Superintendent’s Message

What does the Report Card report?

First of all, every school is given an overall ranking - Excellent, Good, Average, Below Average, Unsatisfactory. BHP High School and Wright Elementary received a ranking of “Good” while Belton Middle, Honea Path Middle, Belton Elementary and Honea Path Elementary all received a ranking of “Average”.

Next, the ranking is based on four categories for elementary and middle schools and five categories for high school.  (See Charts.)

• 40% Achievement:  The 40% for achievement is what we have been familiar with as far as testing. This is our student scores for English and Language Arts and Math
• 40% Growth:  Same two subjects but score is based on how much growth our students experienced in one year compared to the average amount of growth the state experienced. If the state demonstrated a 10% growth in those areas over the last year and one of our schools demonstrated a 20% growth, our growth score would rank the same or above the state average. However, if the state demonstrated a 10% growth in those areas over the last year and one of our schools demonstrated only a 5% growth, we would possibly land in the Below Average or Unsatisfactory category. This is difficult to comprehend especially if we have a school that scores high in the achieving category. There simply is not that much room for growth in some cases.
• 10% Student Success:  This is simply the achievement scores for the Social Studies and Science tests from SC PASS
• 10% School Quality: This is a survey our students take to measure their feelings about school climate. Amazingly, these rankings give the same amount of weight to a student survey as they do for a combined achievement score in Science and Social Studies.

While High School does focus on achievement, they do not award points for growth. Instead, graduation rates and college and career readiness are ranked as well as progress (Science and Social Studies achievement scores) and the student survey. Graduation rates somewhat speak for themselves but it is important to understand the rate is based on the percentage of students that enroll as 9th graders and complete as 12th graders. Usually, we are able to track students throughout the state when they transfer to South Carolina schools but it can sometimes be difficult to locate students when they leave our high school. Receiving their GED or getting their diploma through Adult Education after their four years is beneficial to the student but it counts against the school’s graduation rate.

25% - College and Career Readiness:  Ratings can be determined through several methods.  All juniors take a career work assessment called WIN which recently replaced WorkKeys as our career assessment. If a student scores at least a Silver rating they are considered College and Career Ready. They can also gain College and Career status by scoring a 31 on ASVAB which is the military test, scoring at least a 3 on the AP test, completing six hours of dual credit courses, scoring a 20 on the ACT or 1020 on the SAT, or gaining a certification from our career center.

Is it all clear now?  What we must realize is while there is some solid data educators can use to improve upon, the overall ranking sheds very little light on how an individual school is performing in one area. In fact, we will have schools that achieve some of the highest marks across all SC Ready tests yet, will receive an “Average” ranking. On the other hand, we will have a school receive an “Excellent” ranking while only achieving in the middle of the pack. Sadly, the report card system is set up to guarantee there will always be a bottom 25% statewide even if every school performs well in every area. I hope this enlightens the report of the Report Card!

Dr. Richard Rosenberger

Mission & Vision