DOE outlines student achievement gains, literacy and math initiatives and requests funding increases

Superintendent Ellen Weaver told the K‑12 Finance Subcommittee that South Carolina is showing encouraging trajectories on national and state assessments and asked the committee to consider a package of recurring and one‑time funding requests to sustain and expand that work.

Weaver highlighted recent NAEP results and state assessment gains. She said South Carolina’s fourth‑grade math scale‑score change ranked in the top three nationally and reading among the top five by scale‑score change, and that state summative assessments showed a 7% increase in ELA and a 2% increase in math for grades three through eight.

On literacy, Weaver said almost 20,000 K‑3 educators have completed or nearly completed the state’s “Letters” training in the past two years. She credited the Read to Succeed 2 Act and related state investments for expanding teacher training and early intervention, including summer reading camps funded in the House budget.

Weaver described the Palmetto Math project, funded in last year’s budget, which deploys state instructional coaches and…