and absenteeism, along with the efficacy and retention of novice and veteran teachers.

Kristin Gehsmann, dean of the College of Education, said the history-making grant is the product of a lot of hard work by faculty and staff in the College and by leaders and educators in the Charleston County School District. She hopes this will be the first of many collaborations between the College and district to improve teacher preparation and induction and, by extension, student outcomes in the Lowcountry. Gehsmann sees this as a prime example of Clemson University fulfilling its land-grant mission to the state.

“Being a land-grant institution means we are a university for the peopleand by the people of South Carolina. This grant will help us make stronger connections between several institutions of higher education and our public-school partners, transforming lives and communities in Charleston and beyond,” Gehsmann said.  “Strengthening our system of public education is critical to the health and vitality of the state and the people who call South Carolina home.  We are very proud of this already impactful partnership and look forward to continuing to expand its impact in Charleston County Schools.”