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BATESBURG - LEESVILLE, SC -- According to state officials, more than 25 percent of South Carolina high school students do not graduate, which amounts to more than 8,000 students.

To help raise awareness about this issue, the state education department is holding the first ever "Graduation Matters" conference. Educators and students from around the state met at the Columbia Convention Center Tuesday afternoon to discuss ways to help reduce the state dropout rate.

Superintendent Jim Rex says more must be done to achieve 100 percent graduation: "73.3 percent is not acceptable, so this is a crisis, but it's not 50 percent so we have a serious problem. The whole nation does, but I think we've got some strategies to take care of that."

Batesburg-Leesville High School Principal Pat Padgett is proud because the dropout rate at his school is going down. He has ideas on how to achieve the superintendent's goal of a zero rate. He'd like the flexibility to make it happen.

Padgett has served 12 years as Batesburg-Leesville High School's principal. He believes education is key to his students' futures.

"The directive is, 'You're not here to sleep. You're not here to goof off. You're here to learn, and we're going to hold you to the fire'."

One program his school tried is an employment-based education where students who did not earn a state diploma could obtain life skills before going into the workforce. Padgett says it was a popular program for parents, students and teachers.

"We focused on job training. We focused on very practical types of things like learning how to write a resume, how to interview for a job."

However, the school had to stop offering the program.

"The state said since they weren't earning a regular high school diploma, we would have to count them all as dropouts," says Padgett.

Padgett finds that disappointing.

In a statement, Education Department spokesman Jim Foster says, "The department is not in the position to do that [make decisions on what is considered a dropout]. The General Assembly decides what is required to graduate."

Padgett will continue to work toward achieving a perfect graduation rate for his students.

The dropout rate at Batesburg-Leesville is below 20 percent, making it one of the better performing schools in the state.