BY KALEN MATTOCKS and MORGAN BENSON, Sophomores
BLYTHEWOOD-- Education is a tough subject, especially in South Carolina. Whenever someone is asked about South Carolina’s education their answer seems to be “I don’t know”, “maybe because people don’t try”, or “I wish I lived in another state”.
The subject of South Carolina’s Education will finally be discussed and it will be looked into why this state’s ranking is so low.
“A matter of they are comparing apples and oranges. Not all states use the same assessment, some states only have their top kids take test. We have our...all of our kids take test, like the SAT. So, I think unless you are giving them same exact test, taught with the same exact standards to all kids,” said English teacher Claire Robinson.
“The reason why South Carolina’s education system is so low is because people do not take education so seriously here. Certain parts of the state are worst than others, they kind of bring the whole place down,” said sophomore Nicole Welch.
The explanation of how this ranking of South Carolina could be changed was very comparable to the thoughts of why South Carolina was ranked so low.
“I think to like bring our ranking up we could, I don’t know, teach students to take their education more seriously. Like there will be more consequences if you do not do certain stuff, stuff like that”, said Welch.
“You can not even pay attention to those numbers, but I do think that we are affected by lack of funding in education. It would be interesting to maybe compare how much funding is given per student in those states, to how much funding is given per student in our state,” said Robinson.
The graduation of high school students in South Carolina is 83.6% and the highest graduation rate in the country is New Jersey at 91.8%. It can be hard to understand why this is an issue especially in these days.
“Again without having more information on New Jersey. I think it is kind...to be able to compare them, but I think things to compare again, funding, career readiness”, said Robinson. You know, I would need to know what they are doing to be able to say what we are not doing. So, it would be hard to answer that question without that information.
Teaching is an important aspect to education and the certain styles can make a good or bad teacher. This can even affect the learning of students.
“I think they can because I definitely and this is my 22 year of teaching. I do think student learning styles have changed with technology. Students use to have...seem to have a longer attention span. Being able to sort of just sit and focus on lecture a little bit more, now of days I think students are use to bells and whistles and things like that, It’s harder to keep student attention,” said Robinson.
“At the same time I think students have different learning styles. What works for one student may not work for another and if teachers are not changing it up a little bit, it may...there are some students who may not be reached.”
“Yes, absolutely 100%, I do think that because I do not want to name any names. I am not going to name any names, but I have seen, I have had teachers, and I have heard of teacher’s who do not really teach,” said Welch.
“They just kind of have the kids do it themselves, and some teachers are just bad. I mean they're good people, but their methods are just not very good.”
Massachusetts has continually been number one when it comes to education. Maybe there’s something in their water or maybe they know something we do not.
“It is hard to answer that without knowing what their policies are. Again it would be interesting to compare their funding. It would be interesting to compare standards because I know our old standards were harder than a lot of other states so if one state has easier standards and we have harder standards of course we are not going to have as many students meeting the goal,” said Robinson.
“But I think you need to compare you know, the economy of the state. Are the majority of the parents employed, college educated themselves? Because that is going to affect what the students are coming to school equipped to do.”
“What economic challenges are there going on outside of the home that affects how students are able to learn or not learn in the classroom? So without knowing more about what is going on specifically in that state, I think it is kind of hard to compare.”
South Carolina Education Ranking is a question which can ponder many. It still can make people feel embarrassment and make some just give up on it all. But the realization has been made, it is not the whole state. It is certain parts, certain teachers, and certain programs.
