Lexington Two is committed to helping students develop the World Class Knowledge and Skills and Life and Career Characteristics of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by offering challenging academic programs and engaging experiences that connect K-12 education with the real-world opportunities of a 21st-century global society. By immersing students in instruction focused on critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and collaboration – supported by communication, information, and technology – our graduates are prepared for their next chapters in education, career, and civic engagement. Developing World Class Knowledge and Skills requires a strong foundation. The district’s pre-K and Early Childhood programs focus on creative concepts for our youngest learners, and staff members work collaboratively with area preschool providers to engage families and ensure a successful transition to school for all students. At the elementary level, we focus on building skills in basic disciplines that will serve as a foundation for continuous learning. One of the ways we do this is through the use of proficiency scales as a formative assessment tool to clearly outline levels of understanding of academic state standards, as well as help students track their progress, parents understand expectations, and teachers adjust instruction to meet individual needs. In 2024-2025, we launched our elementary-level Dual Language Immersion Program at Riverbank Elementary, open to the district’s kindergarteners. Students in these classes spent half the day learning in English and the other half in Spanish, with the expectation of becoming bilingual and biliterate learners. We anticipate expanding this program in the future. In 2024-2025, we also continued to grow popular offerings like Lex2 LAUNCH, a districtwide academic acceleration program designed to serve advanced learners, preparing them for accelerated work in elementary and middle school and eventual participation in dual-credit courses in high school. Elementary students also gain early exposure to careers, helping them make connections between education and work choices. These connections continue into middle school, where students are immersed in academic and extracurricular activities that further develop their creativity, critical thinking, and collaborative skills, with accelerated opportunities to gain high school credits through courses including English I, Algebra I, Fundamentals of Computing, and Art I. Teachers and administrators at the district’s four middle schools work collaboratively, with the addition of high school English I and Algebra I teachers, to create common summative assessments and to address student learning through collaboratively analyzing the results. At the high school level, the focus is on honing students’ interests and educational experiences for college and career paths. Few programs better illustrate this customized educational path – or showcase critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration in action – than our Lexington Two Innovation Center. The L2IC has broadened the scope of traditional high school vocational programs into a curriculum that better supports students in envisioning their own college and career paths — welding, for example, can apply not only to bridge builders but to engineers who design buildings, farriers who work with animals, and blacksmiths who specialize in historic preservation. The district’s Early College/Dual Enrollment programs provide opportunities to earn college credit at no cost during the high school day. Our career pathways program – in partnership with Midlands Technical College, as is our Early College program – awards dual enrollment or exemption credit for specified courses taken by students pursuing academic and/or career pathways in select areas. Among graduates in the Class of 2025, there were nearly 215 Career and Technical Education senior completers, as well as roughly 30 students awarded Early College/Dual Enrollment diplomas or certificates. We continue to refine and grow these programs, along with our College and Career Readiness focus and Advanced Placement programs, which in the 2024-2025 academic year saw an increase in passage rate for exams and in the number of students taking them. Also in 2024-2025, we introduced a new “credit by exam” option that allows qualifiers to exempt select high school courses. Partnerships with businesses, government agencies and higher education institutions result in opportunities for internships and advanced training for our high school students beyond the classroom. Lexington Two believes in providing lessons and systems that support developing the whole child, with the district working continuously to strengthen its multi-tiered system of support for students. The district offers Lex2.5, a structured K5-12 after-school program to provide students with extra practice in skills and content critical for academic success. We look to broaden this as well to include Advanced Placement tutoring/practice workshops specifically for our high achievers who are on a college-bound track. Lexington Two also offers support to students through social workers and psychologists, as well as through intentional efforts to develop academic and social behaviors needed for future success. Lexington Two embraces the power of Professional Learning Communities, in place district-wide, to continuously improve the educational quality of our schools. Teachers at all levels collaborate with one another as district PLC groups in common grade levels and content areas. This work permeates instructional planning and facilitates data-driven decision-making by teams of educators working together to effectively guide students’ learning of state standards. Part of the work of these PLC teams is to build common assessments to be used as a means to track student growth and inform next steps in student instruction in a more intentional manner. Our philosophy recognizes we champion individual students, and so we continue to monitor and adjust our instructional approaches and supports to yield maximum effectiveness. Lexington Two’s goal is to produce graduates who are not only academically ready for college and career, but who are engaged citizens. Schools emphasize service to engage and support the greater community, with a range of projects and events hosted across schools during the year. Our two high schools’ free Halloween events for community families drew 3,000-plus attendees. The district also offers an array of extracurricular programs in the arts, music, athletics, leadership, technology, and more. An estimated 430 students were selected to district honor choir, band, and orchestra, with a number of others selected to State, Region, and other prestigious performance groups. The first district-wide theater production was held in the Lexington Two Performing Arts Center. Among the Class of 2025’s nearly 550 graduates, there were 212 honor graduates (GPA of 3.5 or higher), 307 graduates with Seals/Endorsements of Distinction, 266 LIFE and HOPE qualified scholarship recipients, 20 Palmetto Fellows, 44 AP Scholars, 26 SC Seal of Biliteracy recipients, 20 graduates who signed to serve with the military, and nearly 20 athletes who signed letters of intent to play in college. Our graduates earned an estimated $16 million in scholarships and saved $200,000-plus in professional certifications training in high school through programs at the Lexington Two Innovation Center. Lexington Two students at every level are building World Class Knowledge and Skills and Life and Career Characteristics, preparing them for success in their next chapters in education, career and civic engagement.
