South Carolina Receives Mixed Results on Nation’s Report Card

This week came out with some good and bad news for the South Carolina educational public school system. While South Carolina eighth graders improved their scores in reading and mathematics, fourth graders’ performance in reading slightly declined and slightly improved in mathematics on the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Currently compared to other states, South Carolina is 39th in fourth grade reading (no change from 2009), 38th in eighth grade reading (improvement of 4 spots from 2009), 37th in fourth grade mathematics (improvement of 1 spot from 2009), and 34th in eighth grade mathematics (decline of 1 spot from 2009). In reading, South Carolina’s fourth graders had an average score of 215 in 2011, a decline of 1 point, compared to an average score of 216 in 2009.  The nation’s average score was 220 in 2011.  

A more in depth look into the statistics is South Carolina’s new test results, reading that is. Eighth graders had average score 260, an increase of 3 points from 2009, while the national average score increased by 2 points to 264.  In mathematics, South Carolina’s fourth graders had an average score of 237, an increase of 1 point, and the national average was 240.  Eighth graders’ mathematics scores increased 1 point to an average score of 281, and the national average was 283. There was some history that was shown for the first time in these results as well.

For the first time on the NAEP assessment, South Carolina female students outperform South Carolina male students in each assessment.  Although there was a small setback in a few areas we have to look at the positives and do our best as a state to fix the negatives. Only time will tell if the positives will stay positives, and if they negatives will remain negatives. Will we grow? have more setbacks? You be the judge. Only time will tell!