District Maintains Rating On State Report Cards

Despite increased rigor and the first-time inclusion of science and social studies scores in the ratings system, Richland One maintained its report card rating of "average" for 2005.

The latest statewide school and district report card results were released Thursday by the State Department of Education. Schools and districts across South Carolina receive report card absolute ratings of excellent, good, average, below average or unsatisfactory based on their test scores.

One out of five Richland One schools will receive a Palmetto Gold or Palmetto Silver Award for having high levels of student academic achievement and improvement. The nine schools and their respective awards are: Brennen Elementary, Palmetto Gold; Brockman Elementary, Palmetto Gold; Carver-Lyon Elementary, Palmetto Silver; Hopkins Elementary, Palmetto Silver; Webber Elementary, Palmetto Silver; Gibbes Middle School, Palmetto Silver; Dreher High, Palmetto Gold; A.C. Flora High, Palmetto Gold; and Heyward Career and Technology Center, Palmetto Gold.

A.C. Flora and Dreher received "excellent" absolute and improvement ratings on their 2005 report cards. Four schools - Carver-Lyon, Hopkins Elementary, Webber and Gibbes - exceeded the state average for improvement.

Under the federal No Child Left Behind legislation, schools and districts must break out their performance data into subcategories that include ethnicity, special education, poverty and limited ability with English. Schools and districts must meet annual Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) performance targets for each subcategory. Richland One met 31 of 33 AYP performance targets for 2005.

"We still have a lot of work to do, but we celebrate the successes that our schools achieved in AYP and on their report cards this year," said Richland One Superintendent Allen Coles.