Summary:
Winnsboro, South Carolina, is served by six public schools—three elementary schools, one middle school, one high school, and one charter school—that together enroll about 2,041 students across the Fairfield 01 district and the Charter Institute at Erskine.
The standout in this area is Fairfield Magnet for Math and Science, which ranks in the 97th percentile statewide (22nd out of 649 elementary schools) and is the only school in Winnsboro with a 5-star rating. Its ELA and math proficiency rates of 85-88% are roughly 30-40 points above district averages, and its chronic absenteeism rate of just 6.1% is less than one-third of the district average. At the other end of the spectrum, Fairfield Elementary ranks in the 4th percentile (626th out of 649) with a 0-star rating, and only 8.5% of its 6th graders are proficient in math. Kelly Miller Elementary is the improver, climbing from the 487th to 404th ranking over three years and earning a 2-star rating, with strong 3rd grade ELA scores at 81%.
At the secondary level, Fairfield Central High performs in the 54th percentile with a 3-star rating, an 82.8% graduation rate, and excellent English 2 scores (84.3% proficiency), though U.S. History proficiency lags at 48.8% versus the state's 62.6%. Fairfield Middle shows a stark math cliff—only 21-27% proficiency in standard 7th/8th grade math despite 100% proficiency in Algebra 1, suggesting only top students take that course. Midlands STEM Charter School spends the least per student ($14,270) but has the highest absenteeism (30.1%) and weak elementary math fundamentals. Across the board, math is the universal weakness, and chronic absenteeism strongly tracks with lower performance, while per-student spending does not predict success.
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