Results mixed in 2019 state report cards

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Overall education performance was mixed for the 2018-2019 school year as the S.C. Department of Education released its 2019 state report cards.

The report cards, released annually, are required by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. They contain overall ratings for each school based on a 100-point scale. Schools are rated on seven of 10 key indicators containing school and district performance information on state and national tests. Student growth, graduation rates, English language proficiency, student engagement and safety are among the categories measured.

Schools receive overall ratings of excellent, good, average, below average or unsatisfactory.

In the 2018-19 school year, 77% of school ratings either remained the same or improved. Compared with 2018, 27% of schools improved by at least one overall rating, 40% of schools maintained the same rating and 17% of schools fell by at least one overall rating.

State law was recently amended to require the Education Department to release 2018-2019 report card data by Oct. 1 instead of Nov. 15. Starting with the 2019-2020 school year, report cards will be issued by Sept. 1.

The state's on-time graduation rate rose minimally (0.1 percentage point) from 2018 to 81.1%. The number of students earning diplomas who are college- or career-ready increased 5.5 percentage points to 75.3%.

The report card results showed that 45.4% of students met or exceeded grade level expectations on the S.C. Ready English Language Arts assessment, an increase of 3.7 percentage points. In the S.C. Ready Math assessment, 45.1% of students met or exceeded grade level expectations, up 0.5 percentage point from the previous year.

The percentage of students meeting or exceeding grade level expectations for the S.C. Pass Social Studies exam fell 1 percentage point to 67.6%. Of those taking the S.C. Pass Science assessment, 49.1% met or exceeded grade level expectations, down 0.3 percentage point from 2017-2018.

“I hope that parents and communities will use report cards as a tool to engage in important conversations about the previous year’s successes and challenges that schools across our state face every day,” S.C. Education Superintendent Molly Spearman said in a news release.