Clarendon County students showed gains in several areas on state assessments during the 2025-26 school year, while newly released results also show continued challenges in math, science and some high school courses.
The South Carolina Department of Education released 2026 assessment results Aug. 10, including SC READY tests for students in grades 3-8, high school End-of-Course Examination Program tests and career readiness assessments. The data provide a broader look at student performance than recent statements from Clarendon County School District, which focused largely on academic growth and individual schools’ strongest-performing subjects.
Statewide, South Carolina posted its strongest SC READY results since the assessment began, with 61.3% of students meeting or exceeding expectations in English language arts and 47.9% in math. That was up from 59.6% in ELA and 43.9% in math in 2025. The state has set a goal of having at least 75% of students performing at or above grade level by 2030.
On SC READY, which assesses students in grades 3-8, more than half of Clarendon students met or exceeded expectations in English language arts at every grade level.
The district’s highest ELA performance came in fifth grade, where 61.3% of students met or exceeded expectations. That was followed by 58.9% in third grade, 54.7% in fourth grade, 53.6% in sixth grade, 52.1% in seventh grade and 50.5% in eighth grade.
The results were mixed compared with 2025. Fifth-grade ELA increased from 59.8% to 61.3%, while sixth grade rebounded from 44.9% to 53.6%. Seventh grade moved in the opposite direction, falling from 58.3% to 52.1%.
Mathematics results were lower and continued a pattern of uneven performance seen in 2025. Statewide, math performance increased 4 percentage points this year, from 43.9% to 47.9% Meets/Exceeds.
Districtwide, 56% of third-graders met or exceeded expectations in math, down from 61.7% last year. Performance generally declined in the upper grades, with 45.1% meeting or exceeding expectations in fourth grade, 38.3% in fifth, 37% in sixth, 27.3% in seventh and 36% in eighth.
Seventh-grade math remained a particular challenge after only about a quarter of students met or exceeded expectations in 2025. Eighth grade, however, continued to improve, rising from 29.1% last year to 36% this year.
CCSD acknowledged the mathematics challenges in both its elementary and secondary achievement statements. The elementary statement called math a “districtwide priority,” while the secondary statement said mathematics remains a priority, particularly at Manning Junior High and Scott’s Branch Middle.
Science remained below the district’s literacy performance but improved at both tested grade levels. The percentage meeting or exceeding expectations increased from 38.6% to 39.4% in fourth grade and from 37.3% to 42.6% in sixth grade.
CCSD also identified science as an area needing additional attention, saying the results “confirm the need to expand rigorous, standards-aligned instruction and meaningful hands-on learning.”
Individual elementary schools also showed year-over-year gains. Manning Elementary had 50.9% of students meet or exceed expectations in ELA, up from 48.1% in 2025 and 42.2% in 2024, while its fourth-grade science rate increased from 28.3% to 32.7%.
Dr. Rose H. Wilder Elementary continued its ELA growth, with 55.9% meeting or exceeding expectations, compared with 53.3% in 2025 and 46.2% in 2024. Walker-Gamble Elementary remained one of the district’s stronger-performing schools, with 65.7% meeting or exceeding expectations in ELA and 57.9% in science, although its ELA rate declined from 69.9% last year.
The district characterized the overall results as evidence of progress but also acknowledged “persistent achievement gaps” and areas requiring greater urgency.
At the high school level, English 2 was the district’s strongest subject on the End-of-Course Examination Program, or EOCEP.
EOCEP assessments are given in certain high school courses and count as 20% of a student’s final course grade. Students are tested in Algebra 1, Biology 1, English 2 and U.S. History and the Constitution.
Of 304 Clarendon students tested in English 2, 61.84% earned a C or higher. Scores were considerably lower in the other subjects, with about 36% earning a C or higher in Algebra, 30% in Biology and 28% in U.S. History. U.S. History had the district’s highest EOCEP failure rate at 58.16%.
Those figures are consistent with CCSD’s secondary achievement statement, which identified English 2 as its strongest End-of-Course subject and acknowledged that “significant work remains” in Biology, Algebra and U.S. History, particularly at Manning High School and Scott’s Branch Middle/High School.
East Clarendon Middle/High School posted some of the district’s strongest secondary results. According to CCSD, 76.29% of East Clarendon students earned a C or higher in English 2, while 56.88% did so in Algebra 1 and 50% in Biology 1.
Manning High had 55.76% of students earn a C or higher in English 2, while Scott’s Branch had 49.05%. CCSD also noted that nearly one-fourth of Manning High’s English 2 students earned an A and more than 42% of Scott’s Branch students earned an A or B.
Career readiness results offer another measure of how Clarendon students are preparing for life after high school. Of 362 Clarendon students who completed all three assessments required for the Career Ready Credential, 55% received a credential and 45% did not.
School-level results varied considerably. East Clarendon had the highest credential rate among the district’s three high schools at 77.6%, compared with 47.9% at Manning High and 43.1% at Scott’s Branch.
CCSD said it plans to use the assessment results to guide targeted intervention, teacher coaching, progress monitoring and instructional planning.
“Assessment results provide us with an opportunity to celebrate progress while also examining where we must improve,” Superintendent Dr. Shawn Johnson said in the district’s Aug. 10 release. “During our Year of Excellence, we will strengthen the practices producing results, address areas of need with urgency, and continue building systems that lead to consistent academic excellence for every student.”
