SC School Report Cards annually sends out report cards about schools and districts across the state. According to report cards’ website, they highlight academic achievement and provide background on academic growth, college and career readiness, graduation rates, student safety and more.

“Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), State Education Agencies are required to prepare and disseminate an annual state report and Local Education Agency (LEA) report card that meet the minimum requirements described in federal law,” the site explains. 

Over the next few weeks, the Chronicle will dig into the evaluations for the five school districts that touch Lexington County, continuing with Lexington County School District 3.

The district consists of a primary, an elementary, a middle and a high school and covers the Batesburg-Leesville area. The district serves nearly 2,000 students. 

Graduation Rate

For the 2022-23 school, the district saw 86% of students graduate on time, compared to a statewide rate of 83.8%

Since 2020, the district's expected on-time graduation rate has decreased most years, going from 89.1% to 87.1% to 90.7% to 86%. During that time, the statewide rate went from 82.2% to 83.3% to 83.8% in both 2022 and 2023. 

The district's annual dropout rate decreased from 2.1% to 1.6% from the previous year, and the dropout recovery rate was 0%.

College and Career Readiness

Students who were college- or career-ready made up 69.8% of the district graduation cohort (down from 80.1%), compared to a statewide rate of 64.7%.

Students who were college-and-career-ready made up 31% of the district graduation cohort (up from 29.1%), compared to a statewide rate of 29.4%.

Students who were college-ready made up 33.3% of the graduation cohort (up from 31.8%), compared to a statewide rate of 32%.

Students who were career-ready made up 67.4% of the graduation cohort (down from 77.5%), compared to a statewide rate of 61.4%.

Academic Achievement

English Language Arts (Reading and Writing) – 44% of the district met or exceeded English language arts expectations (up from 36.4%), compared to a statewide rate of 53.9%. 52.2% of the district scored a C or higher on the end-of-course assessment in English 2 (down from 54.3%), compared to a statewide rate of 64.4%.

Mathematics – 32.9% of the district met or exceeded mathematics expectations (up from 31.9%), compared to a statewide rate of 40.9%. 28.3% of the district scored a C or higher on the end-of-course assessment in Algebra 1 (down from 42.9%), compared to a statewide rate of 41.8%.

Preparing for Success

SCPASS Science – 34.4% of the district met or exceeded science expectations (up from 26.9%), compared to a statewide rate of 45.1%. 39.7% of the district scored a C or higher on the biology end-of-course exam (down from 55.6%), compared to a statewide rate of 40.9%.

US History and the Constitution – 30.9% of the district scored a C or higher on the US History and the Constitution end-of-course exam (up from 12.4%), compared to a statewide rate of 42.1%.

Student Safety

The district had one incident of physical attack without a weapon, 323 students with in-school suspension, 206 students with out of school suspension, 11 students expelled, and 39 incidents of bullying and harassment.

Statewide, there were 139 incidents of sexual assault not rape, 135 incidents of possesion of a firearm or explosive, 101,407 students with in-school suspension, 95,982 students with out-of-school suspension, 1,422 students expelled, 3,413 school-related arrests and referrals to law enforcement, and 5,526 incidents of bullying and harassment.

Evaluations by parents

A total of 177 responses were gathered from parents, with 93.8% agreeing/strongly agreeing that their child feels safe at school and 83.1% agreeing/strongly agreeing that their student’s teachers and staff prevent or stop bullying at school.

Evaluation by teachers

A total of 148 responses were gathered from teachers, with 99.3% agreeing/strongly agreeing that they feel safe at school before and after operation hours and 89.1% saying they agreed/strongly agreed that there are rules for behavior enforced at their school.