THE ISSUE: S.C. Education

OUR OPINION: Leaders need to appreciate the positive with focus on shortcomings

As South Carolinians prepare to shop for back to school during this weekend’s sales tax holidays, there remains deep concern about the quality of education in the state. Our leaders are not on the same page when it comes to public education, with lawmakers and the governor deeply divided over the issue of school vouchers.

School choice remains a major issue for districts. Skills testing is being transformed. The very definition of public education in the Constitution is in dispute.

However, parents and leaders can look to a positive sign in the form of a recent report by the Southern Regional Education Board.

Notably, South Carolina has raised students’ reading achievement in the early grades since 2005.

The in-depth report outlines the state’s progress on the region’s Challenge to Lead Goals for Education. The goals were approved by a commission of region leaders in 2002 and call for major improvements in K-12 student performance, college readiness and other key education areas in South Carolina and 15 other SREB member states.

Among findings of the report:

South Carolina’s high school graduates enroll in college at a higher rate than other U.S. graduates, and 60 percent of students who enter the state’s four-year public colleges and universities graduate within six years — topping the national average of 55 percent. The state needs an even higher graduation rate in order to build a highly skilled work force and fuel economic growth. But as college costs climb, many South Carolina students are having trouble paying for college, even after federal financial aid.

The proportion of children from low-income households is increasing in South Carolina, but their academic achievement also is increasing in some subjects. More than half of the SREB region’s fourth-graders from low-income families scored at or above the Basic level in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2007 — outperforming their peers nationally. In South Carolina, 44 percent of fourth-graders from low-income families scored at that level in reading, up 1 percentage point since 2005.

Most SREB states are requiring more high school students to take higher-level courses to better prepare them for college and career training and jobs. More states are requiring geometry and Algebra II for graduation. South Carolina requires all high schools to offer geometry and Algebra II, and it requires students seeking a standard diploma to take four math courses.

“South Carolina is making solid progress in education, but just as in every state, much work remains to be done,” said SREB President Dave Spence on the report’s release.

The work increasingly requires that the state’s leaders do less fighting over education and find common ground built around indications of improvement and definitions of shortcomings. Building a realistic but positive attitude about education would be a good place to start.

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