School Context Study Teams

The University of South Carolina developed School Context Study Teams to enhance the environment of partner professional development schools. Working with Richland One and Two K-12 PDS, six teams of teachers, administrators, university faculty, and pre-service graduate students – the context study team – work collaboratively in meeting the specific needs of the individual schools.

School context study teams move beyond traditional professional development school/university partnerships models based primarily on placement and on supervision of pre-service teachers. Instead, the context team connects schools with content specialists and other consultants and provides strategies for improving student achievement through direct grant funding for needed projects and programs related to teacher professional development.

For many years, urban schools in Richland One and Two have served as the clinical sites for USC’s College of Education. Many of these schools each face challenges related to their individual history of poverty and low achievement related to their high needs population.

Teachers and administrators are interested and enthusiastic about building a stronger school/university tie, one that is substantive and related to their specific needs. For this reason, building context teams requires careful communication, patience and sensitivity to both the obvious and subtle characteristics of the individual school environment.

A context team has defining qualities in a school environment. For example, teams include top administration, cooperating teachers, interns (student teachers) and other university liaisons. Working within this structure, Arts and Science faculty develop relationships with each school through school visits, classroom observations, talk back sessions and when appropriate, consult with interns and teachers on inquiry and/or classroom research projects.

The context teams differ in faculty involvement and product development as a result of the individual needs assessments. It is expected that the team function and format may change from year to year and it is important to emphasize flexibility as the study group defines and redefines itself.