1. (A) The South Carolina Commission on Higher Education, with the assistance of the Department of Education, State Board of Education, the Center for Research on Teacher Education (SC-TEACHER), and the Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office, shall form a commission to conduct a detailed assessment of the current data infrastructure, develop metrics, determine weightings, construct a unified data upload system, and construct public and private facing data reports including, but not limited to, annually publishing before November first an online report card known as the "South Carolina Educator Preparation Report Card". The report card must be made available on the State Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education's websites. The commission shall develop a format that each educator preparation program must use on its website that shows all required information regarding its respective program. The report card shall evaluate the ability of educator preparation programs, including alternative programs, to prepare new teachers for success in South Carolina's classrooms, as well as describe the school and district contexts in which completers work. The report card must include data on a variety of measures to provide an overall picture of how well each educator preparation program prepares effective educators and meets state goals including, but not limited to, the following:

   1. (1) number of undergraduate and graduate completers;
   2. (2) placement and one, three, and five year retention rates by districts and regions of the State;
   3. (3) performance-based assessments of candidates;
   4. (4) ability of program to recruit a strong, diverse cohort of candidates and prepare them to teach in the content areas of greatest need;
   5. (5) quality of clinical experiences, including access to qualified and trained mentors, time in the field, and opportunities to apply knowledge and skills in the clinical setting;
   6. (6) effectiveness of individuals who completed a provider's program and are employed in a public school classroom. The information must be differentiated by provider and, where applicable, across content areas; and
   7. (7) graduate and employer satisfaction.
2. (B) Under consultation with the commission, SC-TEACHER shall develop metrics and instrumentation to evaluate the working conditions of educators, extent and quality of mentoring available to new educators, and universal graduate and employer satisfaction surveys.
3. (C) The State Department of Education, each educator preparation program, and each school district shall report all data to SC-TEACHER as requested by the State Board of Education to complete the evaluation.

HISTORY: 2022 Act No. 185 (H.3591), Section 1, eff May 16, 2022.