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Kershaw County officials present district gains on state assessments; district outpaced state growth in most areas
Summary
District staff told the school board that Kershaw County students improved across grades and subjects, with the district exceeding state growth in 16 of 18 tested areas; state report cards will be released in October and the district said it will present those results at a future meeting.
District administrators presented a year-to-year review of student assessment results to the Kershaw County School Board and said the district posted widespread gains across elementary, middle and high school measures.
During the board meeting, district staff said the district “exceeded the state in 16 of 18 areas, including SC Ready and EOC.” The presentation compared Kershaw’s growth with state averages and with 11 neighboring Midlands districts, and officials said they will present state report card ratings at the board’s October meeting.
Why it matters: state report cards influence public transparency and can affect how the public and policymakers view school performance. District officials said the new state assessments and standards — particularly in ELA and science — complicate simple year-to-year comparisons, so they are emphasizing growth measures when benchmarking against the state.
Administrators told the board that the district saw gains at most grade bands. Presenters highlighted elementary performance: “we had growth in all 9 of our elementary schools with 6 of those schools having more growth than the South[e]rn state department growth,” and several elementary schools exceeded the state average for students meeting and exceeding expectations. The district also reported improvements in algebra 1 passage rates and EOC results at the high-school level.
District presenters identified specific schools with broad improvements: Camden Elementary, North Central and Pine Tree showed growth in every tested area; Lugoff Elgin Middle improved in seven of eight tested areas; all four middle schools exceeded the state average in SC Ready science. The presentation said three elementary schools posted double-digit growth in meets/exceeds metrics. In math, the presenters said all district math scores rose compared with the previous year because the math assessment did not change this cycle.
Staff cautioned that changes to ELA and science standards and tests require comparing district growth to state growth rather than comparing raw percentages from one year to the next. “Our assessment results show that we're getting on the right track,” a district presenter said, while also noting that officials could not yet predict how the new files would change formal report card ratings.
Board members praised teachers and principals and asked for additional disaggregation of the data. The district said it will provide further breakdowns on request and will return with the state report cards at the October meeting.
Looking ahead, the district listed priorities to sustain gains: strengthen tier 1 instruction, align instruction from elementary through high school, expand targeted interventions (MTSS) for tier 2 and tier 3 students, align special-education and regular-education supports, and provide professional development on new math standards.
Board members agreed to reserve time at a future meeting to ask follow-up questions once members have had a chance to examine the recently released files.
