South Carolina: 2024 Assessment Results

Post-pandemic recovery in ELA; math still inching toward 2019 rates

Oct 18, 2024

Overview

Here at the 2024 State Assessment Data Substack, we’ll be releasing these posts as states release their data (and we clean it). To keep it brief, every post will have three sets of graphs: 1) math and ELA test scores for grades 3-8 over time, 2) math and ELA scores by race/ethnicity, and 3) outcomes by economic status, when possible.

Our intention here is to give you the big picture: where are the state scores going, and how does that differ by group. These graphs are made with Zelma.ai, and if you want to explore up through the 2023 data yourself, you can do that here. All state 2024 data available will be published in December. You can read more about Zelma in our post here.

Today: South Carolina.

State Assessment Background

The student outcome data used for these figures come from the SC READY assessment for students in grades 3-8. The state first administered this assessment in 2016. In South Carolina, approximately 87.9% of students participated in all state assessments in 2021, which was lower than a typical year.

Overall Trends

Compared to 2023, overall proficiency rates in 2024 for students in grades 3–8 declined slightly in ELA, while making small gains in math. South Carolina stands out as one of the few states that has fully recovered from pandemic learning losses in ELA, rising above 2019 proficiency levels.

ELA: Proficiency rates declined slightly from approximately 54% to 53% between 2023 and 2024, but remain higher than pre-pandemic proficiency rates of 45% in 2019.