Charleston, South Carolina – The Charleston County School system (CCSD) is the state’s second-largest school system, and on Thursday, it celebrated its accomplishments and future goals.
Anita Huggins, CCSD superintendent, delivered the keynote following many student performances.
She recognized the historical progress of several schools, including Sanders-Clyde, Johns Island (Angel Oak), St. James-Santee Elementary, Camp Road Middle School, and West Ashley High School. Each received a good or excellent score on the statewide SC Ready examinations.
“Schools and kids are achieving unprecedented levels. We feel that our emphasis on high-quality teaching, science and reading, proper school resource allocation through the WSF [weighted student funding], collaborations, and data-driven talks is making a significant difference in Charleston,” Huggins stated.
According to the Harvard and Stanford National Education Recovery Scorecard, CCSD is the nation’s best district for outperforming pre-COVID levels in math and reading. The superintendent went on to say that more progress needs to be made for children of all ages.
“We’re quite enthusiastic about that, but the work isn’t finished. “The community needs to know that we still have a lot of work to do to ensure that all students can attend a school that is rated good or excellent and are prepared for whatever they want to do when they leave the Charleston County School District,” Huggins stated.
The superintendent said that CCSD has two major difficulties. During her speech, she urged community leaders to assist combat absenteeism and poverty.
“We have a lot of methods in place to encourage kids to attend school and to engage with families. We’re hopeful that our faith-based organizations, businesses, and municipalities will all help send that clear message. We need our children to attend school, and we know that poverty is the leading predictor of academic failure.”
“We plan to continue to focus on early intervention, including Pre-K, science and reading, phonological awareness as an early child, having data-driven meetings, intervening sooner, and accelerating as we need to believe and achieve the potential of every child,” replied Huggins.
The district will disclose the official report card results in November. Huggins stated that CCSD is expected to perform community outreach to identify the need for universal pre-K.
