Education
These Educational Indicators provide some insight into key areas of change, and several areas of need for Anderson County. Educational attainment is tightly correlated with earnings in our county; one trend that “Kids Count” notes, an uptick in our dropout rate, needs reversing. Anderson County residents that have less than a high school degree earn only 62% of median wages, which is not enough to rent a two-bedroom apartment. A significant population in poverty is in our public schools: in SY 2021-2022, there are 19,276 students in poverty, which represents over 60% of the student body. Additionally, our public school shows an increase in the number of Spanish speakers, both as a portion of the overall student population, as well as the headcount of students.
Kids Count
https://scchildren.org/resources/kids-count-south-carolina/child-well-being-data-county-profiles/
Kids Count has a collection of information about child well-being by SC county. Our Anderson county profile includes information about the type of household a child lives in, those who are failing grades or are below grade standards, low-birthweight babies, child mortality rates, teen pregnancy rates, and children in concentrated areas of poverty. Of note, Anderson County has improved in the percentage of homeowners that live in affordable housing: 84.7%, placing it number 2 in the state. Our dropout percentage in the same time frame has worsened, placing us 28th in the state. Although improving, our teen death rate at 93.2 per 100,000 is the lowest of all indicators, 30th in SC.
SC Revenue and Fiscal Affairs
https://rfa.sc.gov/data-research/education
SC’s Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office produces reports and projections on revenue per pupil, student counts, teacher salaries, education and workforce readiness and participation, and an education funding model.
https://ed.sc.gov/data/ provides access to a number of reports, including school report cards by school district here: https://screportcards.ed.sc.gov/ and Student headcounts for public, private, and home school environments here: https://ed.sc.gov/data/other/
Poverty in Schools
Our county’s most recent public school district headcount includes poverty data and other demographic details.
“Scorecard” data is available by school district here: https://screportcards.ed.sc.gov/ which includes information on graduation rate, English Learners’ progress, academic achievement, among others.
Upstate SC Alliance provides educational data on graduation rates, SAT scores, among others, in a Tableau dashboard. You can look at data across a school district as well as compare data between high schools of a school district. https://www.upstatescalliance.com/data-center-education/
Educational attainment impacts earnings in our county: for the 17,659 adults 25 and older (12.65% of this demographic in our county) who do not have a high school degree, median earnings are just $22,060 while the county’s median earnings are $35,540. Gaining a high school degree yields about $8K more; a Bachelor’s degree garners more than twice the earnings compared to those with less than a HSD.
You can find these and other data through the American Community Survey, in Table S2001 Earnings in the past 12 months.
Spanish Speaking Students
Another significant educational trend within our public schools is the increase of Spanish speakers in the student population.
This increase in Spanish-speakers is significant by overall student count as well.
Bilingual education would bring benefits for all students and is an asset to the schools as well as our economy.