Friday, August 08, 2014

African American students test worse at English than students wh - Live5News.com | Charleston, SC | News, Weather, Sports

African American students test worse at English than students wh - Live5News.com | Charleston, SC | News, Weather, Sports: CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) -

PASS results show African American eighth graders in the Tri-county score worse in English than students who speak English as a second language.

PASS stands for Palmetto Assessment of State Standards. It's given to third through 8th grade students each year.

State Representative Wendell Gilliard said he was sad but not shocked at the results.

"It didn't really surprise me in a sense because from a government legislature perspective, we're really not serious about education in the state of South Carolina," Gilliard said.

African American students in both Berkeley and Charleston County scored 6 percent lower than students who are called Limited English Proficient. In DD2, African American students scored 7 percent lower.

Compare that to white students in the Tri-county, who scored between 14 and 33 percent higher than students who say English isn't their first language, Asian students, who scored between 11 and 34 percent higher, and Hispanic students, who scored 10 percent higher in DD2, 4 percent higher in Charleston County and 1 percent lower in Berkeley County.