Test scores in English and math last year rose to their highest levels among students in grades 3 to 8, according to data released by the state Department of Education (SCDE) Monday.
Statewide, 61.3% of elementary and middle school students met or exceeded grade-level proficiency in ELA, or English language arts on SCDE’s SC READY tests. It’s the first time that number has broken 60% for the overall group, and it’s up from 53.5% two years prior.
This year’s higher number was carried in part by high performance among the state’s third graders, 76.3% of whom met or exceeded grade-level expectations in the 2025-26 school year. Almost nine in 10 third graders approached, met, or exceeded expectations.
Fourth and fifth grade ELA scores were 66.7% and 60.5%, respectively. More than 92% of third and fourth graders approached, met, or exceeded expectations.
Over this past summer break, state school districts began offering summer reading camps to first graders who did not demonstrate grade-level reading proficiency during the school year. Districts will expand the program to second graders performing below grade level in 2027.
Beyond ELA, math scores statewide also reached their highest proficiency totals last year, again bolstered by strong performance among third graders. Just shy of 74% of third graders met or exceeded grade-level expectations in math last year. Performance among fourth and fifth graders broke 52%, but taking grades three through eight into account, not quite half – 47.8% – of students in the state met or exceeded grade-level expectations in math last year.
Gains
The biggest improvements overall, according to SCDE, occurred in school districts with among the highest rates of poverty in South Carolina.
Meeting Street Elementary – Burns in Charleston showed some of the state’s most improved scores, according to SCDE. Eighty-nine percent of the school’s students come from low-income households, yet the percentage of students scoring at or above grade level grew by 22 points from the year prior. Almost 65% of students performed at or above grade level.
“Third graders improved nearly 29 percentage points in ELA and made significant progress in math,” SCDE reported. “Those results made Meeting Street Elementary – Burns the most improved school in South Carolina in ELA and placed it in the top five for most improved in math.”
SCDE credits “strong leadership, excellent teaching, and high expectations” with the improvements.
York County School District 4 had the state’s highest performance numbers for ELA among elementary and middle schoolers, with 81.3% of students meeting or exceeding expectations. Anderson County School District 4 boasted 75.5%.
