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A new, searchable web database gives parents, educators, students and communities access to information on public school choice offerings across South Carolina.
The new site includes community-by community listings and descriptions of existing public school choice programs, as well as a search engine to identify programs by name, format, district and school. “For the first time,” State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex said, “South Carolinians are just a mouse-click away from information on every program option with the public school system.” South Carolina has been portrayed in national news reports as a pioneer in single-gender programs. Rex created an Office of Public School Choice at the Education Department and hired the nation’s first statewide coordinator to help local districts introduce the concept. Nearly 200 South Carolina public schools are expected to offer the single-gender option to parents next school year, many of them as partially autonomous operations within existing schools. More than 1,700 students responded to a recent survey by the South Carolina Department of Education. Overall, three out of four student-respondents in grades 2 through 9 agreed that the single-gender approach was helping them in school. In February a Montessori expert was hired at the State Department of Education, and Rex said he believes interest in that curriculum option also will be considerable. “Public schools are looking for ways to offer more choices to parents and students,” he said. “For most schools, it’s just a matter of learning how to create these programs and make them effective. The Education Department can help in showing them how to do that.” Current curriculum choices across South Carolina include magnet programs, schools-within-schools, alternative schools, virtual schools and charter schools. Some of the state’s public school choice programs include single-gender, Montessori, middle college/early college, evening high school, language immersion, academic academies, arts integration and international baccalaureate programs. (Image provided by Greenville and Spartanburg County Schools.)
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