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District officials say Greenville County Schools outperformed state across most grades; math and career-ready math lag
Summary
Superintendent-level staff presented district test-score data showing Greenville County Schools above state averages in ELA and math at many grade levels, highlighted large gains at Elevate turnaround schools, and noted applied math performance and retake patterns continue to depress WIN math subtest results.
District leaders told trustees that Greenville County Schools outperformed statewide averages in many subject areas but identified applied math on the WIN career-ready assessment and some EOC subtests as areas for additional focus.
Doctor McCreery said the district’s unembargoed results show third-grade ELA at 70.7% meeting or exceeding expectations — about nine percentage points above the state — and notable district advantages in elementary mathematics. "One of the points here is that a relative strength is elementary ELA while the delta advantage goes to mathematics in elementary school," McCreery said, summarizing comparative gains.
McCreery explained differences between the district’s numbers and the official state report card, noting the state applies enrollment and reporting decision rules and a psychometric "smoothing" process when setting cut scores. He cautioned trustees that presented percentages are based on all students who took each assessment and that official report-card figures (due from the state later in October) will use narrower denominators.
On end-of-course (EOC) exams, McCreery reported district means above state means in Algebra I, English 2, Biology and U.S. History, and improvement in three-year trend measures for mean scores and passage rates. "Algebra 1 moved from 73 to 77.1," he noted, adding that passage rates and ABC rates show strong district performance in key high-school subjects.
Career-ready (WIN) results showed a district credentialing (level 2 or higher) rate of 74.4% versus 69% statewide. However, McCreery flagged math subtest performance (56.4% at level 3 or higher) as a relative weakness, attributing part of the decline to the WIN’s applied, workplace-context math items and to a higher number of students retaking the math subtest. "We have about 500 more students who take the math subtests than the other two subtests," he said, noting retakes can lower overall percentages when lower-performing students repeat the test.
Doctor McDavid described how the Elevate turnaround pilot produced large year-to-year deltas at selected schools: Alexander Elementary saw ELA growth of 22 points and math growth of 21.5 points; Lakeview Middle posted double-digit ELA and science gains as well.
Trustees asked how these gains can be sustained, how professional development aligns to higher-order skills on modern assessments, and whether district advocacy should target state-level changes to instructional time for subjects such as U.S. history. Doctor Stevens described targeted PD around questioning strategies, standards-aligned resources and instructional leadership supports at the building level.
Why it matters: the update gives the board an early view of district strengths and remaining gaps ahead of state report-card release and frames next steps on PD, curriculum integration and targeted interventions for lower-performing schools.
