Andrew Jackson High School aims to develop students with world-class skills along with life and career characteristics that meet or exceed the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. Through a rigorous curriculum in core subject areas combined with focus opportunities in fine and performing arts, career education, and JROTC, our well-rounded students are excelling at district and state levels.
For the 2021-2022 school year, our graduation rate improved from the COVID low of 75.7% to 84.5% (district 79.4% and state 83.8%). Eighty-one percent of our students earned a Ready to Work Career Assessment certificate compared to 68.9% in the district and 78% in the state. In addition, 38.9% of our students scored 3 or higher on their AP exams. Students at Andrew Jackson High earned a composite ACT score of 16.1 (compared to a district score of 16.9 and a state score of 18.5) and a mean SAT mathematics score of 492 (compared to a district average of 503 and a state average of 501).
As the district’s designated arts school, we offer students six arts focus areas: chorus, dance, art, band, piano, and drama. Students in these designated areas have an opportunity to earn AP credit in Fine Arts and/or Music Theory. These students also have opportunities to compete at the district, state, and national levels in their areas.
With a strong desire to ensure that our students are college and career ready, we also provide opportunities for them to explore career and technology courses along with military experience through JROTC. Through a partnership with USC-Lancaster, Winthrop, and York Technical College, our students have the opportunity to earn dual high school and college course credits that can put students almost a year ahead in terms of the college track. Students can even earn their associate degree while simultaneously completing their high school requirements.
In an effort to ensure that we are properly preparing our students, we have created a feedback loop with recent alumni to direct improvement and preparation for our future graduates. Our most successful graduates are often the ones who were the most well-balanced students. With this in mind, we provide a variety of athletic endeavors, clubs, and service organizations for our students to find the right fit for their skills and passions. Competing in Class AA, we field ten highly competitive athletic teams and boast 11 clubs and organizations ranging from academics to service to special interests. These extracurricular activities build the soft skills of teamwork, dedication, and work ethic, all of which benefit our graduates after high school. The dedicated teachers and staff of Andrew Jackson High School want to ensure that the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate is synonymous with the profile of the Andrew Jackson Volunteer.
