This 2010 update compares the economic and education condition and performance of Greenwood County and its peer counties in the region. Education revenues, expenditures, academic achievement and rankings are assessed. In addition, population, employment and income levels are updated and analyzed. Employment detail is provided in the manufacturing, retail trade and health care sectors.

Greenwood County in Comparative Perspective

This updated 2009 Financing Education in South Carolina: A Citizen’s Guide outlines K-12 public education finance and school governance in South Carolina and current policy issues.

by Holley H. Ulbrich and Ellen W. Saltzman

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This research report examines the performance of the three Greenwood County school districts relative to that of other school districts in South Carolina. Emphasis is placed on the levels and trends in district assessments, personnel, funding, and overall student achievement. The effects of high school dropouts and district poverty measures on academic achievement is also explored. Since the first Greenwood education benchmarking report was prepared in 1999, the state of South Carolina implemented a new achievement test, the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test (PACT).  This report includes six years of PACT data.       

• Greenwood County Education Benchmarking: Fiscal Years 1991-92 to 2003-04, by Ellen W. Saltzman, Harold L. Long, and H. Gregory Hawkins, May 2005, revised December 2005

This first Greenwood education benchmarking report and its companion data report from 1999 examine PK-12 public education finance and academic performance data at the school district level. Emphasis is placed on the three school districts in Greenwood County and how they compare on various measures to other school districts in South Carolina.

• Public Education and Greenwood County: A Benchmarking Tool 
• SC School District Profile Data, 1997-98, by Louis R. Lanier and Ellen Weeks Saltzman, December 1999

The Budget Analysis and its companion report present a model for education finance reform by looking at state and local funding across functions using the PK-12 state and federal budgets for South Carolina as of August 31, 2003.

• FY-04 Budget Analysis: The S.C. Accountability Act and No Child Left Behind
• Analysis of the S.C. Accountability Act and No Child Left Behind: By Barbara Stock Nielsen 2003