Today the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) released the winners of the Palmetto Gold and Silver Award program. These results are based on the 2012-13 school year.

David Whittemore, Chairman of the Education Oversight Committee (EOC), congratulated the schools who received awards recognizing high performance as well as exceptional improvement and improvement toward closing the achievement gap. The awards program was created by the Education Accountability Act of 1998 and the EOC is charged within the law to determine the criteria.

“The state accountability system rewards schools who not only perform at a high level overall, but those who show improvement moving individual student performance up from the previous year,” stated Whittemore. “I encourage the leaders of local communities to visit these schools and show their appreciation to the teachers, students, staff, and parents who are making progress.”

This year, 592 individual elementary, middle and high schools as well as career centers and special schools are recognized, down from 677 in the prior year. The EOC changed the criteria for the award last year after the criteria for determining Growth ratings was revised.

The following charts describe the criteria used in making the award and the number of individual schools that received a Gold or Silver Award.

Not reflected are two schools that have since closed.

“The reason for the large number of Gold winners is the fact that 387 schools received an Absolute rating of Excellent on the 2013 school report cards, evidence of the tremendous work by teachers, students and faculty,” stated Whittemore. He noted another 64 schools earned growth ratings of Excellent and 65 schools received the highest rankings for their overall academic achievement and for closing the achievement gap.

The following six special schools also received Palmetto Gold Awards: Felton Lab; School for the Deaf and Blind; Department of Juvenile Justice; Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities; Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics; and Palmetto Unified School District.

The SC Education Oversight Committee is an independent, non-partisan group made up of 18 educators, business persons, and elected leaders. Created in 1998, the committee is dedicated to reporting facts, measuring change, and promoting progress within South Carolina’s education system.