On behalf of Horry County Schools (HCS) and the Horry County Board of Education, we have the privilege to present to our stakeholders the 2023-2024 State Report Card. The report card provides a collective summary of the District’s progress in upholding our commitment to equip our students with the world-class skills articulated in the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate.
This report card provides information about student performance, but numbers alone do not speak to the energy and creative efforts that contributed to that performance. This past year, teachers, school administrators, and district staff were committed to our students’ success and worked diligently to provide a healthy and safe environment in which they could grow as learners.
Many honors and awards received during the year paid tribute to the District, our schools, our students, and our staff. The South Carolina State Department of Education named HCS a Purple Star School District for our significant commitment to welcome and support military families. For the seventh time in eight years, HCS has received the prestigious Best Communities for Music Education designation from the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation. The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform redesignated St. James Middle School as a School to Watch based on the school’s improvement efforts characterized by a continuous trajectory toward success. Carolina Forest High School and the Academy for the Arts, Science & Technology were recognized by Project Lead the Way (PLTW) as 2023-24 Distinguished High Schools, indicating the schools are empowering students to thrive in an evolving world and achieving exemplary results from their PLTW programs. Carolina Forest High School was also included on the 2023-24 AP School Honor Roll, along with Green Sea Floyds High School, for delivering results and broadening access for students with their Advanced Placement programs. Among other awards that individual teachers, administrators, and staff in HCS won, several were also named the state teacher, administrator, or principal of the year by organizations such as the SC Athletic Administrators Association, the SC Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, the SC Council for Exceptional Children, the SC Art Education Association, and the National Education Association. Additionally, HCS students outperformed the state on the SCPASS and SC READY tests, and their SAT composite scores surpassed the state’s and the nation’s.
Of the 2757 graduates in the class of 2024, 77 percent (2107) indicated they were advancing to higher education, and 66 percent (1829) met eligibility requirements for S.C. Education Lottery scholarships. Considering all scholarship sources, 57 percent of 2024 graduates (1558) earned a combined $100 million. A total of 1778 graduating seniors earned South Carolina Seals of Distinction. The class of 2024 also completed 3408 dual-credit courses, providing a jump-start toward a college degree. Horry County Schools was pleased to have 12 students from the Class of 2024 win National Merit Scholarships: Isabella Markunas, Academy for the Arts, Science & Technology and Carolina Forest High School; Shantanu Chakraborty, Carolina Forest High School; Joe Bornfreund, Morgan Freiler, Aydan Hayes, Emilia Mendoza, Alli Satterfield, Brea Stone, Trent Toole, Makaila Tucker, and Andy Xu, HCS Scholars Academy High School; and Jason Costanzo, St. James High School.
The bands at Forestbrook Middle School, Ocean Bay Middle School, Socastee Middle School, Ten Oaks Middle School, and Carolina Forest High School were all given the Outstanding Performance Award by the SC Band Directors Association, while the orchestra at Ten Oaks Middle School received the Outstanding Performance Award from the SC Music Educators Association. Sixty-four HCS students qualified to sing in either the SC Music Educators Association’s All-State Chorus or the SC American Choral Directors Association’s Honor Choir. One HCS student won a Best in Show award at the SC State Fair’s Student Art Competition, while another student won 1st place in their category. North Myrtle Beach High School’s theatre team won at the SC Theatre Association’s High School Festival, qualifying them to compete at the national festival. Students from several HCS high schools participating in Career and Technology Education programs such as FFA, FCCLA, and DECA won state-level competitions for their organizations. Our student athletes won state championships in tennis, swimming, wrestling, and track and field. Additionally, at the state-level National History Day competition, 21 projects by 34 HCS students won first or second place and moved on to the national competition.
The 2023-2024 school year was a successful year with many accomplishments. We continue to experience stable enrollment and continuous improvement in multiple performance measures. We continue to look for innovative ways to inspire new possibilities within our students. Most importantly, we will always uphold great reverence for the sacred trust our parents and community have placed in us to prepare the next generation for college, careers, and citizenship.
Eddie Ingram, Ed.D., Interim Superintendent
David Cox, Chairman of the Horry County Board of Education
