Summary:
The city of Ware Shoals, South Carolina, is served by the Greenwood 51 school district, which operates three schools—Ware Shoals Primary, Ware Shoals Elementary Middle, and Ware Shoals High—together serving roughly 888 students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.
For parents, the standout school in this district is clearly Ware Shoals Elementary Middle, which ranks in the 69th percentile statewide and earns a 3-star rating. It outperforms state averages in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade English and in 6th and 7th grade math, and it has the lowest chronic absenteeism rate in the district at 20.9%. In contrast, Ware Shoals High is the weakest link, ranking in the 21st percentile with a 1-star rating. Its chronic absenteeism rate is a troubling 32.3%, well above the state average, and its graduation rate of 83.8% falls short of the state's 86.7%. Ware Shoals Primary sits in the middle, ranking in the 35th percentile with a 2-star rating and showing slight year-over-year improvement.
A few key takeaways stand out. First, the middle school achieves the best results despite receiving the least funding per student ($13,955), while the high school spends the most ($15,694) yet performs the worst—suggesting that school culture and instruction matter more than raw dollars. Second, there is a dramatic drop-off when students transition to high school: 8th grade English proficiency is 65.8%, but English 1 proficiency plummets to 30.9%. Third, math is a persistent weakness across all grade levels, with proficiency consistently lagging 15 to 26 points behind state averages. Finally, the high school's high absenteeism rate correlates strongly with its declining rank, making student engagement a clear priority for improvement.
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