From Fragmented Systems to Districtwide Results: Clarendon County School District

How a Rural District Is Driving Achievement with Progress Learning

District Overview

Location: Manning, South Carolina (Rural, I-95 Corridor)

District Size: 10 schools serving approximately 4,000 students

• 3 high schools
• 2 middle schools
• 1 junior high school
• 4 elementary schools

District Profile: Clarendon County School District is a rural, Title I district located along South Carolina’s I-95 corridor, a region where schools have historically faced significant academic challenges. The district relies heavily on Title I funding and state support to sustain educational initiatives. In a major consolidation effort required by state law, three separate districts serving the same small county were unified into one. This created both a complex operational challenge and a meaningful opportunity to align resources, instruction, and goals under a single vision.

Key Leadership: Jill Owens, Instructional Technology Coach
Jill Owens serves as the Instructional Technology Coach for Clarendon County School District, a role that places her at the intersection of instruction and districtwide technology operations. In addition to supporting teachers with technology integration across all campuses, Owens manages every software platform used by students and staff across the district. That includes overseeing system transitions, managing rostering and login access, and serving as the primary point of contact between the district and its technology vendors. Her perspective is especially valuable because she sees both the instructional and operational side of implementation. She understands what works, what does not, and what schools need from their edtech partners. Owens has also been a steady advocate for Progress Learning in Clarendon County, helping drive adoption at both the elementary and secondary levels.

Focus Areas: Clarendon County uses Progress Learning to support several district priorities, including:

• SC READY and SC PASS preparation
• Mastery of the South Carolina College- and Career-Ready Standards
• Below-grade-level intervention through Liftoff and NWEA MAP integration
• Common assessment development
• College and career readiness, including EOC and ACT®/SAT® prep

The Challenge: Building Momentum in a High-Need, Rural District

Clarendon County School District sits in the heart of rural South Carolina along the I-95 corridor, a region often associated with persistent academic challenges. With roughly 4,000 students across ten campuses, the district serves a population facing significant socioeconomic challenges. It is heavily Title I funded, geographically remote, and until recently was divided into three separate districts operating within the same small county.

Bringing those three districts together under one system created real complexity. Jill Owens suddenly found herself responsible for managing software and technology integration across every school, every grade level, and every teacher. Standardizing tools, aligning resources, and building buy-in among educators who were used to doing things differently was no small task. Add in the long-term effects of COVID-19 on student performance, and the district was facing a steep climb. Many students were performing below grade level. Teachers were stretched thin. The need to show measurable academic growth was urgent.

As Owens put it, “We are on the I-95 Corridor of Shame. Our schools along I-95 in South Carolina are just notoriously lower-performing. We are very rural and not a very rich county, so we have a lot of title funds that come into us.”

The Solution: Progress Learning as the Instructional Backbone

Clarendon County’s relationship with Progress Learning began through USATestPrep, which later transitioned into Progress Learning. Owens is candid that the first year of that transition was difficult.

“I thought that first year, when it switched over to Progress Learning, I thought we were going to lose it. The reports were not the same. We lost a lot of the functionality as far as seeing our data. But Progress Learning has worked really, really hard to try to get back to where USATestPrep was and to go above and beyond.”

That responsiveness mattered. Progress Learning listened to district feedback, invested in improvement, and rebuilt confidence. Today, the platform serves as an instructional backbone across Clarendon County and is used from elementary through high school.

Implementation varies by school level. At the secondary level, the Director of Secondary Education has made Progress Learning a non-negotiable part of instruction. Teachers are expected to use the platform, common assessments are built within it, and the Green Dot Challenge is a standard expectation. At the elementary level, the platform functions as a high-value supplemental resource, and teachers have embraced it enthusiastically even without a formal mandate.

That adoption is rooted in visible value. Owens said, “Our teachers really do see the value in Progress Learning, and they can see that our students are learning. And if we got rid of Progress Learning, we would have a riot.”

 LiftOff: A Game-Changer for Below-Grade-Level Learners

For a district where so many students are performing below grade level, Liftoff has become one of the most valued parts of the platform. By pulling NWEA MAP scores directly into the system and generating personalized study plans based on where students actually are, Liftoff helps students make meaningful progress without requiring teachers to build every intervention path from scratch. This makes existing MAP data immediately actionable, turning assessment results into clear next steps for instruction.

That matters in a district like Clarendon County. Teachers can stay focused on grade-level instruction in the classroom while Liftoff works in the background to support unfinished learning. This combination of grade-level teaching and adaptive intervention has become a practical and scalable way to support students with significant learning gaps.

Owens described the impact this way: “Once our teachers have gotten in there and they see the benefit of it and they see those study plans that are being created from our MAP scores, they’re teaching on-grade-level content in their classrooms, but these learning paths and study plans are really pushing our kids from where they are to where they need to be. It’s just phenomenal.”

The district’s dependence on Liftoff is clear in day-to-day practice. When MAP testing was delayed at the start of the school year because of the HMH acquisition of NWEA, teachers were genuinely anxious to get scores loaded so student study plans could begin. Owens summed up teacher sentiment simply: “I haven’t heard anybody have anything bad to say about Liftoff. Everybody absolutely loves it.”

Why Teachers Stay Invested

Owens points to one of Progress Learning’s biggest strengths: how the platform works as a connected system. Assessments, Liftoff, and study plans are connected, which helps teachers understand not just isolated scores but how student performance is building toward mastery over time.

“Everything works together. Their assessments, Liftoff, study plans: every time they see something interesting, that standard goes toward showing whether they have mastered that content or not. You get this little piece over here and this piece over here and you don’t really know how it’s all meshing together. Progress Learning does a really good job with that.”

That kind of continuity is especially valuable in a district trying to build consistency across schools and grade levels. It gives educators one place to assess, assign, intervene, and monitor progress without jumping between disconnected tools.

Support That Makes the Difference

In a districtwide implementation, support can be the difference between long-term success and eventual abandonment. For Clarendon County, Progress Learning’s customer support has been a major strength.

Owens says that when she has a question, she often receives a video walkthrough within minutes. When teachers run into issues, the response is quick. And when the district gives product feedback, especially around areas like ELA passage coverage and Lexile-level item depth, that feedback is heard and acted on.

“Y’all’s support is by far some of the best support that I deal with. And I deal with all of our software, every bit of our software. I don’t ever have to worry about getting a response back or getting the help that I need. So that is huge.”

That relationship goes beyond troubleshooting. Clarendon County sees Progress Learning as a collaborative partner, one willing to engage directly with the district’s challenges and continue expanding the platform based on educator input. That kind of partnership matters when a district is looking for tools it can build around for the long term.

Measurable Results: The 2025 SC State Report Card

That kind of partnership is translating into measurable results across the district, with consistent growth showing up at both the elementary and secondary levels. Every school in the district also earned a rating of Average or higher in 2025.

Elementary Growth:

• Manning Elementary:
  • ELA: 42.2% → 48.1% (+5.9)
  • Math: 30.8% → 41.8% (+11.0)
• Dr. Rose H. Wilder Elementary:
  • ELA: 46.2% → 53.3% (+7.1)
  • Math: 48.1% → 50.5% (+2.4), outperforming the state average of 44.5%
• Walker Gamble Elementary:
  • ELA: 69.3% (vs. 60.2% state average)
  • Math: 64.9% (vs. 44.5% state average)
  • Science: 58.0% (vs. 49.5% state average)

Secondary School Performance (2025 Ratings):

• East Clarendon High School: 66 (Good), 1 point from Excellent
• Scott’s Branch High School: 62 (Good)
• Manning High School: 58 (Average), with gains in graduation and college readiness
• East Clarendon Middle School: 49 (Good)
• Scott’s Branch Middle: 44 (Average), with strong math progress
• Manning Junior High: 44 (Average)

Districtwide Outcomes:

• Graduation rate increased from 86.4% (2023) to 89.8% (2024) and 92.8% (2025), exceeding the state rate of 86.7%
• Career readiness improved from 51.1% (2023) to 80.8% (2025)
• Overall college or career readiness increased from 54.8% (2023) to 81.6% (2025)

Looking Ahead: Building on District Momentum 

Clarendon County is not standing still. District leaders have identified several priorities heading into the 2025-2026 school year, including a stronger focus on ELA growth as South Carolina shifts to weighting only ELA scores in the Student Progress indicator beginning in 2026. The district’s existing strength in ELA gives it a solid foundation for that shift.

At the same time, leaders are continuing to deepen Progress Learning use at the secondary level by expanding awareness among high school teachers and administrators who are still discovering the full scope of the platform. Liftoff remains central to the district’s approach for addressing below-grade-level performance, and the district is committed to getting MAP scores into Progress Learning as early as possible each school year so personalized study plans can begin immediately.

Owens put it plainly: “Our district is all in for Progress Learning. We are super thankful.”

Download the full case study to see how Clarendon County School District is driving growth across every campus, improving graduation rates, and building strong teacher buy-in with Progress Learning, and how your district can, too!