In Charleston County, for example, one finds a small-scale reflection of the inequities and incongruities of the rest of the state. Those schools are overwhelmingly black, and they list fewer than 1 percent of students in gifted programs. The Norman C. Toole Military Magnet School, whose student body is 90 percent black, lists 2.3 percent of its students as gifted or talented. If you travel to Sullivan's Island Elementary School or Whitesides Elementary, where the student bodies are overwhelmingly white, it's another story. The map of South Carolina shows that no single component ensures educational success.
Variables make the educational picture a riddle of vexing complexity.
For example, higher expenditures per student don't always buy higher scores. On the other hand, Fairfield is listed by the state as having the highest per pupil revenue and the highest per pupil expenditure, yet the district's scores are abysmal, with an 840 composite SAT score and just above 30 percent of its students scoring on par with the nation on the 11th grade MAT-7 tests. Spartanburg's enrollment in public schools is predominantly white, while Fairfield's is predominantly black. Fairfield's poverty levels and births to teens and unwed mothers are much higher. Yet, its students are among the top scorers in the state.