HCS shows progress on 2021-2022 End-of-Course Exams

The South Carolina Department of Education released statewide public school results for the 2021-2022 administration for the End of Course Examination Program (EOCEP), which measures achievement in core high school courses. Horry County Schools outperformed the state on all assessments and reported gains in the percentages of students scoring at the highest levels.

The EOCEP provides tests in gateway courses of Algebra I, Biology I, English II, and U.S. History and Constitution. Results are used in the calculation of state accountability ratings for middle and high schools. To meet federal accountability requirements, all public high school students must be administered End-of-Course tests by the third year of high school, including students with disabilities.  Middle school students taking more rigorous courses may take Algebra I as early as seventh grade.

Newly-released results show the district’s mean scale scores surpassed the state on all four End-of-Course tests, with gains reported in three of four tests over the previous year’s average.

In Algebra I, 78.1% of district students passed the exam with 57% scoring a grade of “C” or higher, 12 percentage points higher than last year’s scores and only 2 points below pre-pandemic performance. The state’s average passage rate in Algebra I is 66%, with 42.3% of students scoring a “C” or higher. 

In Biology I, 68.4% of district students passed the exam with 55.3% scoring a grade of “C” or higher, compared to the state passage rate of 57.5% and 42.6% percent of students scoring a “C” or higher.  In 2021-2022, student performance increased 6.3 percentage points over 2020-2021 scores.

In English II, HCS students posted an impressive 87.2% passage rate with 71.6 percent scoring a “C” or higher. The state passage rate for the English II test is 84.3%, while its average for students scoring a “C” or higher on the English II exam is 52.4%, 19 points lower than HCS performance.

In U.S. History and Constitution, district students had a passage rate of 69.5% with 52.4% percent scoring a “C” or higher, compared to the state average of 56.5% with 39.3% of students scoring a “C” or higher.