Easley Schools Fare Well on Report Cards

It's report cards time, only this time it's not for your students but rather the district schools they are attending and for Easley the report was mostly positive.

Three out of five Easley schools received a score of 'Excellent' on their absolute ratings and the graduation rate at Easley High School increased 4.9 percent from 2010, the highest increase in the district, according to data released by the South Carolina Department of Education.

"The Easley schools have performed very well," Superintendent Henry Hunt said. "We don't wait for these Report Cards or other data to come out, we've been working for a number of years to improve student achievement."

East End Elementary maintained its Excellent ranking in the absolute rating in 2011, but dropped to a ranking of Good in the growth rating since 2010.

Forest Acres Elementary maintained an Excellent ranking in both categories.

McKissick Elementary remained at Average in the absolute rating and Below Average in the growth rating.

"McKissick is our highest poverty school in Easley," Hunt said. "This is something we will continue to work on."

West End Elementary maintained an Excellent ranking in the absolute rating and dropped to Good in the growth category since 2010.

Gettys Middle School maintained a Good ranking in the absolute category and an Average ranking in the growth category.

Easley High School has maintained an Excellent ranking in both categories.

Nine schools in the School District of Pickens County earned perfect ratings in both categories and two were in Easley.

The district saw its absolute rating drop from Good to Average, although 50 percent of the county's schools earned the highest possible rank of Excellent. The district also saw an increase in the on-time graduation rate of 1.4 percent.

"The one area that probably hurts us as a district was our graduation rate," Hunt said. "We had a decrease from Good down to Average. We're going to look at things there and see what we can do to improve that."

Statewide, the number of school districts and schools receiving an “Excellent” Absolute rating on the state’s School Report Card has increased since 2010

Eleven out of 86 school districts received an Excellent Absolute rating compared to six districts in 2010. 

Abbeville, Darlington, Florence 5, Spartanburg 1 and Spartanburg 6 join York 4, Lexington 5, Anderson 1, Lexington 1, Greenwood 52, and York 2 in the list of districts who received an Excellent rating. The latter six districts received an Excellent rating in 2010 and 2011.

State Superintendent of Education Mick Zais said the high school graduation was well below where the state’s rate should be.

“What this current rate means is that slightly more than 1 out of every 4 students will not graduate on time in South Carolina,” Zais said to media across the state on Wednesday. “We shouldn’t be satisfied with this graduation rate. I certainly am not and no one else should be.”

The state’s on-time graduation rate score was 73.6 percent compared to 2010’s score of 72.1 percent. The state’s graduation rate was at it’s highest in 2003 at 78 percent.