Teacher Cadet Program (Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention and Advancement-CERRA)

The Teacher Cadet Program is a secondary recruitment program aimed at attracting the “best and brightest” students to the teaching profession. The Program provides a curriculum-based, hands-on approach to educate students on the requirements to become a successful teacher and enables students to put their knowledge to work through a classroom internship. Its mission is to “encourage academically-able students who possess exemplary interpersonal and leadership skills to consider teaching as a career,” and it provides the opportunity for schools and districts to identify and recruit “homegrown” teachers and educators.

Our Program

Founded in 1986-87 and piloted in four South Carolina high schools, the program has grown to include approximately 160 South Carolina high schools serving over 2,500 juniors and seniors annually. Teacher Cadet is a rigorous college level, dual credit accrual course, and each school site is supported by one of 23 SC teacher education institutions in the Teacher Cadet network. For a student to be eligible for this class, they must have a “B” average in college preparatory courses, submit five written teacher recommendations, and write an essay on why they want to participate in the class. Video at www.teachercadets.com

Adopted in 33 states to date, the Teacher Cadet Program’s 44 rigorous standards are correlated with those of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), Association of Teacher Educators (ATE), National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), and Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC). In February 2010, those standards were adopted as the “national” standards for the Future Educators Association (F.E.A.), an international student organization dedicated to supporting young people interested in education-related careers

Counties Served

Statewide

Annual Cost

~$95 per student

Partner Organizations

• CERRA
• Future Educators Association (FEA)
• Teacher Education Institutions (College Partners)

Funding Sources

Education Improvement Act (EIA) funds, and site grants from LEAs

Evaluation and Outcomes

The Teacher Cadet Program was founded out of a concern for the condition of South Carolina’s teacher supply pool and a need for a centralized, “homegrown” teacher recruitment effort to increase the number of students in the education pipeline. South Carolina’s Teacher Cadet Program is the national program for pre- collegiate teacher preparation. No additional national program exists similar to the Teacher Cadet Program. The program began in South Carolina and has expanded its network to include 33 other states. (To see a list of active, national programs, please visit www.teachercadets.com.

Additionally, the Teacher Cadet Program’s curriculum, Experiencing Education, 10th Edition, is the only national curriculum that is all-inclusive, and its interactive technology hub, www.teachercadets.com, is the first of its kind to come to fruition in the nation that is commonly utilized and shared among pre-collegiate teacher preparation programs and organizations with national and international audiences.

The international student organization, Future Educators Association (FEA) endorses South Carolina’s Teacher Cadet Program and its curriculum, Experiencing Education.

Data Collection: Annually, CERRA releases data about its Teacher Cadet Program. Pre and Post Student Surveys are used to gauge student perceptions about education and education careers. This “second tier” course provides predictors about career selections, perceptions about post-secondary academic aspirations, and feedback regarding whether or not the course helped to change students’ minds favorably toward a career choice in teaching and/or education.

Measurable Results, 2010-11:

• During the 2010-2011 school year, 71% of all public high schools in South Carolina had Teacher Cadet Programs.
• Students served: 2,457 (529 males and 799 students of color)
• After completing the course, Cadet surveys indicated that 41% of the students chose teaching as the career they plan to pursue after college.
• After completing the course, nearly 1 out of every 5 (18%) Teacher Cadets who planned to teach indicated they had been undecided or planned to pursue a different career before taking the course.
• 94% of Cadets said that the course was either very effective or somewhat effective in helping them formulate a positive perception of the teaching profession.
• 27% percent of Teacher Cadets applied for admission into the Teaching Fellows Program in 2010-2011, which is another indicator that the Cadets planned to enter the education profession.
• Data provided by the South Carolina Department of Education shows that 4,043 former Teacher Cadets were employed in a South Carolina public school district during the 2008-2009 school year.
• More than 45,000 students have participated in the Teacher Cadet Program in its 25-year history. -One out of every five (20%) of these students has gone on to earn South Carolina teacher certification.

Grades Served

• High School (11-12)

Contact Information

Marcella Wine-Snyder, winesnyderm@cerra.org