The State Board of Education recently added 15 schools to a statewide initiative aimed at assisting schools that have not met student learning goals mandated in the South Carolina Education Accountability Act.
Twenty schools were released from the collaborative after they made improvements in student achievement. Among the released schools was J.V. Martin Junior High School.
The newly identified schools, which have an average poverty rating greater than 97 percent, will join 17 already participating in the Palmetto Priority Schools project.
After passage of the Education Accountability Act of 1998, the Education Oversight Committee established guidelines for school report card ratings that defined the progress schools were expected to make each year. Schools that receive an absolute rating of At-Risk are monitored for three years to determine whether they meet expected progress.
For schools that do not meet expected progress, the State Superintendent is required by law to recommend one of three actions:
1. Furnish continuing advice and technical assistance in implementing the recommendations of the State Board of Education.
2. Declare a state of emergency in the school and replace the school’s principal.
3. Declare a state of emergency in the school and assume management of the school.
After superintendents in each of the 15 newly identified schools’ home districts “bought in” at the local level, State Superintendent of Education Mick Zais declined to recommend a state of emergency in those schools and instead recommended their participation in PPS. The principal, district superintendent, and local school board chairperson of each of the 15 newly identified schools attended today’s State Board meeting or participated electronically.
Each of the schools will receive technical assistance through a “tiered” approach and be represented in the collaborative’s leadership team by its principal, district superintendent and school board chair. Education Department team members include Zais, Deputy Superintendent Charmeka Bosket, Project Director David Rawlinson and liaisons assigned to each school. The group meets together regularly.
Rawlinson said that teacher recruitment is an issue at high-poverty schools, with annual turnover rates sometimes as high as 40 percent. Another challenge is continuity of leadership; Rawlinson said that of the original 16 PPS schools identified four years ago, none has the same principal today. In the eight districts where those schools are located, none has the same superintendent that it did four years ago.
Sixteen schools failed to meet expected progress based on their November 2006 report cards and agreed to become the first participants in PPS. Although no additional schools were identified from 2007 report cards, 24 were identified from 2008 report cards and three were identified from 2009 report cards. Fourteen schools met expected progress and were released based on their 2009 reports cards.
