Special Half-Hour Broadcast will Focus on Palmetto Priority Schools Initiative
February 25, 2009
COLUMBIA , SC – February 24, 2009 – A special edition of the “In Our Schools” television program in early March looks at state efforts to raise achievement in 16 schools with a history of high poverty and low test scores.
The half-hour telecast airs at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, March 1, on South Carolina ETV. “In Our Schools” is a special series designed for parents, educators and community partners and produced by ITV, which is part of the Department of Education, with ETV’s assistance.
The program will document progress being made in the Palmetto Priority Schools project – a collaboration launched by the South Carolina Department of Education nearly two years ago to provide assistance to schools not meeting state-mandated learning goals.
State Superintendent Jim Rex created the initiative as an alternative to state takeover. He charged local school board members, school administrators, teachers, parents and community partners to work together to meet “the challenge of building high-quality schools in high-poverty areas.”
Palmetto Priority Schools benefit from:
• Additional resources to attract partners that can help in the quest for higher learning.
• A team approach where strategies that work in one school can be quickly shared with the others and, ultimately, with schools statewide.
• Flexibility that allows resources to be targeted and used as needed.
• The possibility of fewer regulations in order to simplify these schools’ management and reporting processes.
Rex describes the innovative program as “preventive medicine” that can have a positive impact on teaching and learning in the targeted communities.
The 16 Palmetto Priority Schools are Ridgeland Middle School (Jasper County); Brentwood Middle School, Burke High School, North Charleston High School and Stall High School (Charleston County); Mt. Pleasant Middle School (Lee County); Whitlock Junior High School (Spartanburg District Seven); Johnson Middle School (Florence District Four); Estill Middle and Estill High schools (Hampton District Two); Alcorn Middle School, C.A. Johnson Preparatory Academy, Eau Claire High, Gibbes Middle and W.A. Perry Middle schools (Richland District One); and Allendale Middle School (Allendale County).
