School Connections Academy

School Connections Academy is a public charter virtual school located in Columbia, South Carolina, serving 5,955 students from kindergarten through 12th grade. The school is part of the Charter Institute at Erskine district, which is ranked 40th out of 75 districts in the state and has a 3-star rating from SchoolDigger.

While School Connections Academy has had graduation rates ranging from 82.2% to 91.0% in recent years, this is generally lower than the state average of around 86%. The school's dropout rates have also been slightly higher than the state average, ranging from 0.9% to 2.4%. Additionally, School Connections Academy has experienced high chronic absenteeism rates, ranging from 1.2% to 24.7%, which is significantly higher than the state average. The school's test scores are generally lower than the state and district averages across various subjects and grade levels, with proficiency rates in Math and English Language Arts projected to be around 20-60% in 2024-2025, compared to the state averages of 32-74%.

When compared to other nearby charter schools, such as American Leadership Academy South Carolina-Lexington Campus and South Carolina Virtual Charter School, School Connections Academy generally performs worse on key metrics like test scores and graduation rates. The school's relatively high percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, ranging from 44.55% to 50.33% in recent years, may be a contributing factor to its lower academic performance. Despite the school's lower spending per student compared to the state average, its academic performance is still lagging behind, suggesting that factors other than funding, such as instructional quality and student engagement, may be more significant drivers of student success.