Our State	Change from Last Year
Total Number of Teachers	47295	Up from 46686
Percent of K-3 teachers who are certified in Read to Succeed reading certification	70.8	Down from 71.5
Percent of teachers with advanced degrees	63.6	Down from 63.7
Teacher attendance rate	93.8	Up from 93.7
Average teacher salary	$61,437	Up from $58,865
Percent of teachers on continuing contract	97.5	Up from 97.4
Percent of teachers returning from previous year - current year	92.2	Up from 91.2
Percent of teachers returning from previous year - three year average	91.0	Up from 89.3
Percent of teacher vacancies for more than 9 weeks	3.1	No change
Prime instructional time	84.0	N/A
Student-teacher ratio in core subjects	23.0 to 1	Down from 23.5 to 1
Percent of inexperienced principals in low poverty schools	20	N/A
Number of inexperienced principals in low poverty schools	66	N/A
Percent of inexperienced principals in high poverty schools	24	N/A
Number of inexperienced principals in high poverty schools	75	N/A
Percent of inexperienced other school leaders in low poverty schools	26	N/A
Number of inexperienced other school leaders in low poverty schools	184	N/A
Percent of inexperienced other school leaders in high poverty schools	33	N/A
Number of inexperienced other school leaders in high poverty schools	75	N/A
Percent of inexperienced principals	24.8	N/A
Number of inexperienced principals	327.0	N/A
Percent of inexperienced other school leaders	30.2	N/A
Number of inexperienced other school leaders	708.0	N/A
Percent of inexperienced teachers teaching in low poverty schools	14.4	Up from 9.4
Number of inexperienced teachers teaching in low poverty schools	3030	Up from 2008
Percent of out-of-field teachers teaching in low poverty schools	8.1	Down from 10.7
Number of out-of-field teachers teaching in low poverty schools	1709	Down from 2292
Percent of inexperienced teachers teaching in high poverty schools	25.0	Up from 10.3
Number of inexperienced teachers teaching in high poverty schools	2872	Up from 1117
Percent of out-of-field teachers teaching in high poverty schools	18.5	Down from 21.2
Number of out-of-field teachers teaching in high poverty schools	2123	Down from 2307
Percent of inexperienced teachers	19.0	Up from 10.4
Number of inexperienced teachers	11140	Up from 6094
Percent of out-of-field teachers	12.2	Down from 14.1
Number of out-of-field teachers	7138	Down from 8223

Inexperienced Teacher- a teacher with less than 4 years of experience.
Inexperienced School Leader- a School Administrator that has not completed their formal evaluation process (Tier 1)
Out of Field Teacher- a teacher teaching a course or courses outside their field of certification when a certification is required for that course.

ESSA regulations require states to post on their report cards information about teachers with emergency or provisional credentials. South Carolina does not award emergency or provisional credentials, thus that metric is not listed.

Note: The method for calculating prime instructional time was adjusted for 2025 school report cards. Comparing 2025 prime instructional time to prior years is not appropriate.