Education leaders see improvements in SC classrooms despite mixed results
FLORENCE COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - South Carolina education leaders say students are showing big improvements in the classroom, even as new results showing fewer than two-thirds of students are reading at their grade level and fewer than half are at their grade level in math
The state Department of Education’s goal is to have at least 75 percent of its students testing at or above grade level by 2030.
State Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver visited Florence County School District 3’s J.C. Lynch Elementary School in Coward on Tuesday morning, a school that has already reached that goal, to release new SC READY test scores.
“The results that we are talking about today, especially in literacy, is one small step for every individual student in this state and one giant leap forward for our entire state on this journey,” Weaver said.
The superintendent chose to unveil this year’s scores at J.C. Lynch Elementary, where students saw tremendous improvements from the year before: a 36% jump in reading and a 22% increase in math, both of which put its students above the 75% benchmark.
“These schools that are beating the odds across the state, it all starts with a great principal,” she said. “Strong principal leadership that is focused on instruction in the classroom and on supporting their teachers with the tools and resources that they need to be successful.”
The annual SC READY exam tests third through eighth graders on their proficiency in reading and writing and math.
Reading scores statewide across all grades jumped six points from last year to this year, with nearly 60 percent of students overall reading at or above their grade level.
Math scores also rose by over a point-and-a-half from last year, though still more than half of students are behind their grade level.
“We are really struggling in math as a state, and not just in South Carolina. This is happening across the country,” Weaver said. “The same strategy that we have been using for reading, we are now turning and applying to this math work through what we are calling the Palmetto Math Project.”
| Grade Level | ENGLISH: Not Meeting Expectations in 2024 | ENGLISH: Not Meeting Expectations in 2025 | MATH: Not Meeting Expectations in 2024 | MATH: Not Meeting Expecations in 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 26.4% | 14.4% | 24.0% | 21.3% |
| 4 | 23.8% | 17.9% | 26.0% | 23.3% |
| 5 | 20.4% | 19.5% | 22.1% | 22.2% |
| 6 | 19.9% | 19.5% | 33.1% | 30.7% |
| 7 | 25.5% | 22.9% | 35.6% | 33.7% |
| 8 | 23.4% | 22.5% | 40.9% | 36.7% |
While both categories show improvement, they are still a distance off from the 2030 goal.
Elementary school students scored higher on the assessment than middle schoolers, with results generally declining as grade levels rose.
The test scores showed that for fifth graders in the state, there was a slight increase of one-tenth of one percent, who are not meeting skills expectations in mathematics in 2025. That figure rose from 22.1% in 2024 to 22.2% this year, the data revealed.
Data from the South Carolina College-and Career-Ready Assessments, known as SC READY, assess skills in English language arts and mathematics that meet the requirements of Acts 155 and 200, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, and the Assessments Peer Review guidance.
Weaver also attributes a change in instruction the state implemented a few years ago to the jump in reading scores and said South Carolina schools are now taking a similar approach with math, with millions of dollars in state funding going toward it.
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