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Initiative targeting community issues to improve academic outcomes

Staff //November 21, 2019//

Initiative targeting community issues to improve academic outcomes

Staff //November 21, 2019//

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A new initiative by the University of South Carolina is designed to help communities contribute to the success of their students.

Robert Caslen, USC president, announced the Accelerator for Learning and Leadership South Carolina, or All4SC, outreach partnership with the Fairfield County School District at a news conference Wednesday at the Fairfield County School District’s headquarters in Winnsboro. The university pledged its resources to help Fairfield County improve academic outcomes for its students while improving community issues such as food and housing stability and economic mobility.

Robert Caslen (left), University of South Carolina president, and Fairfield County School Superintendent J.R. Green announce the Accelerator for Learning and Leadership for South Carolina Wednesday in Winnsboro. (Photo/Renee Sexton)Caslen said community support and development are the responsibility of a flagship university such as the University of South Carolina.

“A flagship university has the people of South Carolina as its clients, and it’s important that we represent the people of South Carolina,” he said. “We want to do our part to make our university accessible and affordable for the people of South Carolina. And this is the purpose, this is why it’s driving us to come out here and partner with Fairfield County, because we think we can have a part in that.”

Although Caslen said the program was designed to encourage Fairfield County students to attend the University of South Carolina, he said any pursuit of higher will benefit the community.

The cross-disciplinary collaboration, administered through USC’s College of Education, will provide health care, mentoring and educational opportunities to students of all ages. USC researchers and professionals from 12 academic programs will work with community leaders in Fairfield County.

For example, the university’s school of music may offer band workshops in Fairfield County Schools, exposing younger students to potential mentors, or STEM programs could provide accelerated high school experiences students can transfer to Midlands Technical College and later to the University of South Carolina.

Earlier this year, MTC announced the Fairfield County Promise Program, which provides free tuition to district graduates.

“If you recognize that as the young people of this community go, so does our community, you realize it’s in your interests … to invest in the young people of this community,” said Fairfield County School Superintendent J.R. Green. “The young people of this community will eventually become adults, and they’re going to survive one way or another. Either you equip them with the legitimate means to be productive citizens or they’ll survive without the legitimate means to be productive citizens. Either way, they’re going to survive. So I would suggest it’s in all of our interests to invest in the young people of this community so that we can improve our community.”

Organizers with ALL4SC are reaching out to Fairfield County businesses, civic groups, community programs, churches, schools and parents to participate in the program. The plan includes community-based schooling and educator and policy development that connects people, programs and funding.

University officials say the partnership, which will eventually be expanded statewide, will serve as a model for other communities. The goal is to encourage students to pursue higher education and bring their knowledge back home to contribute to their hometown’s economy.

“There’s a lot that educators can do if we work with the home, if we work with the community,” said ALL4SC director and USC education professor Barnett Berry. “Right now while there are so many problems outside of school, and let’s face it, 80% of the differences in student learning are from out-of-school factors. So the educators have to work with the health organizations, we have to work with the boys club, the girls club, the after-school programs.”

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