ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT DATA UPDATES

fluctuations, comparisons with previous years are largely meaningless; and setting targets for continuing improvement – as SAM had begun to do in the SAM Preface – is virtually impossible at the present time. (See "Comments and Advocacy" in the boxes on the following pages).

In fact, the State Department of Education, beginning in 2015-16, has even shifted its operational definition of “poverty,” making yearto-year comparisons of Spartanburg County’s most important cross-cutting indicator of academic achievement unstable.

AS A CONSEQUENCE, THE FOLLOWING PAGES REPORT DATA FOCUSED ONLY ON SAM’S SIX STAGES OF LEARNING AND SPARTANBURG COUNTY’S ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2014-15.