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EOC presents 2025 annual report highlights to committee, flags chronic absenteeism and CCR gap
Summary
EOC staff summarized the 2025 annual report for the General Assembly, noting a continued high statewide graduation rate (85.4 percent), a persistent gap between graduation and college-and-career-readiness (about 30 percent CCR), and chronic absenteeism affecting achievement metrics.
EOC staff provided an overview of the committee’s 2025 annual report, required to be delivered to the General Assembly by March 1. The presentation summarized data updates, reporting tools and program evaluations the committee carried out between March 2024 and February 2025.
Assistant staff member (Miss Felder) told the committee the report is organized by three strategic goals—reporting facts, measuring change and promoting progress—and includes the department’s report-card simulator, National Student Clearinghouse data integration, and summaries of several program-level reviews (teacher loan repayment, Education Scholarship Trust Fund, rural recruitment initiatives and others).
The annual report highlights a statewide on-time graduation rate of 85.4 percent but noted a notable discrepancy between that graduation rate and the percentage of graduates who meet college-and-career-readiness (CCR) measures: roughly 30 percent statewide. The committee stressed closing that gap as a policy priority.
Felder and other staff also flagged chronic absenteeism: during the 2022–23 school year, about one in five South Carolina students was chronically absent. The report summarized data that chronically absent students were less likely to meet grade-level standards—23 percent of chronically absent students met or exceeded math standards, compared with 47 percent of non-chronically-absent students.
EOC members were briefed that 2024 was the first year the High School Student Success Indicator Rating (which counts credit accrual toward graduation within four years or successful outcomes within five years) factored into high-school report-card ratings. The report also summarizes the EOC’s cyclical review of accountability plans and the Data Trailblazer award winners, whose presentations the committee used as examples of local practices tied to improved attendance and outcomes.
Committee members asked staff to confirm details and noted the report will be finalized for delivery to the General Assembly by the March 1 statutory deadline; staff asked members to submit any edits promptly.
