Teach for America- South Carolina

In your first year, you’ll learn how to deliver rigorous lessons, create welcoming learning environments, and exercise self-awareness as you develop relationships with students, families, and fellow educators.

To make sure you’re successful, here are some ways we help you:

Establish Your Teaching Skills:

• 1-1 coaching
• Group learning experiences
• Teach For America Summits
• Work Toward Your Teaching Certification***

Utilize Your Teaching Resources:

• On-demand teaching resources
• Mental health counseling
• Professional development workshops
• Regional support teams

Build Your Community By:

• Cultivating connections with fellow corps members
• Attending regional social events
• Getting to know your school community

By reflecting on your first year, you’ll develop new approaches to teaching and leadership that sharpen your focus on students' individual success.

In your second year, we’ll help you hone your skills as you explore post-corps leadership pathways that align with your experience, skills, and interests in facilitating systemic change.

• Refine & strengthen your teaching skills
• Explore your career paths: Identify ways to promote fairness in your career
• Learn how to change systems: Understand systems and change efforts for equal access in education
• Contribute to the community: Lead local efforts alongside peers & your community

Teach For America South Carolina corps members are not required to pursue professional certification, but this license is necessary if you wish to teach beyond your corps commitment and/or be able to transfer a teaching license to other states.

For professional certification, corps members must enroll with our university partner, Francis Marion University.

There are two options with FMU:

• Certification Only: 9 credit hours, can be completed in one semester or spread out as you like, anytime within three years of starting the program.
• Certification + Master's: 11 month, fully virtual program. Most start in January of their second year and finish in December of their third year teaching.

Upcoming Deadline #1: Apply by 9/18/2023 for an interview decision by 9/26/2023 and final admissions decision by 10/26.

Upcoming Deadline #2: Apply by 10/30/2023 for an interview decision by 11/8/2023 and final admissions decision by 12/16/2023.

Upcoming Deadline #3: Apply by 2/5/2024 for an interview decision by 2/13/2024 and final admissions decision by 3/12/2024.

Upcoming Deadline #4- CRITICAL NEEDS DEADLINE: Apply by 3/15/2024 for an interview decision by 3/22/2024.

Please note that we highly encourage prospects to speak to a Teach For America South Carolina staff member prior to applying. While applying at the earliest deadline might be best for some people, we advise you to apply at the deadline that will allow you to submit the strongest application and prepare most for your interview. There is no admissions advantage to applying earlier than at a later deadline.

As a Teach For America corps member, you will immediately serve as a full-time classroom teacher. It doesn't get more hands-on than that!

TFA provides a robust network of support to ensure you're successful within our model. During Pre-Service Training, you are equipped with a core set of skills to facilitate rigorous and supportive classrooms. Then, you get the chance to apply what you’ve learned by teaching local summer school students.

In Years 1 & 2, you will receive ongoing coaching, mentorship, and development. You will be able to tap into a wealth of resources to build your instructional skills.

A commitment to fairness and supportive practices is central to how we develop your instructional skills and broader leadership.

At Pre-Service, through a combination of modules and learning experiences, you will:

• Cultivate self-awareness to increase alignment between intentions, actions, and impact
• Draw connections between the disparities in the education system and the roles teachers can play to affect change
• Collaborate with a variety of individuals to create a vision for educational fairness that enhances student outcomes. This development continues throughout your commitment via personalized coaching, mentorship, and development, geared towards supporting your unique classroom and set of students.

As a corps member you are guided by a Managing Director, Leadership Development who serves as your mentor and coach from the time you are accepted to the end of your 2nd year. They observe your classroom at least 3-4 times per year, and through 1-1 coaching conversations, support you in creating a personalized development plan.

You will be connected to an on-demand network of resources and programs to meet your needs as you grow as a teacher leader. TFA also provides access to mental health support, plus targeted career development and coaching to map your long-term professional growth and impact.

Nationally, we partner with BetterLesson and utilize innovative teacher evaluation tools and student experience measures such as Teachstone’s Classroom Assessment Scoring System and Cultivate surveys.

Locally in SC, we partner with Francis Marion University, where through your certification and Master's coursework, you gain access to teaching expertise and build a stronger instructional foundation for the classroom.

Our priorities are centered in the experience of our corps members, their students, and our partner schools, and we leverage an ongoing set of surveys to ensure we are capturing feedback to continuously improve our programming.