EDUCATION WEEK GIVES SOUTH CAROLINA C+, PROBABLY OUT OF PITY

You could threaten to throw me in a pit of poisonous snake and I still couldn’t tell you what Education Week is. It sounds like a magazine or something.

Anyway, they gave South Carolina’s public schools a C+ on their report card. That’s almost three points above the national average of a C and about infinity points above my letter grade of whatever is worse than an F.

The “Quality Counts 2009” report includes some high marks for standards in South Carolina as well as low marks for achievements.

According to the report, South Carolina received a grade of A in the categories of standards, assessments and accountability and the teaching profession. [...]

The state did not fare so well in other areas, however.

In kindergarten through twelfth-grade student achievement, a ranking that measure academic performance and gains made by students over time, the state earned a D.

The national average in the same category was a D+.

Additionally, South Carolina ranked 41st in the country based on national reading and math scores, high school graduation rates and the results of Advanced Placement exams.

Randy Page, president of South Carolinians for Responsible Government, said the report showed South Carolina may have high standards, but the schools just aren’t meeting them.

“Year after year, it’s more of the same bad news,” Page said through a news release. “When outside experts make apples-to-apples comparisons we see that public schools in South Carolina are still failing our children.” [Anderson Independent-Mail]

There was this time the other day when someone hid behind a door — and I watched them hide behind the door — and then when I went by they jumped out and yelled “gotcha!” really loud. That was about a million times more surprising than this story.

It doesn’t take Nostradamus to predict that education superintendent Jim Rex’s “great ideas” would lead to nothing but absolute failure.