Top 10 education stories for 2009

COLUMBIA – The struggles of local school districts to absorb hundreds of millions of dollars in budget cuts leads the South Carolina Department of Education’s list of top education stories for 2009.

The severe economic recession is the main culprit, said State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex. But I’m hopeful that if we can work with the General Assembly to make fundamental changes to South Carolina’s tax structure and also create a fair and more equitable way of funding our state’s public schools, then future recessions won’t cause the turmoil that this one has caused.

Top 10 education stories for 2009 (in ascending order)

10.  South Carolina joins national common core standards project 

South Carolina – already ranked among the top five states for academic standards and accountability – officially joined the national effort to develop common academic standards in mathematics and English language arts.  The Common Core Initiative, sponsored by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, seeks to create standards that are internationally benchmarked and aligned with college and work expectations. 

9.  New foundation partnership lets citizens send donations to individual schools – even classrooms

A new partnership between South Carolina’s Palmetto Horizon Foundation and the national organization DonorsChoose.org became the first in the nation to allow private dollars to flow directly to school classrooms.  The new partnership means that parents, businesses and others concerned about state budget cuts to public schools can assist teachers easily and efficiently.

8.  GED testing program records highest-ever passing rate, matches national average

 South Carolina’s GED test program reached a new milestone, recording its highest-ever passing rate and continuing a trend that’s boosted the number of successful test-takers by more than half since 2002. The Palmetto State’s passing rate of 73.1 percent matched the national average for the first time and was 4.3 percentage points higher than before. The state’s passing rate was 32nd among the 50 states and District of Columbia, while the number of GED passers – 6,644 – ranked 27th nationally.
 
7.  Dillon student attends Capitol Hill speech at President Obama’s invitation

 Eighth-grader Ty’Sheoma Bethea wrote to Congress seeking help for J.V. Martin Junior High in Dillon and was invited to Washington, DC to hear President Barack Obama address the House and Senate.  Obama had visited the school in 2007.  As a result of Bethea’s unexpected celebrity, a Chicago company later donated over $250,000 worth of new furniture to the school and State Superintendent Jim Rex made the school the pilot site for a 21st Century Schools project aimed at creating a national model for what outdated rural facilities can become.

6.  South Carolina educators leading nation in preventing sexual abuse of children

 South Carolina educators are leading the nation in efforts to keep kids safe thanks to a public/private training initiative focused on preventing, recognizing and reacting responsibly to signs of child sexual abuse.  More than 40 percent of the state’s professional school staff members have completed abuse prevention training, setting a national record among US school systems, according to Darkness to Light, a national non-profit that administers the training. 

As a further safeguard for students, legislation was pre-filed in the South Carolina Senate that would require school districts to do state criminal background checks on substitute teachers. The proposed bill followed a State Board of Education resolution recommending screening of substitutes by the State Law Enforcement Division.

5.  Honors for Charleston County public schools:  Nation’s top magnet school and national High School Principal of the Year

The Charleston County School District’s Academic Magnet High School was rated No. 1 for magnet schools nationwide in US News & World Report’s third annual list of America’s Best High Schools.  South Carolina was 18th nationally for its number of bronze, silver or gold rankings as a percentage of total high schools in the state.

Lucy Beckham, principal of Wando High School in the Charleston County School District, was named the National High School Principal of the Year.  Beckham has served as principal of Wando – the state’s largest school with more than 3,200 students and one of its highest-performing – since 1998.

4.  Education Week report hails state’s graduation rate improvement

South Carolina had the nation’s best improvement in on-time high school graduation rates between 1996 and 2006, according to Diplomas Count, a national report by Education Week.  The report pegged the state’s improvement at slightly more than 13 percent.  Graduation rates track the percentage of students who earn high school diplomas on time in four years.

3.  South Carolina lauded for online learning programs, educational technology and innovation

 South Carolina’s increasingly popular online learning programs earned the state a No. 2 national ranking in a new study by the Center for Digital Education.  The report ranked states based on existing policies for online learning. South Carolina’s two-year-old Virtual School Program had over 5,000 students enrolled in more than 60 courses for the fall semester. 

South Carolina was one of nine states in the nation to earn a perfect score of 100 for making progress in the use of educational technology, according to Technology Counts 2009, an annual technology report
card by Education Week magazine.  

The state ranked No. 18 in the nation in a U.S. Chamber of Commerce report card measuring key indicators of educational innovation.  The Leaders and Laggards report was based on eight categories that include staffing, school management, finance and technology.

2.  Minority, low-income students reduce achievement gaps; immigrant children learn English faster in SC

South Carolina’s minority and lower-income students have raised their scores and reduced achievement gaps on standardized reading and math tests, according to a national report by the Education Trust.  The report, Education Watch, said that achievement gaps in South Carolina are smaller than the national average for fourth and eighth-grade students.  Achievement gaps also shrank on college Advanced Placement exams, and overall scores on AP exams improved across the board in 2009.

Although the number of children in South Carolina schools who speak little or no English more than doubled between 1995 and 2005, the state had the nation’s second-highest percentage of students making progress in learning the language.  Quality Counts 2009, the 13th in a series of annual reports published by Education Week, said 72 percent of South Carolina’s English-language learners made progress in their studies, compared to a national average of 34.4 percent.

1.  Schools wrestle with effects of reduced funding

 The nation’s economic downturn – and resulting state revenue shortfalls – meant severe budget cuts totaling $387 million for schools and school districts in 2009.  Although federal stabilization funds provided some relief for 2010, along with a state resolution allowing more fiscal flexibility, districts still faced more than $300 million in cuts for the next school year and had to use reserve funds, cut jobs, furlough staff, increase class sizes
and trim programs. 

State Superintendent Jim Rex proposed Begin in ’10 – a mix of tax reforms and changes in school funding – to overhaul South Carolina’s 30-year-old Education Finance Act to meet future needs.  School district superintendents across the state voiced their overwhelming support for Rex’s proposals.