Dana Yao, executive director of the Education Oversight Committee, briefed the House Education and Public Works Committee on the agency’s role, recent findings and tools for lawmakers.

Yao said the EOC approves statewide content standards, issues annual K–12 school report cards by Oct. 15 and produces special studies and a public data dashboard at dashboardsc.sc.gov. “I’m Dana Yao, I’m the executive director of the education oversight committee,” she said as her presentation began.

The presentation included the EOC’s core measures: an on-time graduation rate of 85.4 percent for the 2024 graduating class, persistent gaps in readiness for college or career, and rising chronic absenteeism. Yao described the dashboard as a way to “remove it from the spreadsheet and put it into a way that people can actually see the data.”

Why it matters: the EOC evaluates programs funded by the General Assembly and issues recommendations on the EIA (Education Improvement Act) each year. Committee members pressed the EOC about whether the high on-time graduation rate is producing students who are prepared for postsecondary education or careers.

Members asked specific follow-ups. Representative Bradley confirmed the 85.4 percent on-time graduation figure and questioned the share of those graduates who meet college- and career-ready benchmarks. Yao acknowledged that the committee and staff are focused on increasing the rigor and meaningful credentials associated with graduation.

The EOC reported recent program evaluations: the full-day 4K program shows positive effects in the agency’s evaluations; the agency evaluated the rural recruitment incentive program, which currently directs $7,600,000 of EIA funds to districts that may use about 15 different recruitment and retention incentives (including housing supports, mentoring and recruitment fairs). Yao said the agency is studying return on investment for the incentives and expects a follow-up evaluation in 2026.

Yao also highlighted chronic absenteeism as a growing concern: the presentation cited chronic absenteeism in 2022–23 at roughly the mid‑20s percentile (the transcript places the figure at about 23 percent), and she reported that the EOC completed recent focus groups with students and parents to probe drivers of absenteeism. She said the agency is working on a public-awareness campaign and that initial student feedback suggested some students skip because they think work can be made up online.

Committee members raised related issues: rural teacher turnover, use of retention as a tool, whether retention can be effective if it only repeats existing instruction, and use of AI tutoring or other remediation tools. Yao said the EOC can supply additional data on teacher turnover and that some districts are experimenting with technology interventions; she offered to provide the committee with the slides and additional data.

The meeting included questions about EOC staffing and operations; Yao said the committee has a small staff (the presentation listed eight full-time equivalents) and that the EOC issues the annual teacher loan, military-connected students and other special reports.

Ending: the committee asked for follow-up materials, including the EOC’s EIA recommendations and the dashboard link. Yao said she would send slides and promised additional data on rural turnover and parent focus-group results when available.