Education

Berkeley Co. students surpass state average on ESEA report card

by Nikki Gaskins Campbell

classroomMONCKS CORNER, S.C.–Berkeley County School students in all grade levels continue to outperform the state standards in the state and federally mandated Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Federal Accountability System, according to school district officials.

More than 90 percent of schools surpassed the state requirements. The federal report card takes into account science, social studies, Math, English language arts (ELA) and graduation rates. The Department of Education sets its annual benchmarks, called Annual Measureable Objectives based on student averages for several years. This year’s test placed more emphasis on math and ELA. All students must achieve well above the minimum grade level requirements in order for a school to pass.

District officials say the testing also measured performance among its constituent demographic subgroups. All demographic groups are weighted and scored according to their historic performances. Small demographic populations within a school are equally valued when considering the overall score.

The Department of Education recognized several area schools as Reward Schools for performance. These included Boulder Bluff Elementary, Sangaree Elementary, and Berkeley Intermediate School. All of these schools have school populations where more than half of the students live below the poverty level, yet their grades remain an average of an A or B. Bonner Elementary and Boulder Bluff Elementary showed great progress in closing their performance gap between student above and below the poverty line. More than half of the students live in poverty; however, they ranked in the top ten percent of schools demonstrating progress in closing their performance gap.

All three grade levels, elementary, middle and high schools maintained a B average. Berkeley County ranked 24th out of the 82 school districts statewide. The district’s overall score dipped slightly from last year’s 87.5 percent to 85.6 percent this year. This still means the district performance as a whole exceeded the state’s expectations. This variance does not account for significant improvements such as the sizeable increase in high school graduation rates throughout Berkeley County–nor does it account for all of the advances that many Berkeley County students are making in the classroom with more middle school students taking high school level courses and more high school students earning college credit through Advance Placement classes.

“Even though the bar was raised this year, our students stepped up and met expectations only dipping our average by 1.9 percent. Several of our high schools have also increased their graduation rates which is very positive indicator for the district’s future,” said Dr. Kevin O’Gorman, Berkeley County School District’s Associate Superintendent for Instruction and Accountability.
Nikki Gaskins Campbell
Follow Me
Latest posts by Nikki Gaskins Campbell (see all)

Comments are closed.