SC Dept of Education releases school letter grades (Greenville, Spartanburg: 2013, credit)

[greenvillebuckeye]

The state Education Department released report card letter grades for all of the SC school districts yesterday.

Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Federal Accountability System

2013 - ESEA / Federal Accountability System - South Carolina Department of Education

Greenville Metro Districts
Greenville County - 85.8 (B)
Anderson 1 - 89.3 (B)
Anderson 2 - 91.1 (A)
Anderson 3 - 87.7 (B)
Anderson 4 - 86.5 (B)
Anderson 5 - 88.1 (B)
Laurens 55 - 75.6 (C)
Pickens County - 83.7 (B)
Spartanburg 1 - 90.1 (A)
Spartanburg 2 - 92.8 (A)
Spartanburg 3 - 87.3 (B)
Spartanburg 4 - 92.7 (A)
Spartanburg 5 - 90.6 (A)
Spartanburg 6 - 85.7 (B)
Spartanburg 7 - 79.5 (C)


some high schools worth noting

GCSD
Berea - 50 (F)
Blue Ridge - 81.8 (B)
Carolina - 35.4 (F)
Eastside - 87.4 (B)
Greenville - 58.6 (F)
Greer - 49.3 (F)
Hillcrest - 71.1 (C)
JL Mann - 78.3 (C) - remember folks JL was an "F" school last year according to this same data - 19.9 point gain
Mauldin - 83.8 (B)
Riverside - 86.2 (B)
Southside - 59.1 (F)
Travelers Rest - 55.4 (F)
Wade Hampton - 92 (A) - only A in the district
Woodmont - 69.7 (D) - woodmont was an F school last year as well and was .3 from being upgraded to a C school this year much like JL Mann. 15.7 point gain!!!!!!

Other high schools of note

Wren High - 81 (B)
Palmetto High - 89.7 (B)
TL Hanna - 84.7 (B)
Byrnes High - 90.7 (A)
Dorman - 83.2 (B)
Spartanburg High - 62.1 (D)

[gvillesc]

This data is based on improvement over the previous year. If you consistently do well, at some point you cannot reach much higher. I wouldn't allow such information guide my decision on schools without finding out what's behind the numbers.

[MountainDew2013]

the main thing to do with schools is just make sure they offer AP credit courses in the event your little Johnny or little Suzy Q is bright. these school scores are really only measuring the student body, and if more of their students want to go to college and thus try hard in school then the higher the school's score.

[ausrutherford]

The school where my dad teaches got an A... so all is good.

[greenvillebuckeye]

Originally Posted by gvillesc

This data is based on improvement over the previous year. If you consistently do well, at some point you cannot reach much higher. I wouldn't allow such information guide my decision on schools without finding out what's behind the numbers.

yes but when you look at how some of the schools took such nose dives it does beg some questions about whats going on. a 1 or 2 point drop, maybe even 5 point drop - it happens. some schools took double digit nose dives regardless of reaching the ceiling or not.

[MountainDew2013]

i was surprised Wren did not get a perfect score given all the hype for Powdersville schools on here. LOL

even got beat by tl hanna and anderson district 2, not sure what schools are in that one.

[greenvillebuckeye]

Originally Posted by MountainDew2013

the main thing to do with schools is just make sure they offer AP credit courses in the event your little Johnny or little Suzy Q is bright. these school scores are really only measuring the student body, and if more of their students want to go to college and thus try hard in school then the higher the school's score.

I think one would find a strong correlation between these scores and the amount of kids taking AP courses in the respective school.

example - wade hampton in 2012 had 581 kids take 884 AP tests. that was good enough to put them 2nd in the district. grant it they only had a 38% pass rate across the board on those tests, the fact that they are raising the bar and getting kids to enroll in these courses certainly has had an impact on wade hampton's success over the last few years.


the one that surprised me the most is Greer.

[greenvillebuckeye]

Originally Posted by MountainDew2013

i was surprised Wren did not get a perfect score given all the hype for Powdersville schools on here. LOL

even got beat by tl hanna and anderson district 2, not sure what schools are in that one.

my original thread pointed that out but considering the wren army we have on this site i thought better of it as they would have banded together, koolaided up and gone on the attack. it's funny when your score is high these things really do matter. when your score is low or takes a hit all of sudden this sort of thing no longer matters.

[Carolina Knight]

Were these grades based on results of schools testing in math, science and history/social studies?

[Mohtalim]

Letter grades are meaning less. Reporting actual data on # of students per computer/teacher/Ap class/etc is much less easy to fudge/boost from year to year and add some college results in there, because that's what highschool is about for people that care enough to look up HS rankings.