By admin 
Greenville County Schools outperformed the state average in key subjects in the SC Ready report that was announced this week, but the real star of the show was Alexander Elementary, which was No. 7 in most improved schools in the state.
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It is a school of about 500 students in the Woodside area with a high poverty rate, high staff turnover, and years of low academic performance. It also has a large number of multilingual students.
The school moved from unsatisfactory to excellent in one year.
It has been part of a pilot program the district calls Elevate, which required all personnel to reapply for their jobs and offered financial incentives to those it hired.
South Carolina Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver was at Alexander Elementary Thursday to celebrate the achievement.
“These results are about more than scores. They represent the opportunities we are creating for our students today and the stronger foundation we are building for their future,” said Burke Royster, superintendent of Greenville County Schools.
The numbers bear him out.
Over the past two years, English proficiency scores increased 36.5% and math increased 26.8%. Science was 33% improvement, meaning half of the students met or exceeded expectations in science. Three years ago it was 16%.
“Alexander’s success is rooted in five essential elements: belief, strong leadership, investment in teachers, a culture of 100%, and a community of support that includes parents, community partners, district leaders and staff working together around students,” the district said in a news release.
“Our team embraced every challenge,” said Alexander Elementary Principal Dawn Hooker. “Our students are capable of extraordinary things, and our staff believes that deeply.”
“Elevate proves what’s possible when we invest deeply in people,” said Charlotte McDavid, GCS Assistant Superintendent for Transformation. “With intentional training, aligned systems, and belief in every child, teachers rise, students rise and school culture is transformed.”
Greenville County Schools overall show test scores among elementary and middle school students outperformed the state on SC Ready in English Language Arts, Math and Science assessments while Greenville County high school students outperformed the state on the English II, Biology I and US History End-of-Course Exams.
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Among the students who took South Carolina’s Career Ready Assessment in spring 2026, 74.4% earned a credential, compared to 69% across the state.
“The district maintained a trend of steady growth in all subject areas across all levels over a three-year period,” the district’s news release said.
“These results are the product of the collective work of our teachers, school leaders, staff, students and families with support from the Board of Trustees,” Royster said. “We celebrate this progress while continuing to use the data to strengthen instruction, support our educators, and ensure students have the opportunity to achieve at the highest levels.”
The South Carolina Career Ready test provided by WIN (Worldwide Interactive Network) is a career-readiness assessment designed to measure essential workforce skills and includes math, data assessment, reading and soft skills.
In announcing the statewide results earlier this week, Weaver said, “There is still a lot more work to do, but we know we’re moving in the right direction.”
The department said English language arts scores have improved roughly eight percentage points since 2024, with 61.3% of students now meeting or exceeding grade-level expectations.
Math scores improved with 47.9% of students meeting or exceeding expectations, representing an increase of about five percentage points over the past two years.
“Sometimes you hear South Carolina is not doing very well in education, but I’m here to tell you that is not true,” she said.
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