Nagging achievement gap sees some movement, SAT results show

A large achievement gap persists between black and white students in Beaufort County and South Carolina overall, according to 2016 SAT results released Tuesday.

This year, black seniors in the Beaufort County School District scored an average of 1,246 on the college entrance exam, 296 points lower than white students’ average score of 1,542. There is some promise, though — the county has managed to narrow its gap by about 7 percent since 2011, when black students scored an average 1,159 points.

That’s an 87 point improvement from five years ago, compared to a 30 point average gain for white students in the district.

The latest results suggest the district has seen some success with its newest plan to improve the academic performance of minority students by focusing on four goals: improving literacy, intervening for the lowest-performing students, expanding pre-Kindergarten and early childhood education, and recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers.

Chief instructional services officer Dereck Rhoads presented the initiative to the Beaufort County school board in December 2015, soon after the board identified the district’s stagnant achievement gap as a “critical concern” and a weakness of superintendent Jeff Moss.

At the time, the board noted the district’s black students score up to 40 percentage points below their white peers depending on the test. far

Superintendent Jeff Moss said in a district news release that he was pleased with the progress he sees in the SAT results released this week.

“We hope we can build on that and keep shrinking the gap,” he said.

Statewide, black students scored an average of 1,237 on the 2016 SAT, nine points lower than in Beaufort County and 300 points lower than the state’s white public school students.

The gains among black students in South Carolina have been more modest.

In the past five years, the demographic has improved by 19 points on the SAT, compared to 17 points among white students.

This story was originally published September 27, 2016 at 12:24 PM with the headline "Nagging achievement gap sees some movement, SAT results show."