Sixteen Kershaw County School District (KCSD) schools--two more than last year--are said to be meeting or exceeding the criteria to ensure all students meet the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate in report card ratings released today by the SC Department of Education.

"We are always happy when our state report cards show our schools are improving," said KCSD Superintendent Shane Robbins.  "I certainly believe the state’s grading system could be improved, however, we are all held to the same accountability measures.  The goal of each of our schools is to show improvements every year."

Robbins also said that he appreciates the work being done by the staff at each school to raise academic achievement, "The report cards are one factor in our evaluation system of student performance, and we will continue to use a variety of tools to assess our progress for each and every student." 

Every SC public school receives an overall performance rating that ranges from “Excellent” to “Unsatisfactory.”  Two KCSD schools--Bethune Elementary and Lugoff-Elgin Middle were rated "Excellent," meaning that their school performances substantially exceed the criteria to ensure all students meet the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. No KCSD school was rated as "Unsatisfactory."

 

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 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.

Schools rated as “Good” are said to exceed the criteria to ensure all students meet the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate.  “Average” schools meet the criteria and “Below Average” schools are in jeopardy of not meeting the criteria.