Officials: Student success, teacher accountability key to improving the state of S.C. education

The key to student success isn’t just based on standardized test scores and teacher accountability, officials said.

Providing opportunities for students to do what they love in school – and giving poorer students access to health care and full meals – is as important as reading, writing and arithmetic.

Several hundred students, teachers, administrators and residents spent Tuesday night at Coastal Carolina University to hear education professionals discuss the future of South Carolina students.

Molly Spearman, state superintendent who gave the keynote address, said her goal – and the goal of every district – is to make every student successful.

“It’s pretty simple but it’s not easy,” she said. “When you add the word ‘every,’ it becomes a much greater responsibility.”

The five-person panel at Tuesday night’s forum discussed teacher accountability and retention, student achievement in regards to standardized tests and the importance of community involvement in schools. Edward Jadallah, dean of the Spadoni College of Education at CCU, moderated the event.

The forum, sponsored by CCU’s Spadoni College of Education’s Consortium for Educational Research and Evaluation, focused on curriculum standards, the Every Child Achieves Act and recruiting and retaining effective teachers.

The key to retaining South Carolina teachers, Spearman said, is good leadership. Placing strong, knowledgeable principals and administrators in the classroom – coupled with a teacher pay raise – will keep educators in schools.

“Teachers will stay and work if they have a great boss,” Spearman said. “They’ll stay if they feel support.”

Stabilizing the curriculum and testing should also keep more students in classrooms, Spearman said. The S.C. legislature has changed secondary educational standards over the past two years with the trashing of Common Core.

The state also issued two new standardized tests to students earlier this year – the ACT and ACT Aspire – and the results did not meet national standards. Officials said students will perform better over the next few years once standards are cemented and students get used to the tests.

“Everybody needs to be assessed, because we need to know where everyone is, but we have to figure out if we’re doing the right tests,” Spearman said.

Another key component to student success, other than stabilizing curriculum, is providing more opportunities to students living in poverty.

Randy Dozier, Georgetown County School District superintendent, said that Georgetown is working on closing the achievement gap between poor and middle-class students. About 75 percent of students in Georgetown County are under the poverty level, Dozier said.

Providing health care, reading support, small classrooms and two full meals daily are just some of the ways student achievement can be raised, Dozier said. Teacher development is also key, he added.

“We want to make sure each student is successful, not as a class but as an individual, and to do that we need everyone,” Dozier said.

Student achievement is intrinsically linked to teacher accountability, but test scores aren’t a reflection of individual teachers or students, said Joey Trail, Horry County Schools 2015-16 Teacher of the Year and forum candidate.

The idea that standardized exams equate to student success needs to change, Trail added.

“The truth is we perform miracles on a daily basis. We allow people who have never stepped foot in a classroom to tell us how we’re doing on a daily basis,” Trail said.

Teaching life skills to students and removing some of the academic tests – benchmark exams that only prepare students for more exams – is an important part of an educator’s job, Trail said. Unfortunately, the number of standardized tests reduces the amount of time teachers have to teach those soft skills, he said.

The increased testing also lessens the amount of time students can spend on activities they enjoy at school, such as band or JROTC, he said.

“If there’s nothing in school that engages them, they’re going to drop out,” Trail said.

The Every Child Achieves Act is being considered by the S.C. legislature to replace No Child Left Behind, which expired in 2007. The act takes away some of the tests and encourages development of social and life skills, which will create more S.C. high school graduates, Trail said.

“We need to prepare these students for success in life, not just success for college,” Trail said.

Allowing teachers to hold each other accountable – and to fill out evaluations as a group – makes teacher expectations more manageable and less frightening, especially to new educators.

“Don’t go in thinking you’re all alone. The support is there to help you,” said Kristi Kibler, Georgetown County teacher and forum member.

That doesn’t mean teacher expectations are or should be any less rigorous.

“Teachers have the hardest job in the school district,” Rick Maxey, Horry County Schools superintendent, said. “You’re not just checking boxes, and you’re not just planning lessons. You have high expectations on you.”

Overall, Spearman stressed the importance of community involvement in student learning. Religious groups, charity organizations, parents and governmental agencies all must play a part in pushing S.C. students to future success.

Not everything can be taught in the classroom, she said.

“We cannot get every student ready in just those seven hours, 180 days a year,” Spearman said. “We need all of us working together.”

This story was originally published October 27, 2015 at 9:08 PM with the headline "Officials: Student success, teacher accountability key to improving the state of S.C. education."