CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) – Charleston County School District students are setting records for on-time graduation and college and career readiness.

The district has more than 50,000 students in 80 schools and a recent report shows that 2024 had the highest graduation rate to date of all students expected to graduate at 88.8%, a 3.2% increase in the last three years.

The district’s monitoring report examines year-over-year on-time graduation rates and college readiness as of 2019.

The report presents students who contributed to the increase in on-time graduation by student groups: students in poverty, students with disabilities and multilingual learners.

The report states that students experiencing poverty had a 5.3 percentage point increase in on-time graduation rates over the past three years.

Students with disabilities have seen a staggering 9.4 point increase over the last three years and multilingual learners have seen a 1.6 point increase.

The report looks deeper and also considers ethnicity and race. Hispanic students had a 5.8 percentage point increase over the past three years compared to their white or black classmates. The on-time graduation rate for white students has increased by three points over the past three years, while black students have increased by 2.7 points.

On-time graduation isn’t the school district’s only goal. It also closely tracks how prepared students are for college and how ready they are to enter the workforce after graduation.

The report’s data examines college readiness, measuring how proficient prospective graduates are in English.

From 2023 to 2024, 83 percent of students in the Charleston County School District were proficient in English, a 6.7 percentage point increase from the previous year.

From 2023 to 2024, 48 percent of students in the district learned a second language, a 5.2 percentage point increase from the previous year.

The district report divides the student body into two groups: general education and special education. When it comes to college readiness, this part of the report looks at instructional settings and how those environments affect a student.

The study says 84 percent of general education students saw a 6.8-point increase in 2023-2024, while 42.7 percent of special education students saw a 7.8-point increase.

The report then examines the student’s race, ethnicity, and whether or not that student is experiencing poverty.

The data shows that 72 percent of black students are reported as college-ready, a 17.3-point increase from 2022-2023.

Hispanic students saw a 13-point increase, white students saw a 4.4-point increase, while the “other” category saw an 11.6-point increase.

The study states that 92 percent of non-poverty students are college and career ready, an increase of 7.5 points.

On the other hand, students experiencing poverty saw a 14.8-point improvement in college and career readiness.

Overall, the report states that 50.8 percent of Charleston County School District students are college ready and 76.9 percent of district students are career ready.

The Charleston County School District Board of Trustees has a meeting Monday night where the report’s findings are expected to be discussed in more detail.

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