Barbara B. Hairfield newest member of the EOC

Press release: Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Acknowledgement: The news article below was taken from:

---

Columbia – Barbara B. Hairfield, of Charleston, has been appointed to serve on the South Carolina Education Oversight Committee (EOC).

Hairfield, a Teacher Coach in the Charleston County School District, has been appointed to serve as the education representative designated by the President Pro Tempore of the South Carolina Senate, Senator Glenn McConnell. Hairfield fills the term vacated by Susan Marlowe, who resigned from the committee in January.

Hairfield received her B.A. in English and History from Winthrop University and earned her Masters of Arts in Teaching, Social Studies/History from The Citadel. She holds National Board certification in Early Adolescent Social Studies/History and has spent the past seventeen years teaching and working in Charleston County schools.

Prior to her current position as a Teacher Coach with the Charleston County School District, Hairfield served as a Teacher Specialist for Social Studies and English Language Arts at Morningside Middle School and as a Teacher Specialist on-Site at Brentwood Middle School. From 1990 to 2005, she was a teacher at Alice Birney Middle School in Charleston. During that time, she was recognized as Teacher of the Year at Birney Middle School, Charleston County Teacher of the Year, and also as the South Carolina Social Studies Teacher of the Year.

Hairfield is a member of the executive board for the South Carolina Council for the Social Studies and on the board of directors for the National Council for the Social Studies. She also serves on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Task Force on Teacher Recruitment and Retention and is a current member of the Education Oversight Committee’s Task Force on Teacher Recruitment and Retention, convened to evaluate current teacher recruitment and retention policies, particularly those that impact schools that have historically underachieved. As part of her goal to improve instruction and learning in South Carolina schools, Hairfield works closely with teacher preparation programs as an NCATE reviewer and as a member of the Professional Education Board at The Citadel.

Active in professional organizations, Hairfield is a member of Kappa Delta Pi, the South Carolina Professors of Middle Level Education, the South Carolina Middle School Association, the South Carolina Geographic Alliance, and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. She currently serves on the South Carolina Economics Council and the South Carolina Alliance for Civic Education.

"I believe that to have high efficacy inside the classroom, an educator must be involved in educational arenas outside of the classroom in order to understand the many facets that impact quality instruction and learning. If our goal in education is to give students the content knowledge, intellectual skills and civic values they need to fulfill the duties of effective citizenship in society, then I believe that, as educators, we must model those behaviors for our children to emulate," stated Hairfield. "My appointment by Senator Glenn McConnell to the Education Oversight Committee is a wonderful opportunity for me to contribute and to be a part of the process for continuous and sustained improvements in South Carolina’s educational system. I am very honored by his confidence in me and excited to begin my term of service."

Established by the EAA, the EOC is an independent, non-partisan, 18-member legislative committee made up of educators, business persons, and elected officials who serve by virtue of their elected position or by appointment of the legislature or governor. It bears responsibilities for the development and improvement of SC’s educational accountability system and for making recommendations to ensure the continuous improvement of schools.