Summary:
Elgin, South Carolina, is home to a single public middle school, Leslie M. Stover Middle, which serves grades 6 through 8 within the Kershaw 01 school district, enrolling 662 students in a suburban setting outside of Columbia.
For parents, the most striking takeaway is the school’s split personality in mathematics. On one hand, grade-level math proficiency is a clear concern: in the 2025-2026 school year, only 36.8% of 6th graders, 27.2% of 7th graders, and 35.2% of 8th graders met state standards, all well below state averages (the 7th-grade gap is a significant -14.6 points). On the other hand, students taking the advanced Algebra 1/Mathematics for the Technologies 2 end-of-course exam achieved a perfect 100% proficiency rate, outpacing the district (64.63%) and state (73.95%) by huge margins. This suggests that while the general student body struggles with standard math, the students in the advanced track are exceptionally well-served. The school also shows relative strength in 8th-grade ELA (59.4% proficient, above both district and state averages) and 6th-grade science (54% proficient, above state). However, 7th grade appears to be a consistent weak spot, with the lowest proficiency rates in both ELA and math for two consecutive years, hinting at a possible transition-year challenge.
Encouragingly, math scores improved dramatically year-over-year in 6th grade (from 21.2% to 36.8%) and 8th grade (from 22.1% to 35.2%), suggesting recent interventions are working. The school holds a stable 2-star rating and sits near the 47th percentile statewide. Operationally, it spends $12,121 per student with a 15:1 student-teacher ratio, and its chronic absenteeism rate of 20% is slightly better than the state average. The central challenge for Leslie M. Stover Middle is translating the remarkable success of its advanced math program to the broader student population, particularly in 7th grade.
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