NEWBERRY, S.C. — Many students will be headed back to the classroom in just a few days, and many districts are preparing to be short-staffed. Newberry College is working to combat that challenge.
“I don’t think you can live in South Carolina and not be affected if you have a child in the school system with the teacher shortage," said parent Kristi Palmer. "I think it weighs heavy on everyone's mind.”
Palmer is a concerned parent, as teacher vacancies continue to be a challenge across the state.
According to South Carolina’s Center of Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement, there are 1,276 certified teacher vacancies across the state.
Math positions make up 184 of those, the second largest number of vacancies behind special education.
That’s where Newberry College comes in. The school has received a grant from the South Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics to address the shortage by starting to motivate current middle and high school students to get into the profession.
“Teachers are leaving the profession, and we would like to put a stop to some of that when it comes to math by showing them the beauty of math,” said Math Education Professor Dr. Kim Neal at Newberry College.
She says the program will work with Newberry School District in four different ways.
“We will be inviting high school students and middle school students because we hope to catch them early. Students will come to Newberry College and they are going to go on field trips and participate in math activities in the different locals within our community,” said Susan Fernandez, Dean of Education at Newberry College.
The campus visits will allow students to participate in college math courses and activities, while also putting them with students currently on a math track. They also will have high school seniors and Newberry College freshmen and sophomores work with people in another career field that have to use math.
“I think that anything the community or college, specifically Newberry College, can do to get at those students when they are young and impressionable and mentor them through the whole process would definitely be a step in the right direction," Palmer added.
At the end of the fall semester, Newberry College will compile its results to see what was successful and the impact it’s had.