Best Public Schools in Lugoff, SC

Lugoff, South Carolina is served by five schools within the Kershaw 01 school district, which ranks in the top third of districts statewide, and includes three elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school with a combined enrollment of roughly 4,246 students.

For parents, the standout academic performer is Lugoff Elementary, which ranks in the 68th percentile statewide and outperforms the district in every subject and grade level tested, with 5th grade ELA proficiency at 77.5% and math at 64.6%—both well above state averages. The district's rising star is Lugoff-Elgin Middle, which has climbed from the 60th to the 76th percentile over three years and boasts a near-perfect 99.99% proficiency rate on the Algebra 1 EOCEP, along with strong 8th grade math (59.5%) and ELA (71.1%) scores. At the secondary level, Lugoff-Elgin High is a solid 4-star school that has improved its ranking from 113th to 75th in three years, with exceptional English 2 EOCEP results (88.75% proficiency) but weaker Algebra 1 performance (62.5%, below the state average). Among the elementary schools, Wateree Elementary performs well overall (61st percentile) but saw a concerning 16.3-point drop in 5th grade math proficiency, while Doby's Mill Elementary lags behind its peers (46th percentile) with a 15-point decline in 3rd grade ELA scores.

Resource allocation varies notably across the district: Lugoff-Elgin Middle has the lowest student-teacher ratio (14.1:1) and highest per-student spending ($14,199), while Lugoff-Elgin High has the highest ratio (18:1) and lowest spending ($10,583). Chronic absenteeism is below the state average (22.3%) at all schools except the middle school (22.6%), which also shows the most volatile math scores. The high school's graduation rate (82.8%) trails the state average by 3.9 points, and its dropout rate (2.5%) slightly exceeds the state figure. Overall, the district shows strong momentum at the secondary level, with both the middle and high schools steadily improving their rankings, while elementary performance is more mixed and warrants attention at specific grade levels.