South Carolina publishes report cards

COLUMBIA, South Carolina — The South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) and the SC Education Oversight Committee (EOC) published the Report cards 2022. The data report is the first since the pandemic began in 2019 and reflects student performance issues in the 2021-22 school year.

According to the data, 20.6% of schools statewide received an overall rating of Excellent, matching the same rating in 2019.

Breakdown of figures when comparing results from the pre-pandemic period 2019 to the post-pandemic period 2022:

• total number of school report calls: 1,214 (2019) to 1,238 (2022), an increase of 24 schools analyzed
• elementary schools receiving an overall rating of Excellent increased by 3.1%, from 18.7% (2019) to 21.8% (2022)
• colleges receiving an overall rating of Excellent increased by 0.7% from 20.7% (2019) to 21.7% (2022)
• secondary schools receiving an overall rating of Excellent decreased by 9.3%, from 26.0% (2019) to 16.7% (2022)
• elementary schools receiving an overall rating of Average increased by 1.3% from 34.0% (2019) to 35.5% (2022)
• colleges receiving an overall rating of Average increased by 2.0% from 37.5% (2019) to 39.5% (2022)
• secondary schools receiving an overall rating of Fair increased by 3.9%, from 27.8% (2019) to 31.7% (2022)
• elementary schools receiving an overall Unsatisfactory rating increased by 0.4%, from 5.9% (2019) to 6.3% (2022)
• colleges receiving an Unsatisfactory overall rating increased by 1.1%, from 2.2% (2019) to 3.3% (2022)
• secondary schools receiving an overall unsatisfactory rating increased by 3.5% from 4.4% (2019) to 7.9% (2022)

State Superintendent Molly Spearman said this about the results: “While many of the results we are seeing may be expected post-pandemic, we are no less concerned about the decline in assessment results and the discrepancies growing for many of our students. We are encouraged by the growth we are seeing as we seek to continue the work to ensure that our education system in South Carolina prepares all students to be ready for college, careers, and citizenship.

School report cards are intended to increase accessibility and accountability in public schools across the state by providing information to families and the general public considering student academic achievement, readiness for achievement and progress, rates high school graduation and college and career readiness, English learners’ progress toward proficiency, and — for the first time — school safety.

The school safety category relates to “perceptions of the safety, working conditions, and socio-physical environment” of South Carolina public schools.

The Palmetto State Teachers Association released a statement regarding report cards, saying in part: “While comparing these results with 2019 grades may show cause for both celebration and concern, any attempt to draw direct comparisons between these two sets of report cards must be tempered in light of the profound changes of the past three years. Since 2019, students, educators, and families in South Carolina have faced disrupted education due to a global pandemic , a growing youth mental health crisis, and the impact of continued threats to schools across the state for reasons, Palmetto State Teachers Association believes that this set of report cards should be considered in proper context. “

The statement concludes, “While the current system relies almost entirely on outcome measures in schools, a redesigned system could better account for and address the persistent inequities in instructional inputs and resources in our state. And while the system current system relies heavily on standardized measures of student performance, a better system would rely heavily on the expertise and assessments made by professional educators who meet the unique needs of learners every day.”

You can access 2022 report card data and compare schools and districts – up to three at a time – on screportcards.com.

For example, according to the available data:

• Richland School District 1 consists of 48 schools; employs 1,864 teachers; and has a student body of 22,151
• Richland 2 includes 32 schools; employs 1,906 teachers; and has a student body of 29,303
• Lexington-Richland 5 includes 23 schools; employs 1,281 teachers; and has a student body of 17,245

A comparison of the three school districts yielded these results:

• percentage of students meeting or exceeding SC Ready English Language Arts targets: Richland 1: 36.2%; Richland 2: 49.4%; Lex Rich 5: 55.0%
• percentage of students meeting or exceeding SC Ready Mathematics goals: Richland 1: 27.1%; Richland 2: 40.5%: LexRich 5: 45.1%
• graduation rate: Richland 1: 86.0%; Richland 2: 85.1%; Lex Rich 5: 89.0%
• overall perception of school climate (score on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the safest): Richland 1: 5.69/10; Richland 2: 5.58/10; Lex Rich 5: 6.71/10