SwampFox

We're in denial: The better educated a SC student’s parents, the further he trails peers nationally

We are in denial about the depth of SC's public education problem.

"Contrary to some perceptions, state's students hold their own," screamed a Greenville News' headline about the Monitor Group's recently issued review of South Carolina public education.

The study pointed out that South Carolina students are performing at or near the national average in reading and math in fourth and eighth grades on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the Nation's Report Card.

Impressive progress in improving public education, especially in lower grades, is being made and should be celebrated. But the report goes on to say:

Contrary to widespread perception in South Carolina, the quality of student performance in the state is typically on par with the U.S. average, and rapidly improving. The principal issue is the quantity of students successfully passing through the system.

Well... there's much more to reality than that. Many of us who are more highly educated and affluent than the average South Carolinian smugly take comfort in the illusion that the problem is not us; average SC scores are low merely because we have lots of poor people. We believe, because we want to believe, that SC is last in SAT scores because there is a larger percentage of students taking the test in SC than in states with higher scores. That simply is not true.

Andrew J. Coulson in a 2005 study of South Carolina Public education made an astounding claim that bursts that bubble.

The better educated a South Carolina student’s parents happen to be, the further that student scores behind students in other states whose parents are similarly educated.

Don't believe it, check this out. The College Board publishes reports of SAT scores with detailed breakdowns by demographics. Below is a comparison of South Carolina's breakdown versus the United States.

2005 SAT Scores
Demographic	US	SC	Deficit
Total	1,028	993	35
Top Tenth High School Rank	1,191	1,147	44
A+ High School Grade Point Average	1,232	1,191	41
20+ Years of Study in Six Academic Subjects	1,098	1,056	42
Family Income > $100,000	1,119	1,080	39
Highest Parent Education - Graduate Degree	1,131	1,090	41

If you need more evidence that the best and brightest in South Carolina public schools are trailing their peers, try this exercise. North Carolina and South Carolina both report SAT scores by high school. Here's is combined list of SC and NC high schools with the top 25 average SAT scores.

 

 

2005 SAT Scores
		District	School	SAT
1	SC		SC Gov School for Science and Math	1382
2	NC		NC School of Science & Math	1311
3	NC	Guilford	Guilford Early College	1277
4	NC		Raleigh Charter High	1257
5	SC	Charleston	Academic Magnet	1219
6	NC	Chapel Hill-Carrboro	East Chapel Hill High	1207
7	NC	Wake	William G Enloe High	1178
8	NC	Chapel Hill-Carrboro	Chapel Hill High	1166
9	NC		NC School of the Arts	1160
10	SC		SC Gov School for the Arts & Human	1148
11	NC	Charlotte-Mecklenburg	Myers Park High	1135
12	NC		Gray Stone Day	1131
13	NC	Guilford	Grimsley High	1129
14	NC		Woods Charter	1118
15	NC	Wake	Needham Broughton High	1110
16	NC	Wake	Green Hope High	1110
17	NC	Guilford	Northwest High	1108
18	SC	Greenville	Riverside High	1107
19	SC	Charleston	Charleston School of the Arts	1103
20	SC	Horry	Aynor High	1103
21	NC	Durham	C E Jordan High	1103
22	NC	Wake	Leesville Road High	1102
23	NC	Henderson	West Henderson High	1101
24	NC	Watauga	Watauga High	1101
25	NC	Buncombe	T C Roberson High	1099

If you live in South Carolina, what is wrong with that picture? We're not talking about some far away state like Utah with a low minority percentage and a historical culture that somehow places a greater emphasis on education. We're talking about a next door neighbor with similar demographics and history.

Over the past several decades, South Carolina has not placed the same emphasis on education that North Carolina has, and the result manifests itself not just the I-95 Corridor of Shame, but in the best SC public high schools to which many Swamp Fox readers are sending your kids. The first regular SC high school on this list is #18, and many readers will be stunned at top performing schools in SC metropolitan areas that aren't on the top 25 list at all.

What if we created a groundswell to make our best schools competitive with the best schools nationally, indeed even the best schools in the world? Here's a model of how a fantastic high school leader actually accomplished it.

I have a thought. Jim Barker has sparked incredible passion and momentum with his vision of making Clemson a Top 20 public university. Wouldn't it powerful if a group of people in the state dedicated themselves to developing and executing a plan to get the top 20 percent of public high schools in South Carolina into the top 20 percent of public high schools nationally? If you think this is a good idea and are willing to roll up your sleeves, or if you have a better idea, let us know.