Greenwood District 52 has initiated many innovative strategies during the 2022-23 school year to equip students to be college or career ready in accordance with the South Carolina Profile of the Graduate. The SC Profile of the Graduate focuses on the four C’s to prepare students for the 21st Century. The four C’s are critical thinking, creative thinking, communication, and collaboration which are vital to school success and job performance.
Greenwood District 52 students experience critical thinking and creative thinking through the implementation of project-based learning and initiatives such as STEM and STEAM activities integrating science and math in real world situations. Collaboration is encouraged through differentiated small group activities to reinforce soft skills needed for student success. Communication is instilled through activities comprised of opportunities for students to write across the curriculum and experience life skills such as resume writing and completing applications through the assistance of our district job coach at the high school.
District teachers have made great strides to decrease the learning loss incurred by the pandemic. Great academic gains on state assessments were made this past year. Some of our highest gains as evidenced through SC Ready Reading were our fourth grade reading score (61.2% meeting or exceeding); fifth grade reading scores (63.6% meeting and exceeding); sixth grade reading scores (45.7% meeting and exceeding); and seventh grade reading scores (49.1% meeting and exceeding). Our highest gains on SC Ready Math were fourth grade math (68.1% meeting and exceeding); fifth grade math (56. 8% meeting and exceeding); sixth grade math (45.7% meeting and exceeding); and seventh grade math (37.7% meeting and exceeding). In the area of Science, fourth grade scores were 65.5% meeting or exceeding. At Ninety Six High School, other areas of increase were noted in English 2 EOC scores (70% C or higher) and an increase in graduation rate from 87.3% in 2019 to 90.4% in 2022.
Our district’s instructional priorities for the 2022-23 school year include deepening knowledge of the core 4 of personalized and blended learning through the use of flexible content, data-driven decisions, student ownership, and targeted instruction. Adjustments in learning will be made through the use of the technology, learning models, learning spaces, and other targeted components according to each student’s knowledge demands, curiosity, genius, and learning purpose. In addition to personalized and blended learning, our district has utilized double blocked math scheduling in hopes to increase students meeting and exceeding expectations on the 2023 SC Ready Math Assessment. In an effort to increase the percentages of special education students reading on grade level on SC Ready, the district has implemented the Tier 2 interventions of Read 180 and System 44.
Our district administration understands the impact a positive work climate has on both student achievement and staff performance. We have worked hard to provide a clean, safe, state of the art learning environment for all students. Many capital improvements have been made to secure our facilities and to make our schools safer. Security fencing, surveillance cameras, and computerized door locks have been installed at two of our schools and plans are underway for their installation at the other two schools. Many other projects have been completed this year including re-roofing the primary school and District Office and installing new playground equipment at the primary school. On May 9, 2023, Ninety Six voters will have an opportunity to vote on a Referendum which will allow the district to renovate portions of the Old Ninety Six High School to make the facility usable by our student athletes and community groups.
The pride of the Wildcat is very much alive in Ninety Six as we continue to work towards improving student achievement to narrow the learning loss our students have experienced and as we strive to make capital improvements to our district which will lead to safe, innovative learning environments for our students to learn and grow. We are thankful for the continued community support we have received in our efforts in “Empowering Today’s Learners to Become Tomorrow’s Leaders.”
