Rural Charleston County school accomplishes historic feat in one year

WADMALAW ISLAND, S.C. (WCBD) – One rural Charleston County District school has completely turned its academic success around.

The South Carolina Department of Education released its school report cards recently. On that list, Edith L. Frierson Elementary had a surprising result. It went from being rated as unsatisfactory to excellent in one year.

“Oh my gosh. I was really, really happy,” Latrice Smalls, principal of Frierson Elementary, said. “I expected improvement, but to go from unsat[isfactory], which is the lowest level of the state report card, to excellent which is the highest of the state report card was amazing. I was just happy for my staff because of the hard work they put into scholars, because they had to take the tests.”

This comes from the plan that Smalls made when she arrived as principal last year. Her focus was on academic achievement, teacher development, and the culture and climate. These are factors of what the state uses to grade schools.

“Teachers and scholars understood that education was important, it was a priority,” Smalls said. “We were also considered a priority school and my priority was to no longer be considered a priority school.”

Hugh Anderson, a fifth grader at Frierson Elementary, has been there since kindergarten. He saw and experienced the changes the school went through to implement Montessori Curriculum. The learning style was transitioned by stages since 2018, creating levels of “primary, lower El, and upper El.”

“I think the teachers are really nice and the work is really good and challenging for some students,” Anderson said. “The teachers, whenever you don’t understand something, like explaining it, when we still don’t understand it – they like show you how to do it.”

The enrollment and attendance rates also increased over the years. According to CCSD, they went from 117 kids in the 2017-2018 school year to 177 kids in this school year.

One teacher said she noticed students becoming more independent and have their routines each day since the full-implementation of Montessori learning.

“The children enjoy coming to school and when they’re not here, they say I’m sad I missed yesterday because I was sick,” Heather Grant, teacher at Frierson Elementary, said. “They want to be here, they enjoy being here and obviously the attendance is important because we don’t want them to miss out on important learning opportunities.”

Grant has been teaching for seven years and said the biggest change was the students working at their own levels.

The school is expected to bring along an adolescent program to incorporate into their Montessori curriculum.