Unsatisfactory Evaluations: South Carolina

Exiting Ineffective Teachers Policy

Goal

The state should articulate consequences for teachers with unsatisfactory evaluations, including specifying that teachers with multiple unsatisfactory evaluations should be eligible for dismissal.

Nearly meets goal
Suggested Citation:
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2011). Unsatisfactory Evaluations: South Carolina results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/SC-Unsatisfactory-Evaluations-10

Analysis of South Carolina's policies

South Carolina requires that all teachers who receive an unsatisfactory rating on any domain of the formal evaluation be placed on an improvement plan. The state also stipulates that an annual contract teacher who has not successfully met formal evaluation criteria "will have his or her teaching certificate automatically suspended by the State Board of Education" and is ineligible for employment as a classroom teacher for a minimum of two years. To re-enter as an annual contract teacher, he or she must "complete a state-approved remediation plan" in areas of identified deficiencies. Upon completion of this requirement, the teacher is eligible for employment under an annual contract for one additional year to continue toward the next contract level.

Citation

Recommendations for South Carolina

Make dismissal a consequence of unsatisfactory evaluations for all teachers.
South Carolina should extend its policy regarding unsatisfactory evaluations to apply to all teachers, not just those on annual contracts. Any teacher who receives two consecutive unsatisfactory evaluations or two unsatisfactory evaluations within five years should be formally eligible for dismissal.

State response to our analysis

South Carolina recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.

Research rationale

To review the process and types of personnel evaluations observed in other job sectors, including the problems inherent to some evaluation systems see, for example, Gliddon, David (October 2004). Effective Performance Management Systems, Current Criticisms and New Ideas for Employee Evaluation in Performance Improvement 43(9), 27-36.