This Is The Worst School District In South Carolina

Greenville SC

24 July, 2021

3:05 PM

Description

By Samuel Stebbins, 24/7 Wall St. - Greenville 2021-07-24 Every child is born to a unique set of circumstances. And it is these different social, familial, economic, environmental, and many other factors, that help shape who they become. While these conditions are countless, a handful of factors play an outsized role in a child's development and likelihood for future success — including academic success. Whether or not a child succeeds academically can depend considerably on school quality. A student who falls behind in one school district might have excelled academically in another. By no means limited to the classroom, many of the strongest influences on a child's future are in the home environment, and the resources available or absent there. Dillon School District, located in northeastern South Carolina, ranks as the worst district in the state partially because of circumstances outside of the classroom. Children with college-educated parents are more likely to do well in school than those with parents with lower educational attainment. In the Dillon district, just 10.5% of adults have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 27.4% of adults across South Carolina. Class sizes are also larger than average in the district, with 17 students per teacher, compared to South Carolina's average student-teacher ratio of 15-to-1. Class sizes in the district could be reduced with greater investment in schools. Currently, spending totals just $9,510 per pupil annually, below the comparable state spending of $11,140. The four measures used to determine the worst school district in every state are: the child poverty rate, the teacher-to-student ratio, per-pupil spending, and the share of adults with a college education. All data came from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics. This is the worst school district in every state. Can't see the article's infographic? Click here to view the original story.This story was originally published by 24/7 Wall St., a news organization that produces real-time business commentary and data-driven reporting for state and local markets across the country.