South Carolina Superintendent of Education speaks Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, at the ribbon cutting for the agency’s new Lexington County headquarters, located on the grounds of the State Farmers Market. (Jessica Holdman/SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — Fewer high schoolers enrolled in or applied for college this fall, even though the graduation rate for the Class of 2024 was slightly better than last year, according to data released Tuesday.
Overall, state report cards released Tuesday that grade public schools contained few surprises, teachers’ advocates said.
That’s not good news, as schools’ ratings still reflect low test scores and high absence rates statewide.
“There’s very little movement at all,” said Sherry East, president of the South Carolina Education Association. “I’m not seeing much ‘Oh, wow,’ or ‘Oh, yikes,’ either.”
The number of schools at the highest and lowest ends of the spectrum decreased.
This year, 230 schools — 18% — were considered excellent, down from 278, or 22.5%, last year.
At the same time, 47 schools — just 4% — were rated unsatisfactory, the lowest of five rankings. That’s down from 60 last year, according to the data jointly released by the state Department of Education and the independent Education Oversight Committee.
SC students skip school a lot. The problem helps explain their dismal test scores, report finds.
It’s good news that fewer schools fell in the bottom tier, said Patrick Kelly with the Palmetto State Teachers Association.
“I tend to look more toward underachieving schools,” Kelly said. “I don’t want any student in South Carolina to attend a school that’s underachieving.”
Education officials pointed to Pinecrest Elementary School in Greenwood, where they held a news conference releasing the report cards, as an example of a school doing well despite difficult circumstances.
Pinecrest Elementary, where 87% of students live in poverty, scored an “excellent” rating overall, along with top scores in academic performance and student progress.
“While the road ahead is challenging, we remain optimistic as the performance of schools like Pinecrest Elementary demonstrate that academic improvement is achievable,” April Allen, chair of the Education Oversight Committee, said at the school.
College and career readiness
The percentage of students who graduated on time (four years after entering ninth grade) improved slightly to 85% — 1.6 percentage points better than last year. Still, less than a third of all high school seniors were considered ready for both the workforce and college, according to the data.
“We want to ensure that our students are adequately prepared for life after graduation,” Allen said.
In South Carolina, all 11th graders take a career-readiness assessment of skills commonly needed for jobs. It tests four areas: Math, reading, understanding data (such as correctly interpreting graphics), and so-called “soft skills,” which is basically knowing how to act professionally, be dependable and work well with others.
Students receive scores of 1 to 5. The higher the score, the more jobs and career fields they’re ready to pursue.
But that score alone may not mean much, Kelly said, since “some students go through the motions” when it comes to that test.
Nearly 70% of students in the Class of 2024 were considered ready for a career.
That means they received at least a 3 on the career-readiness assessment, earned a technical education certificate, completed a state-approved internship, or scored well enough on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (commonly known as the ASVAB) to qualify to enlist in the military.
That was up from 61% last year.
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At the same time, the number of students enrolling in and applying for college decreased from last year. Nearly 55% of students who graduated in the spring enrolled in a two- or four-year college right away, compared with 63% in 2023.
And 61% applied for college, compared to 64% of the Class of 2023. About 4,500 fewer students submitted a Free Application for Federal Student Aid, also known as FAFSA.
Statewide, the percentage of graduates considered ready for college was 32.5%, essentially unchanged from last year. That reflects students’ scores on the ACT or SAT college entrance exam, whether they earned college credit through a dual-enrollment course, or scored high enough on end-of-course Advanced Placement tests to earn college credit.
The numbers suggest students can graduate high school without actually being prepared for the workforce or college, East said.
“We made sure our graduation rates are where they need to be, even if we’re just passing (students) along,” she said.
Students who fail tests or entire classes are more often offered alternatives, which are sometimes easier than the original class. That enables them to graduate, boosting schools’ graduation rates, without preparing students for any sort of career, East and Kelly said.
Offering second chances for struggling students “is not a bad thing,” Kelly said.
“But there are too many instances where the second chance is not as aligned with the rigor or expectations of the first chance,” he said.
Chronic absences
The rate of students who miss 10% of the school year — 18 days or more, when considering the state’s required 180 days of instruction — remains a concern for education leaders, Allen said. Nearly 23% of students were considered chronically absent last school year, according to the data.
The more often students miss class, the less likely they are to earn scores on end-of-year standardized tests showing they’re reading for the next grade, according to a report the committee heard Monday.
“It makes sense: If students aren’t in school, it is unlikely that they are going to stay on track for success,” Allen said.
About half of SC’s 3rd to 8th graders can read on grade level. Math scores are worse.
Test scores
Report cards for elementary and middle schools are based on performance on end-of-year standardized tests. As previously reported in August, about 54% of third- through eighth-grade students statewide showed they could read on grade level, while fewer than half could meet math expectations for their grade.
High school report cards factored in students’ end-of-course tests in English 2 (usually taken by sophomores) and Algebra I (often taken by freshman). About two-thirds of students passed the English test, while less than half of algebra students scored at least 70 (a C).
“Students are struggling in math, and as a state, we want to provide schools, teachers and students the tools and resources they need to improve,” Allen said in a statement.
State Superintendent Ellen Weaver credited the Palmetto Literacy Project with improving English scores. Since 2019, the state budget has provided the agency up to $14 million annually to hire reading specialists, train teachers and provide more resources to schools with particularly low scores.
Officials are hoping for a similar outcome from the new Palmetto Math Project, which was funded with $10 million in this year’s state budget to hire math tutors, buy textbooks, and improve training for teachers at the lowest-scoring schools.
“Improving math proficiency must also be an urgent, parallel priority to ensure that all students are fully prepared for future success,” Weaver said in a news release. “The department’s newly launched Palmetto Math Project is positioned to do just that.”