Copyright Live 5 News WCSC
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCSC) - The number of high school students graduating on time in South Carolina is the highest it has been in a decade. The nearly 87% on-time graduation rate was one of the major wins marked with the release of South Carolina’s annual School Report Cards on Monday, but leaders note there is plenty of room for growth, too. Unlike other test scores that measure individual student progress, School Report Cards take a look at how entire schools and districts are doing, rated on a five-step scale from unsatisfactory to excellent, based on a score out of 100. On Monday, Burnside Elementary School in Richland County School District One earned a visit from State Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver, who highlighted the school in unveiling the scores. Burnside was among those that made big strides, with a 19-point increase from last year, boosting its rating from average to excellent. Overall, the number of schools across the state rated excellent or good jumped from 549 last year to 623 this year. Most of those gains came at the middle and high school levels, while nearly half of all elementary schools are rated good or excellent in 2025. “We’ve been really strategic here, as a state, in thinking about how we set high expectations but then how we align high support to help our students and teachers meet those expectations,” Weaver said. This year’s scores show the percentage of students considered college or career ready, based on a variety of metrics, still trails the statewide graduation rate, but the gap is shrinking. This year, 86.7% of students graduated on time, while about 75.1% of them were also college or career ready. That 11.6% difference is nearly half what it was four years ago, when the graduation rate was 83.3% but college or career readiness was measured at 61.1%. “We have to make sure that our diplomas are worth more than the piece of paper that they’re written on,” Weaver said. The superintendent said some of her requests for state lawmakers next year, when they begin a new legislative session in January, will be geared toward keeping this progress going. Her top priority is increasing South Carolina’s statewide minimum salary for teachers up to $50,000, which has also been a major ask for years from Gov. Henry McMaster. The release of this year’s School Report Cards was delayed by a few weeks, which Weaver said was because of how much data they had to crunch and differences in how districts reported scores. Weaver said the state is working to simplify that reporting so scores come out on time next year.
