Part Time Teaching Licenses: South Carolina

Analysis of South Carolina's policies

South Carolina offers the Adjunct License as a part-time license with minimal requirements. Applicants must have a bachelor's degree or higher in the intended teaching field or a passing score on a subject-matter exam. Candidates must also have five years of occupational experience in a related field.

The state requires that the applicant's teaching position be less than a 0.5 full-time equivalent position and not exceed two-credit-bearing courses in an academic year. Employment under this license must not displace a certified teacher already employed.

Citation

http://www.scteachers.org/cert/certpdf/TeacherCertificationManual.pdf

Recommendations for South Carolina

Require applicants to pass a subject-matter test.
South Carolina is commended for offering a license that increases districts' flexibility to staff certain subjects, including many STEM areas, that are frequently hard to staff or may not have high enough enrollment to necessitate a full-time position. Although this license is designed to enable individuals who have significant content knowledge to teach, South Carolina should still require a subject-matter test of all candidates, including those with a major in the intended teaching field.  While the state does require relevant work experience and a content degree, only a subject-matter test ensures that teachers on the Adjunct License know the specific content they will need to teach.

State response to our analysis

South Carolina was helpful in providing NCTQ the facts necessary for this analysis.