District 56 Growth at High School: State End of Course Exams and Career Readiness Assessments

Even though South Carolina’s State Department of Education has identified a continued struggle in Math scores, District 56 is excited to announce that our students exceeded state average in the percentage of students scoring a C or higher and students scoring D or higher on the 2022-2023 State End of Course Examination Program (EOCEP) in Algebra I. District 56’s Algebra I mean score was 71.81 compared to the state score of 68.34.

State assessments provide school districts one tool to measure students’ progress towards meeting college and career readiness standards. At the high school level, there are numerous data points that allow us to analyze students’ progress towards college and career readiness including but not limited to:

• Graduation rate,
• Career ready assessments,
• End of Course exams,
• AP, ACT, and SAT.

One state assessment that monitors students’ success in high school gateway courses is the EOCEP which is administered to all students at the end of Algebra I, English II, Biology I, and US History and Constitution.

All District 56’s EOCEP scores are encouraging; however, the district continues to strive for improvement to ensure all students meet the state’s college/career readiness benchmarks. District 56 is moving in the right direction by closing the gap to the state average. Here are highlights from all tested subjects:

Algebra I

• District 56 exceeds the state average of C or higher by 10%.
• District 56 exceeds the state average of D or higher by 10.5%.
• District’s scores in the C or higher category increased 14%.
• District’s scores in the D or higher category increased 12%.

English II

• The achievement gap between the state average of students scoring C or higher and District 56 is 5%.
• The achievement gap between the state percentage of students scoring D or higher and District 56 is 3% which is a decrease from last year’s gap of 4%.

Biology

• The achievement gap between the state percentage of students scoring C or higher and District 56 is 8% which is a decrease from last year’s gap of 15%.
• The achievement gap between the state percentage of students scoring D or higher and District 56 is 6% which is a decrease from last year’s gap of 14%.
• District’s scores in the C or higher category increased 7%.
• District’s scores in the D or higher category increased 10%.

US History

• The achievement gap between the state percentage of students scoring C or higher and District 56 is 5% which is a decrease from last year’s gap of 13%.
• The achievement gap between the state percentage of students scoring D or higher and District 56 is 9% which is a decrease from last year’s gap of 12%.
• District’s scores in the C or higher category increased 14%.
• District’s scores in the D or higher category increased 8%.

Career Readiness

In the 2022-2023 school year, South Carolina changed the career readiness assessment to the South Carolina Career Ready Test. This test is administered to all eleventh-grade students to measure the most common skills that employers define as foundational for career readiness. Students are assessed in four key areas: soft skills, math, reading, and data. Since this is the first year this career readiness assessment has been given, there is no comparative data. This year’s data will set our baseline data.

District 56 had 67% of our students receiving a career readiness certificate. The four key areas mean scores comparison to the state average are described below:

• Math mean score – District 56 = 205; State = 206
• Data mean score – District 56 = 204; State = 206
• Reading mean score – District 56 = 204; State = 206
• Soft Skills mean score – District 56 = 204; State = 205

District 56 continues to place high value on the experiences we provide our students in and out of our classrooms. The district is excited with the growth that we are seeing, but we know there is more work to be done. The success of our children depends on our district, schools, teachers, staff, community, parents, and students working together to ACHIEVE!

The Experience Matters!