SC report cards have been released. Where does your child’s school rank?

“The report cards unveiled today are the culmination of many years of South Carolina’s hard work to design a rigorous accountability system that uses multiple measures to show the public the overall performance of our schools and districts,” S.C. schools Superintendent Molly Spearman said at Forest Lake Elementary, a magnet school in Richland District 2.

“I encourage students, parents and school communities to take an in-depth look and celebrate their successes and collaborate on areas where we need to improve.”

What do the new report cards show to the parents of the state’s 775,350 K-12 students and their 52,322 teachers?

You can view the report cards here, but here’s a look.

How your child’s school scored

State Superintendent Spearman and Forest Lake Elementary Principal Kappy Steck celebrated a year of “excellent” student progress at that school, according to the new state report card. (Progress measures improvement in English and math scores by all students and, also, the lowest performing students.)

Out of a possible 35 points awarded for student progress, the Richland 2 NASA Explorer technology school earned nearly 29 points.

In overall student performance, a separate grading category, the school earned 5.8 points out of a possible 10, based on the school’s standardized test scores.

Almost 50 percent of Forest Lake’s students met or exceeded the state’s average score on the science test for fourth, sixth and eighth graders. Also, 83 percent of the school’s students met or exceeded the state’s average score on the test for social studies — 13.3 percentage points better than Richland 2’s average and 14.3 percentage points better than the state.

The state Education Department and the S.C. Education Oversight Committee went through mounds of data this year, using that data as part of the state’s new scoring system for elementary, middle and high schools.

“When we are rating schools we are using more than just test scores, more than just student achievement and student quality,” said department spokesman Ryan Brown. “We’re looking at graduation rates. We’re looking at progress and growth — a major factor of student achievement. That progress is not just the school’s individual progress, but it’s progress compared to the rest of the state.”

But not every S.C. school fared well on the point scale, an indicator that school districts say doesn’t entirely reflect students’ engagement and school quality.

For example, Forest Heights Elementary in Richland District 1 received an overall rating of “unsatisfactory,” based, in part, on the school’s struggles on standardized test scores, and a “below average” rating in student progress.

Nearly 92 percent of Forest Heights students live in poverty — 20 percent higher than Forest Lake, the report cards show.

How Midlands K-12 districts rank

The state used a variety of factors to score S.C. K-12 schools as part of the new report cards.

They include:

High school graduation rates

▪ 78.1%: Richland District 1

▪ 87.2%: Richland District 2

▪ 89.5%: Lexington District 1

▪ 77.7%: Lexington District 2

▪ 83%: Lexington District 3

▪ 75.8%: Lexington District 4

▪ 90.6%: Lexington-Richland District 5

School safety: ‘My child feels safe at school’

▪ 81.1%, parents say in Richland District 1

▪ 83.4%, parents say in Richland District 2

▪ 87.8%, parents say in Lexington District 1

▪ 82.8%, parents say in Lexington District 2

▪ 86.7%, parents say in Lexington District 3

▪ 78.3%, parents say in Lexington District 4

▪ 88.8%, parents say in Lexington-Richland District 5

Average teacher salary

▪ $51,985, in Richland District 1

▪ $51,802, in Richland District 2

▪ $51,791, in Lexington District 1

▪ $48,832, in Lexington District 2

▪ $47,466, in Lexington District 3

▪ $46,456, in Lexington District 4

▪ $55,023, in Lexington-Richland District 5

Per-student spending

▪ $14,639, Richland District 1

▪ $11,278, Richland District 2

▪ $10,346, Lexington District 1

▪ $11,243, Lexington District 2

▪ $12,231, Lexington District 3

▪ $9,794, Lexington District 4

▪ $12,323, Lexington-Richland District 5

Poverty rate

▪ 75.5%, up from 74.4% last year in Richland District 1

▪ 52.7%, up from 50% last year in Richland District 2

▪ 44.6%, up from 43.5% last year in Lexington District 1

▪ 73.8%, up from 71.8% last year in Lexington District 2

▪ 71.1%, up from 69.2% last year in Lexington District 3

▪ 79.2%, up from 78.6% last year in Lexington District 4

▪ 41.5%, up from 39.2% last year in Lexington-Richland District 5