2019 SC School Report Cards Released
Staff Report From South Carolina CEO
Wednesday, October 2nd, 2019
The South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) released school, district, and state report cards. The 2019 report cards reflect school, district, and overall state performance during the 2018-2019 school year and are the second iteration of report cards that meet the requirements of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.
"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,” said State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman. "We are continually working to ensure that our accountability system accurately reflects the hard work being done by educators to meet the needs of all students."
Schools receive descriptive overall ratings of Excellent, Good, Average, Below Average, and Unsatisfactory, based on a 100-point scale. Schools also receive ratings on seven out of the ten key report card indicators, which contain information about schools and districts on how well students performed on state and national assessments, student growth, graduation rates, English language proficiency, student engagement, safety, classroom learning environments and more. Although school districts and primary schools receive report cards, they are not rated.
The 2018-2019 report cards also contain school level local, state, and federal per pupil expenditure data, the first report cards to contain this information as part of a new federal requirement.
Overall, 77% of school ratings either remained the same or improved. Compared to ratings received in 2018, 37% of schools rose by at least one overall rating (ex. Average to Good), 40% of schools held on to the same rating, and 17% of schools dropped by at least one overall rating.
State law was recently amended to require that report cards be distributed by October 1, 2019 for the 2018-2019 school year rather than November 15 as was previously required. For the 2019-2020 school year, and every subsequent year, report cards will be issued by September 1. The significantly shortened timeline requires the SCDE to no-longer pre-release state assessment data for schools, districts, and the state. School and district performance on state assessments can be found on the report card and a state level synopsis can be found below.
While report cards present an opportunity for communities to learn what they can do to help students and schools, they are not the only measure of the success. Visiting schools and talking to parents, students, teachers and graduates can paint a more complete picture of the overall educational experience.
Report cards can be accessed by visiting SCReportCards.com.