Students in Florence County School District Three showed improvement on SCREADY and SCPASS scores for the 2017-2018 school year, according to data released by the SC Department of Education.
The South Carolina Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (SCPASS) includes tests in two subjects: science and social studies that are aligned to South Carolina’s science and social studies standards. The SCPASS Science assessment was administered statewide to students in grades four, six, and eight and the Social Studies assessment administered to students in grades five and seven.
The South Carolina College-and Career-Ready Assessments (SC READY) are statewide assessments in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics that are aligned to the South Carolina College and Career Ready Standards for ELA and math. All students in grades three through eight are required to take the SC READY except those who qualify for the South Carolina National Center and State Collaborative (SC-NCSC).
The scores released Tuesday show students in FCSD3 showed gains in certain subject areas and in certain grades.
For example, in ELA the percentage of third-graders who scored “Exceeds Expectations” increased from five percent in 2016-2017 to eight percent in 2017-2018 and the percentage scoring “Meets Expectations” improved from 22 percent to 27 percent.
The percentage of fifth-graders scoring “Exceeds Expectations” on ELA grew from three to five percent, while the percentage of seventh-graders scoring in that same category more than doubled from three to seven percent. Seventh-graders scoring “Meets Expectations” in ELA also improved from 11 percent to 15 percent.
In math, the percentage of third- and sixth-graders scoring “Exceeds Expectations” improved from four to 14 percent and from four to 10 percent, respectively.
“The assessment release shows some improvement, but one in four students in Florence District 3 still need substantial academic support in core content areas: math, ELA, science and social studies,” said Laura Hickson, FCSD3 superintendent. “To address this challenge, FCSD3 is hiring tutors to work with students beginning the third week of September as a means to intervene and provide the necessary academic support to increased mastery of content.”