Nation Ford High School is committed to our students developing world class skills so that they will be college and career ready. While in high school, our students gain the necessary skills to positively impact our world through our culture of academic excellence, our family atmosphere, and our engaging classroom environment. Our school community works together in this family atmosphere to support all of our students being models of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. This has been especially true this year as we have combated learning loss and kept our school family safe during COVID.
We are proud of the hard work of our teachers and students who have navigated the challenges of learning during COVID. Our students are gaining world class knowledge, and even with the challenges of the past year, will be college and career ready. While teaching during the pandemic was extremely difficult, our teachers learned valuable strategies that will benefit our students for years to come. Even with the difficulties of the past year, our students demonstrated academic excellence. In this graduating class, 34 were Palmetto Fellow recipients, 119 were Life Scholarship recipients, and 133 were Hope Scholarship recipients.
Our students have also developed world class skills that are the reason for their academic success. Our Instructional Leadership team guides the professional learning for our school and ensures that all students receive equitable opportunities for learning. Our graduation rate is 96.2% and shows that our teachers provide opportunities for critical thinking, problem solving, innovation, collaboration, and differentiation. They have utilized instructional technology to ensure that students learned these skills while teaching during the pandemic. Our Advanced Placement program continues to demonstrate the world class skills of our students. We had 25% of our students sit for AP exams this year. These students reached a pass rate of 84% on these AP exams. While academics is an important indicator of students developing world class skills, Nation Ford High School offers many other opportunities for students to develop these skills. Our JROTC Rifle won their 48th National Championship and our marching band won their 7th State Championship. Our student-athletes excelled this year, and multiple programs competed for region and state championships. We had 21 student-athletes earn the opportunity to compete at the collegiate level.
While world class knowledge and skills are vital, we are also proud of the life and career characteristics that our students learned this year. We place a strong emphasis in our mission on “all” students learning and feeling like they belong to the school family. To this end, our Voices for Diversity club has sponsored forums where students could voice their opinions and concerns. Our Student Council’s motto this year was “All-In” and they sponsored events throughout the year to rebuild the sense of family lost during the last two years. We also know that some of our students are more career ready, and we provide work-based learning opportunities for these students. We have onsite work-based opportunities in Digital Arts and Design, Culinary Arts, Media Technology, Engineering, newspaper, Sports Medicine, Early Childhood Education, Health Science, and many others. We also have clubs such as HOSA and FBLA that compete at national and state events annually. All of these organizations and classes help build the characteristics needed to make a positive impact on the world.
These accomplishments demonstrate the hard work and dedication of our school family, and we are extremely proud that our students graduate ready to positively impact the world!
Chris Chandler, Principal
Hannah Clark, S.I.C. Chair
