SUMTER, S.C. — South Carolina Ready Assessment report cards have been released showing how schools are performing all over the state. One elementary school in Sumter is celebrating an “excellent” score.
“This is a great thing for Sumter School District,” Alice Drive Elementary School parent and teacher Holly Williamson shares. “And we need some positivity around Sumter, so this is really good. So I'm so happy for Alice Drive.”
The school is celebrating its newest score from the state department of education, designated as “excellent.”
“When we all come together, that's when we get excellence. So that's why I'm so proud. I feel like this is a whole community that could feel really, really proud of itself for what we've accomplished,” Principal Eric Masaitis says. “I feel like it really makes a difference in the community not only to be proud of the school, but to know that that trust is there. And when the community sees that a school is doing well, they're more likely to trust the school and to trust the teachers. And that takes a little bit of load off teachers who are already working really hard.”
Masaitis says this score, a 71, is up from last year’s score of 59. It measures how students are performing in grades three through eight, tracking their progress in reading, math and science, which Director of Testing and Accountability for Sumter School District Lamont Moore says is important.
“We don't just want to assess our students and never respond to it. Looking at data requires a response and so in order to do that, we have to make sure that we are looking at it on a regular basis, that our teachers know how to analyze it, our leaders know how to analyze it, we're having joint conversations about it, and we're putting in some some interventions and plans in place to respond to it,” Moore says.
Looking at trends across the district for the South Carolina Ready Assessment, the percentage of scores that did not meet expectations lowered across all grade levels in English. In math, the percentage lowered for all grades except 7th and 8th where it increased slightly.
A different set of statistics came out that measures test scores in algebra, biology, English and US history among high schoolers for spring 2023. Each category is up from the previous year, but the only category that is above pre-pandemic scores in 2019 is English. The other three subjects are testing just below.
“We're excited because we're closing the gap and not only that we're going to the next level and pushing our students higher than what they were before this COVID-19 thing happened with us,” Moore says.
When it comes to future plans, Moore says “we're just looking to start having more detailed data dialogue within our schools and getting more personalized with our approach so that every student knows where they need to go to be successful.”
“I heard a quote recently. It says, ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast.’ And I love that because we can strategize all we want but if we don't have a culture where we expect excellence all the time from our teachers and from our students, then none of the strategies you put in place are going to work,” Masaitis says. “That's our strategy moving forward is to keep our culture and just keep improving one student at a time.”
According to Masaitis, Alice drive is the first elementary school in Sumter School District to receive an excellent score since 2012.
When asked what the school district credits for the increase in test scores from last year, the district says schools had “an intentional instructional focus that included data disaggregation, student engagement, and additional ELEOT observations, which are student centered observations.”
“We are not perfect. We still have ways to go. But we're showing progress and have a great team,” Moore says.