The South Carolina Association for Developmental Education (SCADE) began in 1980, in response to the realization that professional educators in at least 30 two-year and four-year colleges were struggling to serve growing numbers of students who needed a leg up to succeed in their college careers. We felt that we could do this job much better if we could share expertise, resources, information, and encouragement.

SCADE was the second state association affiliated with the National Association for Developmental Education (NADE, though until the mid-1980's known as NARDSPE). SCADE is now the senior state affiliate of NADE. SCADE was the first NADE chapter to host the national conference, sponsored in conjunction with the S.C. technical college system in Charleston in 1984.

SCADE's first president, Dr. Curtis Miles, went on to become the third president of the national association. Several institutions and individual members of SCADE have received national honors, including Piedmont Technical College's selection in 1985 as outstanding developmental program in the country (Jane Rauton, chair), and Steve Gibson's (College of Charleston) selection in 1996 as outstanding developmental education practitioner in the nation. Tom Carson, Midlands, received the NISOD Excellence in Teaching Award 1996.

Bill Oakland, Midlands, also received the NISOD Excellence in Teaching Award 1996. The College Skills Lab, College of Charleston, was one of nine colleges and universities awarded a 1996 Retention Excellence Award from the Noel-Levitz Center for Student Retention. Gwen Owens, Tri-County, received the 1997 Johnnie Ruth Clark Instructor Award for Excellence in Community Colleges, given by the National Council on Black American Affairs, a council of the AACC.

Candy Gillian, Piedmont, was named as one of 10 Outstanding First-Year Student Advocates in the US in 2000 by the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. And SCADE was awarded the Curtis Miles Award to an Outstanding Established Chapter at NADE in 2000.

We held our first statewide conference in 1982. This conference represented a special colloquium with the Southern Regional Education Board to report on the results of a collaboration to identify issues and insights into research and evaluation in developmental education. SCADE has held a conference annually since then.

A major priority for SCADE from the beginning was to serve as a vehicle for communications and collaboration between two- and four-year colleges. This has been fostered in several ways, including a long series of field visits to pairs of 2-/4-year colleges in a particular location, representation of both groups in every conference's sessions, and a provision in the association's constitution requiring substantial participation from members of both types of institutions on SCADE's Executive Board.

In 1990 SCADE developed an extensive strategic plan to guide the association through the decade. This plan included 49 specific recommendations, falling mainly into four areas: curriculum and pedagogy; assessment and action research; governance and organizational structure; and educational climate and policies in South Carolina. Though not all of these recommendations have been met, this plan has provided a significant sense of direction for the association throughout most of the 90's.