LCSD 55 Targets Excellence with 2023-2024 School Report Card Progress

The 2023-2024 School Report Card Data has been released by the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) and the South Carolina Education Oversight Committee (EOC). School report cards contain the following school information: student growth, teacher qualifications, school climate, student safety, and test performance. Separate report cards are generated for schools serving elementary, middle school, and high school populations. Laurens County School District 55 (LCSD 55) plans to use the school report data to build a 5-star culture of excellence.

The LCSD 55 2023-2024 School Report Card Data shows eight Laurens 55 schools rated average or good for student progress. Six schools have an overall rating of average or good. Waterloo Elementary School (WES) has a good overall rating. WES also has a good academic achievement rating and an average school climate rating.

Nine schools are within two to five points to get to the next higher rating. Districtwide support is available to all LCSD 55 schools to set realistic goals and action steps to improve school performance. Beginning in the academic year 2023-2024, Amanda Lecaroz, Director of Accountability, Federal Programs, and Professional Learning, has been working closely with schools in digging into data and creating Turnaround or School Improvement Plans. Additionally, the Laurens Educators Achieving Results to Net Success (LEARNS) grant provides schools with a structure of support for growing educators to positively impact student growth.

It is worth noting that Laurens Elementary School (LES) and Laurens District 55 High School (LDHS) have been actively working on their Turnaround Plans. Both schools show improvements on their 2023-2024 school report cards. LES moved from an overall unsatisfactory rating to an average rating. At LDHS, all students who took the High School Civic Exam passed. One hundred percent of LDHS students enrolled in a US Government course scored at or above the designated passing score on the civic test. The LDHS Report Card also shows increases in different sections. The Percent of Students in the Graduation Cohort Completing College Applications is 82.3%, up 44.1% from last year. The 2024 Overall Graduation Rate is 82.6%, very close to the Statewide Graduation rate of 85.4%. LDHS’s Five-Year Student Success Rate (5YSSR) increased to 82.1%, close to the state’s average of 85%. LDHS is also on track or above its State Goal targets for English Language Arts (ELA) Percent Scoring Level 2 or Above, ELA Level 3 or Above, Percent of Students Graduating on Time, and Percent of English Learner (EL) Students Meeting 70% Proficiency Target.

LCSD 55 Superintendent Dr. Jody Penland said, “As we strive to provide a 5-star educational system, our focus will be to grow our areas of weakness and expand on our areas of excellence. We had several areas of growth that we are very proud of and our goal is to ensure that growth extends system-wide.”