The South Carolina Commission on Higher Education hosted the third annual Centers of Excellence Symposium on May 15, celebrating innovation and achievement in classrooms and colleges across the state. Centered on the theme “Engagement Excellence: Educational Success Stories Across South Carolina,” the event highlighted the impactful work of the Centers through powerful firsthand stories and program achievements.
The Centers of Excellence program, administered by the CHE, awards competitive grants to institutions of higher education to establish hubs of expertise focused on improving teacher education and student outcomes—especially in rural and under-resourced areas. These centers serve as incubators for effective practices and have delivered meaningful, measurable progress in their schools.
“The Centers of Excellence produce great ideas, and great ideas should be shared. Today's symposium creates a unique opportunity for innovation and collaboration,” said CHE President and Executive Director Dr. Jeff Perez. “The efforts of the centers and the projects you'll hear about today offer cutting edge approaches to high quality education, educator preparation, student achievement and offer ways to build strong partnerships with our K-12 schools.”
Centers of Excellence key highlights
“Today is all about engagement, excellence, sharing, and the celebration,” said Dr. Lishu Yin, CHE program manager for Educator Quality, Retention, and Recruitment. “We are here not to just provide updates but to spotlight the success stories that are driving real measurable outcomes in teacher retention and student learning outcomes. Without your support, without your work, it's impossible for us to get anything done.”
She noted that for the 2024-25 academic year, participation has increased to eight host institutions which focus on three major topics: teacher retention and recruitment, leadership development, and the Science of Reading. This year also marked a first, as Columbia College’s Alternative Pathways to Educator Certification (APEC) program was successfully replicated at Coker College.
Dr. Sarah Hunt-Baron, dean of the Lander University School of Education, introduced a new website for the Center for the Advancement of Reading and Literacy Instruction (CARLI), a collaborative approach in pre-service teacher instruction in reading and literacy grounded in the Science of Reading and evidence-based approaches to instruction. The site was created to share materials used in instruction with pre-service teachers, as well as the materials the pre-service teachers use in their tutoring. She also noted that this semester, 84 teacher candidates were in local schools providing reading tutoring services to the Grade K-2 students.
Dr. Tammy Pawloski, Director of the Center of Excellence to Prepare Teachers of Children of Poverty at Francis Marion University, also invited attendees to participate in a free Wednesday webinar series hosted by the Center. She also highlighted the Lexia Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) training that the center facilitates to higher education institutions.
The afternoon session included frontline success stories from institutions as well as tutors and program participants.
“Through our centers, we are not only seeing progress in reading outcomes, we're also seeing encouraging results in teacher retention and leadership development,” said South Carolina Department of Education Director of Instructional Support Dr. Alisha Green during her closing remarks. “These efforts are building stronger school cultures, creating sustainable pipelines of high-quality educators and supporting leaders who are truly, deeply invested in their communities.”
Additional information on the various programs is available on the CHE Centers of Excellence web page.