Voorhees Center of Excellence for Educator Preparation and Innovation (EPI Center) is the recipient of a $26.7 million-dollar U. S. Department of Education grant aimed to improve student achievement in Georgetown County School District (GCSD) and Fairfield County School District.
“We’ve had a great collaborative partnership with Voorhees University for the past two years, so I was immediately interested in expanding that relationship when approached about the grant application,” shared Superintendent Keith Price. “The EPI Center recognizes the challenges in GCSD, South Carolina, and across the nation when it comes to quality teacher recruitment and retention. This grant prioritizes those efforts and combines them with a focus on student achievement. We have a significant opportunity to make a positive impact in Georgetown County, and I am excited about what lies ahead.”
The REAP: Rewarding Educator Achievement and Performance grant aims to improve the quality of education, elevate educator effectiveness, raise student achievement, and increase equity in learning. Working in partnership with Voorhees, GCSD will implement two tiers of service: tier one will utilize a comprehensive, data-driven Human Capital Management System to attract, retain and award educator effectiveness and tier 2 will provide the resources and support needed for continued professional growth of GCSD’s teachers and school leaders.
“We believe by providing the necessary support and utilizing validated tools to assess educator effectiveness, we can increase student attainment of state academic performance standards, help close the achievement gap, and improve equity,” said Dr. Green-Jackson, Voorhees University Professor and Director of the EPI Center.