Copyright Live 5 News WCSC
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A new partnership is making it easier for teachers to learn the best ways to instruct reading, while giving them credit for their hard work. It’s all in an effort that aims to help more children in the Lowcountry become strong readers. The new partnership with The College of Charleston and Lowcountry Literacy project is a big step forward in supporting teachers while helping local students improve their reading. Starting this school year, teachers who take part in the Lowcountry Literacy Project’s special reading program, called Orton-Gillingham training, can now earn professional development credits that can go toward their higher education, help with licensing renewal and ultimately help increase pay. This is available to any teacher in South Carolina who is currently teaching and has a bachelor’s degree. Catherine Hagberg, the Director of Training and Implementation, Lowcountry Literacy Project, says this doesn’t only help the teachers; it will ultimately increase the literacy rate in Lowcountry students. “The benefit of taking this professional development is that College of Charleston and us at the Lowcountry Literacy Project are able to really align our initiatives to have public school teachers have access to this evidence-based researched multisensory approach to teaching students how to read,” Hagberg says. She says teachers all have renewal credits that they need to get and the hard work and long hours in training is now paying off. “This is a brand-new partnership just recently over the past few weeks with the College of Charleston and it is so important to our mission because teachers are in our training. It’s 70 hours of training, they’re in a 100-hour practicum all year long… all of this is so much work that they are able to now get credit for,” Hagberg says. Hagberg also says they want to reach teachers at the college level. It is a yearlong practice and starts in the summer. South Carolina teachers who are interested in joining can click here.
