Nation Ford High School is helping all students develop World Class Skills based on the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by supporting our teachers with the appropriate professional learning, partnering with our supportive parents, as well as our community partners. We strive for a culture of academic achievement, student engagement, and building relationships with all students to support them academically and emotionally. Nation Ford is committed to focusing on ensuring: world class knowledge, world class skills and life/career characteristics. It is through this lens that we are honored to have the opportunity to share our 2020-2021 accomplishments.
World Class Knowledge: Throughout our school, "#ONENATION" is visible everywhere to reinforce our school family values to support ALL students. Our School Improvement Council, student organizations, and community work as a team to foster and support student success. Our fine school was deemed a National Blue Ribbon School illustrating our commitment to ensuring all students have opportunities to learn and be successful at all levels. Of this graduating class, 46 were Palmetto Fellow Recipients, 211 were Life Scholarship Recipients, and there were 88 Hope Scholarship Recipients.
World Class Skills: Nation Ford’s academic accomplishments are a result of our intentional school family culture where we care for and take care of each other. Our Instructional Leadership team guides the professional learning support for our school and ensures that all students receive equitable opportunities in learning and thriving at their individual level. Our graduation rate is 94.1% and is a testament to the rigor, differentiation, student collaboration, and integration of technology provided by our teachers. With the onset of more online learning, our teachers have provided numerous opportunities for all students to learn via technology as well as participate in relevant project based learning via technology. Our Advanced Placement program continues to grow with over 40% of our students sitting for AP exams. This year we reached a 76% passage rate school-wide indicating the highest percentage of students earning a "3" or higher on AP exams in our fine school. Our student-athletes excelled throughout the year, and multiple Nation Ford athletic programs competed for region and state titles. To date, 24 student-athletes earned college scholarships.
Life and Career Characteristics: We are most proud of our recent efforts to ensure that all endeavors are processed through a lens of equity. We have implemented a Voices for Diversity group comprised of students, faculty, administration and community members. Their mission is to “hear” all voices and respond accordingly to support all needs. Knowing that some of our students are more career ready, Nation Ford provides multiple avenues for students to select for work-based learning or internships. In addition, many of our classrooms also provide work-based opportunities such as our Literary Magazine, school newspaper, News Show, onsite Digital and Art Design production, Robotics, etc. Clubs such as HOSA and FBLA attend and compete at national events annually. Our Early Childhood course included 74 students who participated in work-based learning and 41 who participated in job shadowing. And in our Business courses, 185 students earned their Microsoft certification.
Community involvement and service is an important part of Nation Ford's school culture, and an important life skill for students to learn. Our student body collectively logged over 31,000 service hours in our local community. This year the incredible compassion and dedication of our faculty and students saw incredible giving and kindness. We provided Christmas for 27 local families, a school-wide canned food drive which collected 14,000 cans and raised over $4,000 for our local food bank. In addition to, fundraisers for the March of Dimes, American Red Cross, and multiple local, national, and international non-profit aid groups.
We are proud of our accomplishments, but more proud of our students and teachers for their passion, work and heart in all that they do.
Jason B. Johns, Principal
Matt Lawhun, S.I.C. Chair
