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State Report Cards Are In: HCS has the #1 school in the state, the highest graduation rate on record, and most of its schools rated excellent or good

South Carolina schools receive descriptive overall ratings of Excellent, Good, Average, Below Average, and Unsatisfactory, based on a 100-point scale. Schools also receive ratings on key report card indicators, which contain information about schools and districts regarding how well students performed on state and national assessments, student growth, graduation rates, English language proficiency, and more. 

HCS School Report Cards Graphic

Horry County Schools’ performance on the 2025 state report cards, based on overall ratings, shows that 38 out of 57 district schools were rated as Excellent or Good. Of those, 16 HCS schools were rated Excellent and 22 were rated Good, while 18 earned a score of Average. No HCS schools were rated Unsatisfactory. District-authorized charter schools are included in this count; however, early childhood, primary, alternative, and program schools do not receive SC state report cards and are not included in this count. The state of South Carolina overall only had 47.6% of schools receive a rating of Excellent or Good. 

The 2024-2025 report cards also contain school, local, state, and federal per-pupil expenditure data as part of federal accountability requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). This includes the results from standardized tests such as SC READY, the End-of-Course Examination Program, and the SC Career Ready Test, which we’ve already shared.  

There are, however, some highlights from this year’s report cards that we haven’t already shared!

  • The on-time graduation rate for HCS rose to 89.6% in 2025, up from 86.3% in 2024, and outpacing the state’s 86.7%.  This is the highest graduation rate the district has recorded since the current accountability system was put into place in 2018.

  • Of the HCS 2025 graduating cohort, 82.5% were identified as college- or career-ready. This is an increase of 5 percentage points from last year’s 77.6%.  HCS seniors outperformed their peers across the state with an average composite SAT score of 1033, 24 points higher than the state average composite of 1009.

  • On last year’s report card, HCS Scholars Academy High School was ranked the #1 high school in the state. This year, the school went a step further, earning a report card score of 99.7 out of 100, which ranks it #1 among all 1,309 schools in the state that receive a report card, regardless of grade level. Congratulations, Scholars Academy!

State report cards offer communities an opportunity to learn what they can do to support students and schools, and they foster conversations that support continuous improvement. You can see previous HCS school report cards on our website or visit the South Carolina School Report Cards website to compare districts and view past school report cards.