The Education Oversight Committee told the South Carolina House Education and Public Works Committee on Oct. 12 that public schools posted an 85.4% on‑time graduation rate for 2024, but committee members and presenters said a substantially smaller share of those graduates meet college‑and‑career readiness measures.

The committee’s executive director, Dana Yao, described the EOC’s responsibilities and data tools. “I started as the director of communications working on the school and district report cards... I’ve been with the EOC as the executive director for almost 2 years now,” Yao said. She urged members to use the committee’s education dashboard (dashboardsc.sc.gov) to examine school‑level spending, performance and chronic absenteeism trends.

The EOC told the committee it produces the state’s accountability system and annual report cards required by law, evaluates state‑funded programs (including the full‑day 4K program), and issues policy recommendations to the General Assembly. Yao said EOC evaluations found the state’s full‑day 4K program “does work for 4 year olds,” and the committee plans further special studies including another review of the rural recruitment initiative in 2026.

Why it matters: lawmakers said they want to know whether a high school diploma in South Carolina reliably signals postsecondary or workforce readiness. Representative (committee member) questions during the meeting stressed the gap between graduation and readiness. One member asked whether an 85% graduation rate paired with roughly 30% college‑and‑career readiness means the state is graduating students who lack credentials of value; presenters acknowledged that concern and said the committee is pursuing ways to tighten standards and strengthen pathways.

Supporting details: Yao listed EOC duties including approval of content standards and statewide tests in the four tested subjects, annual evaluations of programs such as the teacher loan program and military‑connected student reporting, and EIA funding recommendations. She said the EOC has eight full‑time staff and produces a pre‑K dashboard, K‑12 dashboard and a post‑graduation dashboard that uses National Student Clearinghouse data to follow students into college.

On rural teacher recruitment, Yao said the state is investing $7,600,000 from EIA funds in a menu of roughly 15 incentives districts can use — from housing and mentoring to recruiting fairs and international teacher recruitment. The EOC evaluated return on investment for those incentives and said it will repeat the study.

On absenteeism, Yao said the EOC’s data show chronic absenteeism is a big driver of poor outcomes: in 2022‑23 about 23% of students were chronically absent (missing roughly 10% of school days). The EOC completed focus groups with students and parents and said parent feedback is still being analyzed; Yao said the committee is planning a public awareness campaign aimed at improving attendance.

Committee follow‑up and documentation: members asked for the slides and data; Yao and staff agreed to provide the slide deck and additional numbers on teacher turnover in rural districts and on parent focus‑group results. Chairwoman Erickson also urged members to use the dashboard for constituent questions.

Ending: The EOC presentation closed with an invitation to committee members to nominate reviewers for the cyclical accountability review and to contact staff for deeper briefings. The committee moved on to the State Department of Education presentation.