Three years of working to improve math education have added up to two major recognitions for Kendall Deas, a professor in the Department of African American Studies.
This April, Deas received the Outstanding Public Service Award from the South Carolina Education Association, which recognizes individuals who have made exceptional contributions to public education in South Carolina.
Later, Deas received a formal commendation from the SC House of Representatives, a move initiated by Speaker of the House Murrell Smith.
Both the education award and the legislature's recognition are connected to the Mentoring for Math Proficiency project, which Deas launched in 2022 with support from an internal grant from the University of South Carolina. Deas has been working with math teachers at Johnakin and Palmetto middle schools in Marion County. He helped develop customized curriculum based on the Algebra Project, a program developed to teach mathematical concepts in ways young students can relate to.
“It’s about reaching children where they are, so they can understand the concepts better and apply them,” Deas says.
Deas has long believed that public education is the cornerstone of a just society. In fact, he says his experience in the Sumter County, SC, public school system prepared him to attend an Ivy League university and succeed as a scholar.
His research explores the barriers that prevent students—particularly those in underserved communities—from receiving a quality education and how policy can remove those barriers.
In addition to his work on math education in South Carolina, Deas is sharing his research insights at the national level. He was one of 15 scholars selected for the 2025 Education Policy Training Program of the Scholars Strategy Network. This fellowship trains early-career faculty in how to engage directly with policymakers and communicate their research to improve education policy. Deas’s selection was based on his academic excellence and the societal impact of his work, particularly his research on how school choice voucher programs affect Black students and underfunded public schools. He recently wrote about this topic for The Conversation.
“Policymakers should address systemic inequities in education to ensure that all students have access to a quality education,” he says in the article.
In addition to these honors, Deas completed two research training programs through the University of South Carolina’s Office of the Vice President for Research. He was a participant in the Propel Research Mentorship Program (NSF track) for 2022–2023 and a member of the inaugural 2024–2025 class of Propel AI Scholars. These programs supported his efforts to strengthen his research and prepare competitive external grant applications.
All his efforts come back to his philosophy on education, one that he learned from his mother, who is a retired public elementary school teacher in Sumter County.
“Education can never be taken from you,” says Deas.
“I am a firm believer in the observation of Horace Mann, the Father of American Education, that ‘education beyond all other human devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance wheel of the social machinery.’”