Teacher residency program for Clemson University

South Carolina’s first university-led teacher residency program is being introduced at Clemson University.  The program is to be housed in the College of Education’s Eugene T. Moore School of Education and made possible by a gift from Darla Moore, whose father had a distinguished career as a teacher, coach and principal in Lake City.  The Moore family’s $10 million endowment will make the pilot program possible in seven Upstate districts.  In the program, a degree option replaces student teaching in a student’s final under-graduate semester with graduate education classes, and the following year is for teacher residency.  According to George Petersen, founding dean of the College of Education, the degree option better prepares teachers and falls in line with the most successful efforts at educational reform to prepare and retain classroom-ready teachers.