Orangeburg Consolidated School District Five is assisting all students to acquire the world class skills, life and career characteristics of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by providing them with unique learning experiences which tap into their personal and intellectual growth and development.   During the 2016 – 2017 school year, the following initiatives were implemented in Orangeburg Consolidated School District Five;  AVID, a  program which uses proven practices to prepare students for success in high school, college, and a career:  (2) the Robert E. Howard Middle School PITSCO Lab, which prepares students for the future through the integration of science, technology, engineering, and math concepts; a partnership with the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics to become one of only eight school districts in South Carolina to offer a virtual engineering school called Accelerate, where students can earn up to 32 hours of college credit  towards an engineering degree; the implementation of the Orangeburg Leadership Academy, a single gender program which emphasizes life skills, community service and college and career characteristics; and, Mohawk Mania, an extended-year summer session at Bethune-Bowman Elementary and Middle Schools focusing on instruction in literacy and mathematics

Orangeburg Consolidated School District Five continues to collaborate with four school districts to form the “Carolina Consortium for Enterprise Learning” that is being implemented through a $25 million “Race to The Top” grant from the U.S. Department of Education.  This grant has provided our schools with job-embedded professional learning opportunities to build both administrators and teachers capacity.

OCSD5 is also reaching out into the community to enhance relationships through successful programs like the Bootstraps Mentoring Foundation that provides volunteer adult mentors for children who have been identified as having a potential to experience both personal and academic growth through a mentoring relationship.  The district also implemented an in-house food pantry program for children known as The Filling Station.  The program is 100% supported by volunteers and donations and feeds approximately 1,000 children every weekend.  The district also launched a new website, www.orangeburgcountytv.com , that streams the live signal from the district's television station over the Internet while also hosting an archive of video material from OCSD5, the County of Orangeburg, South Carolina State University, and the SC Department of Education that can be viewed on an on-demand basis.