TO:                 College of Education Students
FROM:          Dr. Thomas E. Hodges, Executive Associate Dean for Faculty & Academic Affairs
RE:                  Fall 2020 Clinical Experiences
DATE:             August 24, 2020

As the College of Education at the University of South Carolina finalizes clinical experience placements for the Fall 2020 semester, we want to make you aware of several policies related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In light of the University’s guidance regarding our return to campus and alongside the AccelerateEd Task Force recommendations, the College of Education will initiate the following policies regarding clinical experiences for the Fall 2020 semester:

1. To the extent possible and under the advisement of academic programs and school partners, the College of Education supports both face-to-face and virtual clinical experience placements throughout Fall 2020. Students who are placed on action plans may be required to complete face to face clinical experiences, even in situations where the student has requested a virtual clinical experience, which could delay program progression.

2. Students participating in face to face clinical experiences, including course-embedded clinical experiences, must complete the Academic Internship/Clinical Practicum Participation Acknowledgement of Risk and Waiver of Liability prior to attending the clinical experience.
3. In situations where University or College policy is in conflict with school district policy, the most restrictive policy should be followed regarding the clinical experience setting. Academic programs will work with Gamecock EdQuarters to ensure that district and school policies, including arrival and departure times, days of attendance, and other schedule modifications are communicated to students.
4. Consistent with University policy, clinical experience students who interact with anyone, including a student, teacher, administrator, or other school personnel in the clinical experiences setting who test positive for COVID-19 should immediately inform their clinical experience supervisor (university supervisor, course instructor, program coordinator, etc.) and should self-quarantine for a period of up to fourteen (14) days, but may be released when indicated by University Health Services. Accommodations for students in quarantine will be made by individual programs.
5. Students who test positive for COVID-19 should self-isolate for a period of at least ten (10) days, and up to a period of time determined by the student’s health care professional. The student should immediately inform their clinical experience supervisor. The student may reenter the field under advisement of their health care professional, and may be required to provide written release from that health care. As a part of a public health emergency, the College of Education will inform clinical placement sites of positive COVID-19 tests to avoid further spread or control an outbreak, particularly in situations where there is concern that the clinical experience student may have been positive while engaging in the clinical experience. Accommodations for students in isolation will be made by individual programs.

The College of Education will continue to communicate with you throughout the semester regarding any changes in policies or plans. Please feel free to reach out to Dr. Chris Burkett, Executive Director of Gamecock EdQuarters, at burkett3@mailbox.sc.edu with any ideas, questions or concerns you may have.

• Check-in daily with employees, be available and responsive,
• Provide guidance on assignments and tasks. Listen to those under your supervision who have homecare responsibilities while working at home. Do your best to be flexible and accommodating. If necessary, consider assign other members of your team to help if it is needed.
• Give a clear outline of expectations and responsibilities.
• Ensure employees have the IT hardware, software and professional tools to complete their work effectively at home. If connectivity issues are encountered, work with COE IT to resolve.
• Effectively monitor the completion of work assigned to employees in your area. Consider the use of regular status reports. Make use of video or telephone conferences as needed to provide direction and monitor the status of work.
• Approve weekly timesheets for non-exempt employees as usual. For those employees who are unable to enter time due to connectivity issues, assist with time entry as needed.

• Work your regular hours if possible, but if due to childcare or other needs, work at the time most suitable for you. Prioritize your work, and if limited in time do the high priority work first. Should childcare or other home responsibilities impair your ability to work, raise these with your supervisor.
• Check-in with your Supervisor at least daily, and track your hours worked in the Time and Absence System as you would have in the office.
• Be available by phone/email during core business hours, and be as responsive as is possible to all communications.
• Ask questions on assignments as needed. If possible, plan your workday as you would have if you were in the office.
• Provide your supervisor with regular status reports for assigned tasks.
• Remember you may be working with confidential information. Treat the confidentiality of your work accordingly.

TO: College of Education & Professional Education Unit Students
FROM: Dr. Thomas E. Hodges, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
RE: Updated Response to COVID-19
DATE: March 11, 2020
_____________________________________________________________________________

The University of South Carolina has issued information about COVID-19 to the University community, including
travel restrictions and alerts, spring break tips, and other information from the Center for Disease Control and
World Health Organization. Information distributed to the University community is available at the university's  novel coronavirus page. Two items of importance to your academic experiences were announced today:

1. Classes will be canceled for the week after spring break (March 16 – 22).
2. From Monday, March 23 through Friday, April 3, we will suspend all face-to-face instruction in lectures,
discussion sections, seminars and other similar classroom settings and move to virtual instruction.

The College of Education has been in communication with the Provost’s office regarding particular student issues.
Below are plans for the time periods above for specific student populations within the College of Education and for
field experiences, the Professional Education Unit at large.

• Undergraduate and graduate students engaged in full-time internship experiences. All full-time
  internship experiences are canceled for March 16 – 22. This includes both your internship experiences and
  any planned seminar courses associated with those internships. Your program faculty and university
  supervisors, as applicable, are being made aware of this cancelation. You should plan to return to your
  internship experience as originally scheduled on Monday, March 23rd. All internship experiences taking
  place this week may continue as planned. If you are concerned for your personal health and well-being
  related to your internship experience, please contact your university supervisor and academic advisor.
  
  
• Undergraduate and graduate students engaged in any practicum, early internship, or embedded
  field experiences in courses (other than full-time internship). You will not attend your field experience
  setting between March 16 – April 3. This includes experiences that reside on the University of South
  Carolina campus. You should communicate with course instructors with regards to plans for online
  instruction during March 23 – April 3. Please also allow time for your course instructors/supervisors to
  thoughtfully consider options for you that make the most of the instructional time available.
  
  
• Doctoral student qualifying and comprehensive exams, and proposal and dissertation defenses.
  All aforementioned items are canceled March 16 – 22. All exams and defenses scheduled for March 23 –April 3 should either be rescheduled or moved to distance/virtual format in consultation with your faculty
  advisor(s).
  
  
• Graduate, Teaching, and Research Assistants. Please see the separately attached announced letter to
  faculty and staff from the university.

The College of Education and Professional Education Unit are committed to providing you the best educational
experience possible. The unique challenge presented with COVID-19 requires some flexibility and grace for faculty,
staff and students alike. This is an ongoing situation and may have additional updates and changes based on available
information as well as consultations from university and health officials. Please feel free to reach out to your
academic advisor and course instructors with questions you may have.

Emergency Provisions for Clinical Experience (Student Teaching) Requirements

Approved by the State Board of Education March 10, 2020
Download pdf

Emergency Provisions for Clinical Experience (Student Teaching) Requirements
This policy provides guidance to educator preparation providers regarding clinical experience
(student teaching) requirements in the event that unexpected or emergency events and circumstances cause extended closures of South Carolina’s institutions of higher education and/or the state’s PK–12 public schools. If such closures are related to public health emergencies, including but not limited to pandemic illness, candidates must adhere to all policies of the enrolling institution, the school districts in which they have been placed for clinical experiences, the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE), and state and federal health agencies.

Clinical Experience Requirements
On August 8, 2012, the State Board of Education (SBE) approved the following minimum requirements for the clinical or student teaching experience:

• The clinical experience must be the equivalent of a minimum of twelve weeks or sixty full days.
  The candidate must teach independently a minimum of ten full days in one setting.
• During the clinical phase, the candidate adheres to the daily schedule of the cooperating teacher including activities such as bus duty, faculty meetings and parent conferences.
• Each candidate is supervised by one or more clinical faculty from the institution of higher education (IHE) who has preparation in both the supervision of education and in the teaching area of the candidate and is trained in the state’s system for Assisting, Developing, and Evaluating Professional Teaching (ADEPT).
• Each candidate must be supervised by one or more school-based clinical faculty (i.e., the cooperating teacher) who is trained in the ADEPT system.

 

Expanded ADEPT System Requirements for Pre-service Teachers
On April 10, 2018, the SBE approved the following requirements for teacher candidates as part of the Expanded ADEPT Support and Evaluation System Guidelines:

• During student teaching, each teacher candidate must receive formative observations, written and oral feedback, and assistance regarding all South Carolina Teaching Standards (SCTS) Indicators from both the IHE and his or her school-based cooperating/supervising teachers throughout the clinical practice.
• The formative evaluation process must include a minimum of four classroom observations (including at least two formative observations by the IHE supervisor and at least two formative observations by the school-based supervisor), each followed by appropriate feedback and assistance.
• Teacher candidates must receive a minimum of two summative classroom observations regarding the SCTS Indicators.
• Both the IHE supervisor and the school-based supervisor must participate in the summative evaluation process.
• The summative evaluation process must be aligned with the Expanded ADEPT summative evaluation guidelines, must include appropriate data collection and evidence documentation procedures (including a minimum of two classroom observations—one by the IHE supervisor and one by the school-based supervisor), and must ensure that the candidate receives written feedback on his or her performance in terms of each of the SCTS Indicators.

Requirements for Modifying the Clinical Experience
As necessitated by extended periods of school closure, providers have flexibility to arrange temporary placements in other appropriate settings, provide virtual learning opportunities, or implement alternative assignments and instruction. In the event of closures that prevent teacher candidates from completing a clinical or student teaching experience of at least sixty days, providers should work with partner districts and schools so that candidates still have meaningful opportunities to apply the knowledge of content and pedagogy they have gained in academic settings and prior field experiences. These opportunities include designing lessons and units of instruction, selecting and implementing instructional strategies, teaching lessons and content, assessing learning to evaluate student progress and inform instructional decisions, creating supportive learning environments, and managing the classroom effectively.

At minimum, providers must ensure that:

• the impacted clinical experience remains as close as possible to sixty days;
• candidates teach independently as close as possible to the ten full days, but at least eight days (or the equivalent number of school hours), during which the candidate assumes primary responsibility for the cooperating teacher’s daily instructional schedule;
• candidates receive a minimum of two formative ADEPT evaluations (one by the IHE supervisor and one by the cooperating teacher), written and oral feedback, and assistance related to the SCTS Indicators;
• candidates receive a minimum of two summative classroom observations regarding the SCTS Indicators and that both the IHE supervisor and cooperating teacher participate in the provider’s approved summative evaluation process and evidence documentation procedures; and
• each candidate receives written feedback on his or her performance in terms of each of the SCTS indicators and overall success in completing the requirements of the provider’s clinical experience.

Under this policy, providers have flexibility to make comparable emergency provisions for clinical experiences in educator preparation programs leading to initial certification in service fields (i.e., library media specialist, speech-language therapist, and school counselor).

Any extended period of school closure may negatively impact a candidate’s ability to improve his or her performance over time. In instances in which a provider determines that school closure has impeded a candidate’s ability to improve upon identified performance deficiencies in order to complete the clinical experience successfully, the SCDE urges providers to consider possible options for candidates they believe may be successful with additional time and support. These options might include extending the clinical experience for the candidate, if possible, or assigning a grade of Incomplete until the candidate can return to the clinical setting. The SCDE recognizes that providers must follow policies in place at their respective institutions in determining such options.

Providers that modify the clinical experience under this emergency policy must provide written notification to the SCDE through a process and timeline to be communicated by the Office of Educator Services.

This memo was distributed to College of Education students on March 5, 2020

TO: College of Education & Professional Education Unit Students
FROM: Dr. Thomas E. Hodges, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
RE: Response to COVID-19 & Clinical Experience Placements
DATE: March 5, 2020

The University of South Carolina has issued information about COVID-19 to the University community, including travel restrictions and alerts, spring break tips, and other information from the Center for Disease Control and World Health Organization. Information distributed to the University community is available at the university's  novel coronavirus page.

The College of Education has developed contingency plans for clinical experiences (internships, practicums, student teaching, site-based courses, research, etc.) in the event campus operations are interrupted. Two potential scenarios exist:

1. Should classes be canceled for a period of time, all students engaged in clinical experience settings will not continue their clinical experience for the duration of the cancellation.
2. Should classes be moved online for a period of time, all students engaged in clinical experiences will continue in their clinical experience, subject to state and local agency decisions governing the clinical experience settings.

The following are expectations of you related to COVID-19:

• For the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester, students engaged in clinical settings are required to notify the College of Education of all travel outside the United States. Students, faculty or staff traveling to a country with a CDC Travel Warning - Level 3 or an area experiencing widespread or sustained transmission of COVID-19 will be asked to self-quarantine for 14 days upon return at their permanent residence or at an off-campus location before they can return to campus or the clinical experience setting. Travelers could also be subject to assessment by federal health officials at airports upon re-entry into the U.S. or restricted travel within your community by South Carolina health officials. Submit notification of travel outside the United States to Ms. Maggie Frick (hillme4@mailbox.sc.edu).
• Students engaged in clinical settings should follow all state and local agency expectations of the faculty and staff employed in the clinical experience setting. That is, any policies related to COVID-19 that govern employees of the setting must also be followed by clinical experience students.
• In the event of absenteeism related to pandemic illness, the College of Education will work with students to address make-up of time, if necessary.

Finally, the College of Education remains in ongoing communication with the South Carolina Department of Education, Office of Educator Services, regarding required clinical experiences impacting eligibility for certification and will address those needs directly with impacted students.