Spartanburg Academic Movement

While economic growth is desirable, a key to growing, attracting and maintaining a strong workforce is education. For this purpose, the Spartanburg Academic Movement has formed.

SAM’s main purpose is to look closely at local entities that have a hand in Spartanburg County’s youngest residents’ growth and development, from hospital neonatal units to the several colleges and universities in the area, what SAM representatives call a “cradle-to-career” approach.

“The Spartanburg Academic Movement is a convener of community resources around identified means,” SAM Director of Communications Kim Atchley said. “We do research, we find out where there are gaps and needs within the spectrum of cradle to career achievement and then we identify partners, those who are best poised to fill those needs.”

A common misconception is that SAM provides programs for local schools, but that is not the case, according to Atchley. Rather, she said, SAM is a behind-the-scenes organization that identifies local needs in the education sector, then works to match available resources that can fill those needs.

Smith is also a member of the SAM board and explained the approach in his own words.

“We’re really looking at talent development in the long term and that’s critical to economic growth,” Smith said.

SAM formed in 2013 from two earlier community efforts, the Children’s Services Alliance focusing on kindergarten readiness and CollegeHub, focusing on higher  education. SAM is one of a number of organizations nationwide that make up the StriveTogether network.

One of SAM’s earliest efforts was identifying needs in the area of kindergarten readiness. For this, SAM uses what it calls the Early Development Instrument.

“There was no measurement for how our community was actually helping to create that kindergarten readiness,” Atchley said. “So what our collaborative action network did, they identified a tool for measuring kindergarten readiness.”

SAM does not just focus on the city of Spartanburg, but on all seven school districts throughout Spartanburg County. They recently worked with the most poverty stricken to find out what their greatest needs were.

“Two superintendents came to us and said, ‘Listen, we need help figuring out what’s going on in our highest poverty schools,’” Atchley said.

On the municipal side, SAM has partnered with local organizations that have a hand in children’s education but are not necessarily directly affiliated with the schools.

Local partnerships include, but are not limited to, schools, libraries, the United Way, the city, the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce and multiple nonprofits.

Another example is a children’s museum in South Carolina’s Upstate.

Atchley said, “When they were looking at bringing a branch of their operations to downtown Spartanburg, they came to our organization and said, ‘What does Spartanburg need?’”

One of the biggest needs was an improvement in developmental screening for children before they ever start school.

“The museum listened to that and has provided the tool for parents and caregivers to complete the ASQ-3 (Ages and Stages Questionnaires) screening in the museum,” Atchley said.

Spartanburg City Manager Chris Story is a strong advocate for SAM. As a parent, Story appreciates the approach SAM takes in its efforts to improve education for local students.

Story cited a developing project with the working title, Hello Family, which he describes as, “a continuum of services that would be available to every household in the city, beginning in the prenatal time and extending through a handoff to the school system.”

This would involve things like home visits by nurses, education and support for parents and just creating a high-quality early learning environment.

While Hello Family is a city project, SAM has provided valuable input.

“They’ve really helped us shape and design the Hello Family initiative we hope to launch this year,” Story said. “We have raised $7 million total to be directed to providing evidence-based support in the early childhood space and I don’t think we would have been able to identify and structure that arrangement without the data and the awareness SAM has helped to bring to the community.”

In true Spartanburg fashion, the city and SAM have worked closely in other ways, as well. SAM representatives recently attended a city council planning retreat, where they were able to show how to use data to track key points in a student’s education and how those points affect the rest of that person’s life.

“The emphasis on data and best practices is terribly important because a lot of community leaders, we approach things like that from our own point of view, and without good solid data and structure, we end up chasing the wrong strategies and SAM prevents that,” Story said.

In addition, SAM has been able to identify important educational benchmarks, such as third-grade reading or middle school algebra.

“We’re now having information coming to us from the National Student Clearinghouse, which provides feedback on where our county’s graduates go once they leave our high school,” Atchley said.

Once again, SAM’s purpose is not to create programs or design new curricula. It is not to change what is being taught, but rather to use data to influence how it is being taught.

“It’s teaching teachers and students a different way to interact in the classroom,” Atchley said. “It’s not changing the content, it’s changing the action of teaching in the classroom.”

The question still stands: What does all of this mean for Spartanburg’s economic development? Smith answered that in a few words.

“It’s all cyclical and it’s very hard to have one without the other,” Smith said.

The “one” refers to a qualified workforce. The “other” refers to quality education. While SAM’s focus is on improving the quality of education, not necessarily keeping students local after college, that could end up being one of the byproducts over time.

“It’s simple what we want to do,” Atchley said. “We want to improve students’ long-term economic mobility.”

Spartanburg recently ranked second nationally for economic growth.

“What I’m proud of is being a part of a community that is taking a people first approach,” Smith said. “A community that says, ‘We can’t move forward at all if we don’t take everyone with us.’”

To learn more about Spartanburg, visit www.cityofspartanburg.org, www.visitspartanburg.com and www.spartanburgchamber.com. For a comprehensive look at the Spartanburg Academic Movement, visit www.learnwithsam.org.