The state report card shows Charleston County schools are excelling and improving

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – A newly released report card from the state shows that the Charleston County School District, the second largest in the state, has made significant progress in individual school ratings and overall academic progress.

The 2023-2024 South Carolina Annual State Report Card, which state education officials released Tuesday, details the performance of each district in the state over the last school year, but also breaks down each school and its academic progress.

The Charleston County School District's graduation rate increased 1.5% compared to last year, and the number of students deemed ready for college or careers increased 6.9% this year. Both rates remain above the national average.

“Charleston County Schools continues to demonstrate progress, growth and success among our students,” said Superintendent Anita Huggins. “We attribute this in large part to the commitment of great leaders in our schools, great teachers in our schools, parents and families who look out for us to make sure their children have what they need to thrive in the School to be successful.”

Improving individual school ratings

A total of 55 schools in the district will be rated “Excellent” or “Good” in 2024, compared to 38 in the same category five years ago.

Seventeen schools are rated either Below Average or Unsatisfactory, compared to 27 in the same category in 2019. All three schools rated Unsatisfactory in 2023 have improved at least one level this year, including the Edith L. Frierson Elementary School , which rose four ratings to Excellent.

With ten schools moving out of the Below Average or Unsatisfactory category since 2019, Huggins attributed the improvement to six factors:

1. Exceptional leadership
2. Data to assess student progress
3. Rigorous teaching in the classroom
4. Professional learning communities
5. Teaching framework
6. Culture and climate in which teachers and students can build relationships

“There are a variety of factors. There are some similarities whether you are an elementary school, middle school, high school or combination school,” Huggins said. “When teachers come together, they plan together, look at student data, and make decisions about future instruction based on the needs of the children.”

These Charleston County School District schools were rated either “underperforming” or “unsatisfactory”:

• AC Corcoran Elementary School
• Baptist Hill Middle School
• Baptist Hill High School
• Burke High School
• EB Ellington Elementary School
• Greg Mathis Charter High School
• Julian Mitchell Elementary School
• Ladson Elementary School
• Matilda F Dunston
• Meeting with the street elementary school
• Memminger International Baccalaureate World School
• Minnie Hughes Elementary School
• North Charleston Creative Arts Elementary
• North Charleston High School
• Northwoods Middle School
• RB Stall High School
• St. John's High School

The deputy superintendent Dr. Luke Clamp said he uses existing programs like that Early Head Start and Head Start Programscan help identify the schools or students who may need this additional help.

“What we know is that we don’t have unsatisfactory and subpar students or people in these buildings. We have incredible students; We have incredible teachers and leaders,” Clamp said. “Our results show that we still have a lot of work to do, and we will do that, and we are not waiting to get those results to do that work.”

The district below provides information on the progress of multilingual learners

The report also includes the progress of multilingual learners. This is the goal for students learning English to achieve proficiency in English within at least five years of their first enrollment in public schools.

This is one of the few categories in which the county lags behind the state, with Charleston leading at 32.4% and the state leading at 38.5%.

Huggins said the district needs to be very transparent about multilingual student progress numbers. She said by implementing the Weighted student financing model Among the groups they provided additional funding to support earlier this year were multilingual learners.

“As you know, the number of multilingual students in Charleston has grown significantly over the past five years, and we do not expect this trend to slow,” Huggins said. “The addition of the Weighted Student Funding Formula allowed principals to work with their assistant principals to determine what additional resources they may need.”

Another way the district is working to increase multilingual progress is by establishing a task force team to make recommendations for consistent curriculum and review student-to-teacher ratios.

“We believe that students coming to our system from another country have really hit the jackpot,” Clamp said. “They have reached a space of inclusion; They have arrived in an environment of incredible resources and support, where our school leaders create conditions that enable our students to thrive.”

Charleston ranks above the national average in final grades

The state report card includes detailed breakdowns of SC READY data and final assessment results.

SC READY is a statewide testing method used to measure student performance in English, mathematics, science and social studies.

Click here for a more detailed breakdown of the data released in August.

high-quality “We have students at different levels or at different levels of learning, so a high-quality curriculum complements what great teachers can offer in the classroom,” Huggins said. “We believe this has made a positive contribution to the results we are celebrating here today.”

In recent years and even in recent months, curriculum changes have been made at both the state and district levels. Once the curriculum is known, Clamp said there will be further improvements.

“The better we get over time and the more confident we become in implementing this curriculum, which we believe to be very rigorous and appropriate, we expect our scores to continue to increase in our assessments,” Clamp said.

Click here for individual school report cards in the Charleston County School District.

Click here for information and data on the district's overall performance.

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